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No, where the Rules of Golf do not provide a definition, the common definition is used. A ball in the fairway versus the rough is not a significant breach, as a player would not choose to be in the fairway over the rough for a two-stroke penalty. -
Erik and Dave, Thank you very much for taking the time to answer this. As always, appreciate your many posts and insights. Though the term is not defined in the rules of golf, apparently rules officials are taught that "significant advantage" has a rules-specific definition different than the common meaning of that term. That has not been my understanding of how the rules work, but will go forward with this new information. Thanks, Reid -
Day 303 - 2025-07-30 Practiced downtown before lessons and then played… seven holes (skipped to 12, played to 18). Backswing feel, didn't worry about the downswing.
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Unless I'm grossly misreading something, or you're not saying what you mean to be saying… I can't be more clear about this: no, it isn't. There are zero trained rules officials who would say something like that. We're given some examples in rules classes. For example: A hits her ball into a yellow penalty area. Because the ball hit the far bank and rolled back in, she mistakenly drops on the green side of the PA and plays out the hole when she should have dropped behind the PA and still had to play over it successfully. That's significant enough to warrant a DQ if it's not corrected. No, they can't. You're not getting it right here and you're way more knowledgeable than the average golfer. I don't agree. The text of that post from the USGA is (my additional quick comments are in black): You've hit the nail on the head that there is some subjectivity inherent to the definition of serious breach: the Committee must make a judgment on whether the player has gained a significant advantage which means different Committees might Rule differently in similar circumstances. Because there are an infinite amount of possible infractions, it is not possible to have a definitive line of what is and is not a serious breach. None of the following are 100% binding but are examples of general thoughts/examples from various Rules experts that lead in the right direction: - Is two strokes enough? If you told the player he could play from the wrong place but he'd have to take two penalty strokes and he'd rather do that than play from the right place - you've got a serious breach. (Almost nobody would take two strokes to play from the fairway instead of the rough. Heck, if they could drop back in the fairway with one stroke under the Unplayable rule, that would be a better option. Fairway vs. rough with all else being roughly the same is almost never going to be a serious breach.) -A few years back (so old Rules but similar process), JB Holmes was determined to have committed a serious breach of playing from a wrong place when he played from FARTHER away than he was supposed to because the new position allowed him to reach a par-5 green with his next stroke where the correct location required a punch out. Talked about that one earlier. -Most officials would think it would have to be a very specific set of circumstances to get to a serious breach on the putting green if the right place is also on the putting green. -Historically playing from outside a bunker when you were supposed to play from inside the bunker was a serious breach (if significantly better than stroke and distance would've been), but that's not guaranteed and given the available option to get out of a bunker now would again need to be a specific set of circumstances. Overall, a serious breach needs to be something so significant that the Committee feels it cannot accept the player's score when played from that position - even with a two-stroke penalty. We realize many would like a "this is, this isn't" kind of list, but that's not how this Rule works as the Definition itself makes the Committee weigh a number of factors that are different in each situation in order to reach the conclusion.
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