The Rules of Golf are not terribly complex. Complexity is naturally reserved for the Decisions on the Rules of Golf! </sarcasm> Jesting aside, the rules are fairly simple so long as some basic concepts are understood. Those basic concepts include what to do when your ball finds a few different areas (hazards, ground under repair, the green, “through the green,” etc.), the idea and definitions of equity, fairness, and intent, and the pervading rule to play the ball as it lies.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who insist that they’re playing “golf” despite not playing by the rules of golf. Let’s look at some of the more misunderstood rules of the game we love so much.
Number Five: Improving Stance or Swing
You hit the ball into the trees. Intrepid, you climb in after it, pushing yourself against some small branches. You take your stance. “Crack.” A limb snaps. The penalty? Two strokes for improving your stance or swing.
Craig Stadler laid a towel down under a tree to keep his trousers clean once. The two-stroke penalty he incurred after turning in his card in turn led to a disqualification.
Rule 13 prohibits improving the lie, area of intended stance or swing, or line of play and building a stance. Read up on it.
Number Four: Unplayable Lies
The Unplayable Lie rule (#28) is often misunderstood as containing a clause about the line of flight when in fact the only “line” involved in the ruling is that which exists from the location of the ball and the hole.
At any time (except when in a water hazard), a player may declare his ball unplayable, and he has three options at that point:
- Play a ball from the spot from which the original ball was last played.
- Drop a ball within two clublengths, no nearer the hole, from the location of the ball.
- Drop a ball anywhere on the line from the location of the ball to the hole.
Those are your only options, and the line of flight does not enter into the equation at all.
Number Three: Water Hazards
Rule 26 covers water hazards, of which there are two varieties: red and yellow, or lateral and standard water hazards. In reality, the rules are quite simple, and the lateral hazard rule only adds a third option to players:
- Play a ball from the spot from which the original ball was last played.
- Drop a ball anywhere on the line from the spot at which the ball last crossed the hazard and the hole.
- If the hazard is a lateral water hazard (red stakes or lines), drop a ball within two clublengths, no nearer the hole, at the margin where the ball last crossed the hazard or at a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the hole.
Additional water hazard rule for those adventurous types that enjoy getting wet: you cannot ground your club in a water hazard.
Number Two: Lost Ball
A ball is lost if the ball is not found within five minutes of searching, the player has made a stroke at a substituted ball, or the player has made an additional stroke at a provisional. A ball cannot be declared lost if there is reasonable evidence that the ball is lost in a water hazard or obstruction.
The lost ball penalty is the stiffest in golf (aside from disqualification): stroke and distance. Rule 27 covers both Lost and Out of Bounds balls, and the penalty in both cases is to re-hit from the original location with a one-stroke penalty.
Many golfers in cooler climates play “leaf rules” sometimes, eliminating the penalty for a lost ball due to the inordinately large number of leaves that fall from trees in the autumn. Better just to be safe: watch your ball as long as you can and remember the exact location it lands.
Number One: Gimmes
There’s no such thing as a gimme. Period. Shots and holes may be conceded in stroke play, but if you’re going to play by the rules, just putt everything out. There’s no such thing as a gimme in stroke play of any kind. Besides, hearing the ball fall into the cup is positive reinforcement. So just putt out, okay?
Just Missed the Cut
Ground Under Repair – Ground under repair, unless your ball is on the putting green and the GUR is on the putting green, is measured only for stance and swing. If you’re just off the putting green and ground under repair lies between your ball and the green, you’re not entitled to anything simply because you intend to putt through it.
Handicaps – Though not technically a rule, handicaps are governed by the USGA. Handicaps are intended to measure a player’s potential, not his scoring average, which is why the top 10 of the last 20 scores count.
Question For You
What rules do you believe are the most misunderstood in the game?
Next Week
I’m not sure – and I’m open for suggestions. What would you like to see counted down next week?
Is there such a thing as just a “lateral hazard”? Our golf committee has designated the woods on two of the holes on our course as “lateral hazards” and marked them with red stakes. I contend that the rule only talks about “lateral WATER hazards” and that you just cant take an area and say its a lateral hazard. What do you think??
John, decision 26/4 provides for man-made reservoirs being called water hazards (and/or lateral). Woods, as you know, aren’t a reservoir.
My home course used to have all the areas of trees marked as OB, but they’ve since removed the stakes because a lost ball is the same thing as OB (except that you can, if you find your ball, opt to play it). One of the holes had red stakes instead of white, marking a lateral water hazard, but this was next to a cliff and 30 feet below, we had a stream, so it was conceivable that it was a “water” hazard.
I think your committee is in the wrong. There is no such thing as a “lateral hazard” but only a lateral “water” hazard. The committee should either mark the ground as OB, leave it unstaked (lost ball as I mentioned above), or declare it an ESA (environmentally sensitive area) if it is, which would allow for a drop near where the ball entered, much like a lateral water hazard.
If I wanted to line the center of the fairway with red stakes, and call it a lateral hazard, I could do so under the Rules of Golf. A lateral hazard does not imply “water”. The purpose of lateral hazards are simply too speed play and offer 2 additional options to the golfer.
If you consider a ball lost as it has gone deep into trees and rough, do you have to look for it or can you declare it lost at that point and therefore unplayable and take a provisional shot and ignore the “lost” ball and whilst taking a one stroke penalty continue playing the hole. This is a much disputed point at my club.
Several courses I play use a small bush as yardage marker-usually a 150 yd marker. I believe you are allowed a free drop if your ball comes to rest in the bush or if your stance or stroke is impeded by the bush- the same as if were a wooden stake. Is this correct? I believe courses do not want you to hack away at their nice little manicured marker bushes.
If two balls are near each other in a sand trap , and one of them interfears with your shot, what are the choices in this case? Thank you for you time.
My second shot landed inside a very deep sand trap. On the first try I was unable to clear the bunker.
I decided to decalre a unplayable lie and placed my ball on the grass on the side of the bunker no closer to the hole.
On my next shot I landed on the green, and two putted into the hole.
I declared a six, was I wrong ?
Note: I was playing match play.
Can your club touch the sand in your back swing?
Richard, no. That’s not allowed. The stroke is only the forward movement of the club.