14 Golf Etiquette Rules you should not break – I hate # 12!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
There is nothing more annoying on a golf course than playing with a golfer with no idea of golf etiquette. Now, I fully understand that beginners have to learn this, but in those instances, the golfer should alert others in the group and say, “I am still learning the game. If I make an error, please point it out to me”. Then, golfers will be only too happy to help out! My suggestion to beginner golfers is to go to your local pro and take a lesson, not on your golf swing, but on the basic rules and etiquette that you will need to know in the first few rounds. This will make the game more enjoyable for everyone!
Showing up less than 15 minutes before your tee time
Working at a golf course for years, I know this drives the starter and those in the shop nuts. It potentially puts the rest of the tee sheet in danger of delay. The 15-minute period is actually generous; most courses would prefer golfers be on the course 30 minutes before balls are in the air.
Putting with too many balls on the practice green
If you’re by yourself, feel free to go nuts. If the area is crowded, no more than two practice balls, or else you’re hogging real estate.
Failing to pick up the flagstick
Ever have that awkward moment where you’re the last to finish, and as you head to the next tee box, you realize the pin remains on the ground, forcing a walk of shame back to the green? Luckily, it wasn’t your fault. If you’re the first to finish out, you should immediately grab the pin.
Cart-path only? Carry more than one club to your shot
Having to run back to find the right stick will slow things up.
You Think Putting can Be Tough – Try being Stymied!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
This is a cool article about a lost part of the game of golf.
You may not know the term ‘stymie’ as it was taken out of the Rules of Golf in 1952. It occurred in Match Play only and was a situation where one golf ball sat on the green between the hole and another player’s ball. Marking and lifting the ball nearer the hole was not allowed, so one had to chip his/her ball over the ball lying closest to the hole or putt it left or right to avoid the other ball. The player who was ‘away’ in that situation was “stymied” from an easy putt straight into the hole.
What happened if a golfer knocked his ball into an opponent’s ball and the opponent’s ball went into the hole? You won’t believe this!
Playing a stymied golf ball by chipping over the stymie – American Press Association/Flickr Commons/Creative Commons
Detail from a photo that appeared in a 1913 golf instruction book by Jerome Travers shows Travers preparing to chip his stymied ball over the stymie his opponent laid for him.
The “stymie” is an archaic part of golf, no longer in use, in match play (matches involving one ball per side) in which one golfer’s ball sat on the putting green between the hole and the opponent’s golf ball. In other words, Golfer A’s ball was blocking the hole for Golfer B’s putt. Unless the two balls were within six inches of one another, the golf ball closer to the hole was not lifted during the stymie era.
If you were the golfer whose ball was away in that situation, you were “stymied.”
In such a situation, the golfer whose ball was away could attempt to pop or chip his ball up over the ball closer to the hole. He might even try to slice or hook his putt around the intervening ball.
Note again that stymies appeared only in match play (singles or in team match formats in which there was only one ball per side, such as alternate shot). And if the balls were within six inches of one another, the one closer to the hole was lifted.
You Think Putting can Be Tough – Try being Stymied!
What Happened If Your Ball Hit the Ball Closer to the Hole?
Golfer B is away with a stymie sitting on his putting line.
He putts his ball, and his putt strikes Golfer A’s ball. There was no penalty. Golfer B played his ball as it lay. But Golfer A had the option of putting from the ball’s new position, or returning the ball to its original location.
And if your putt struck your opponent’s ball and knocked it into the hole? Your opponent just holed out!
You Think Putting can Be Tough – Try being Stymied!
Stymies were typically a matter of happenstance – you’d rather make your putt, after all. But maybe you have a situation that calls for a lag putt, and you just want to leave yourself with an easy second putt close to the hole. You might try to lag your ball into your opponent’s putting line.
16 Hilarious Laws for Playing Golf – #10 is so true!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I remember reading that Willie Nelson not only has his own golf course but has his own rules as well!
These 16 are not Willie’s, but It wouldn’t surprise me if he were a whole lot similar! I’m sure the R&A and the USGA would not find these funny, but I certainly do! Hope you do too!
Ahh yes. The universal rules of golf – where no matter what you do on the course, the bad will always be followed by the worse.
Here are 16 hilarious laws that you can probably relate to as a golfer. Ha!
Since bad shots come in three groups, a fourth bad shot is actually the beginning of the next group of three.
When you look up and cause an awful shot, you will always look down again at exactly the moment when you ought to start watching the ball if you ever want to see it again.
Any change works for a maximum of three holes and a minimum of not at all.
When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either hit one more club or two more balls.
If you’re afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead of you is still putting out, you have two options: you can immediately shank a lay-up, or you can wait until the green is clear and top a ball halfway there.
The less skilled the player, the more likely he is to share his golf swing ideas.
17 Rules of Golf that every golfer should know – #4 is the most abused!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
As a golf instructor, I help people improve their golf.
One of the sessions I hold at my club once in a while is a rules seminar. To play good golf and score well, you need to know some basic rules for situations that you will come across fairly regularly. If you don’t know the rules, you will get penalized, which will add strokes to your score.
How many times do we see on the PGA and LPGA Tours golfers who make an innocent mistake that costs them dearly? Dustin Johnson in the PGA Championship, Roberto DiVincenzo at the Masters, Craig Stadler kneeling on the towel, and Davis Love accidentally touching his ball on the 17th green at TPC Sawgrass. The list can go on and on. See these basic rules that are a MUST READ! Brought to us by residentialgolflessons.com
The first known written rules of golf were put into writing by the Gentlemen Golfers of Leith, now the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers based at Muirfield, Scotland.
Lots of people play golf yet very few know or understand the rules of golf there are not many but it is worth taking the time to learn the basic rules of golf. Understanding the rules of golf can be a big advantage, the main rules people get wrong are listed below.
1. Red Lateral Hazard.
1 – Play it from the hazard
2 – Replay the shot from the original position, incurring a stroke and distance penalty
3 – Draw a line from the hole to where the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard and drop anywhere behind that point keeping the point between you and the hole, incurring a one-shot penalty
4 – Go to the point where the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard and drop within two (2) club lengths, no nearer the hole, on either side of the hazard, incurring a one-shot penalty
2. Yellow Water Hazard.
1 – Play it from the hazard
2 – Replay the shot from the original position, incurring a stroke and distance penalty
3 – Draw a line from the hole to where the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard and drop anywhere behind that point keeping the point between you and the hole, incurring a one-shot penalty
3. Lost Ball or Out-of-Bounds.
After looking for a maximum of five (5) minutes, you must go back to where the shot was originally played from and replay, incurring a stroke and distance penalty.
Unplayable Lie
1 – Take two (2) club lengths relief, no closer to the hole and assess a one-stroke penalty
2 – Replay the shot from the original position, incurring a stroke and distance penalty
3 – Take the ball back as far as you want, keeping the point where the ball lays between you and the hole, incurring a one-shot penalty
4. Improving Your Swing Path.
You cannot bend, break, or hack anything growing or fixed if it improves your lie, your stance, or your area of intended swing. The penalty for doing so is loss of hole in Match Play or a two-shot penalty in Stroke Play.
5. Unplayable Lie in a Bunker.
1 – Take a drop of no more than two (2) club lengths no closer to the hole, but still in the bunker, incurring a one-shot penalty
2 – Replay the shot from the original position, incurring a stroke and distance penalty
3 – Go back as far as you like in the bunker and drop, keeping that spot where your ball laid between you and the hole. This incurs a one-shot penalty.
6. Removing Objects in a Bunker.
You may not move or remove any loose impediments in the bunker unless they are foreign to the area. For example, you may remove a candy wrapper, but may not remove a pine cone or tree branch.
7. Number of Allowed Clubs.
You are only allowed to carry 14 clubs in your bag. The penalty for carrying more than 14 clubs in Match Play is loss of hole (maximum of two holes). In Stroke Play, the penalty is two (2) strokes per hole (maximum of two holes/four shots).
17 Rules of Golf that every golfer should know – #4 is the most abused!
I have found reading the Decisions on the Rules of Golf put out by the USGA is an easier way to get familiar with the rules rather than trying to read a rule book.
PGA Tour Players should know the rules – But they Don’t!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I am constantly amazed how little the PGA and European Tour players know the rules.
It does not seem so prevalent in the LPGA, but that is just a guess. I have always contended that Tour players should not be able to get a ruling from a referee until after they have completed their drop. THEN, the rules official should step in and say “Sorry, you infringed the rules and here is your penalty!” That would make watching golf a lot more fun!
Amateurs have to make rulings on their own constantly, and I have often had to pull out the rule book to check on a ruling. By doing that, I am also educating myself on the rules. I have recently downloaded the “Rules of Golf” app provided by the USGA for free! So now I don’t have to carry a book abound in my bag anymore.
Alistair Tait of Golfweek brings us his perspective on Tour Players and the Rules!
Both Player and Caddie should know the Rules!
I’ll never understand why the majority of professional golfers don’t put in the effort to understand the Rules of Golf.
I’m amazed when players pick up stupid penalties for violating rules that they should know. The latest example is the two-stroke penalty incurred by Keegan Bradley in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Bradley brushed sand off his line of play just off the second green. That act is prohibited under Rule 13-2, “Improving Lie, Area Of Intended Stance Or Swing, Or Line Of Play.” It’s a basic rule that Bradley – and his caddie – should have known.
Rory McIlroy made a similar mistake just off the ninth green in the second round of the 2012 HSBC Abu Dhabi Golf Championship on the European Tour. Even worse, the two-shot penalty cost McIlroy a chance at winning.
McIlroy was playing with Luke Donald, who knew the rule.
Hey, wait a minute. You can’t do that!
“As soon as I saw him doing it, I knew I had to say something,” Donald said. “It’s a pretty basic rule, to be honest, and if I hadn’t said something, there are plenty of people who would.”
McIlroy lost last year’s Abu Dhabi tournament because of another silly rules violation. He did not take full relief from a spectator walkway on the second hole during Round 3 and did incure a penalty of two shots under Rule 25-1, “Abnormal Ground Conditions.”
McIlroy’s response after that penalty was poor. “There’s a lot of stupid rules in golf, and this is one of them,” he said.
When asked whether he intended to improve his knowledge of the Rules of Golf, he replied: “No. I guess that’s why we’ve got the referees here. They sort of do that stuff. I’ve got better things to think about.”
Unfortunately, as Bradley’s recent incident proves, too many players share McIlroy’s view. Why study rules when a referee is only a walkie-talkie away?
Interestingly, the rules cover this under Rule 6-1, which states: “The player and his caddie are responsible for knowing the Rules.”
After all these years, I still can’t understand why touring pros don’t spend more time learning the Rules of Golf. They’ll spend eight hours a day working on their games but won’t take 15 minutes to read the laws that govern the game. Fifteen minutes a day over the course of an entire career would make them pretty knowledgeable, and it’s not as if players don’t have down time on flights, in hotel rooms, etc.
As European Tour chief referee John Paramor once said, “Even if these guys learned the definitions, it would be a big help.”
Obviously not all players are ignorant when it comes to the Rules of Golf. For example, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros and Annika Sorenstam are among those who not only knew the rules but how to use them to their advantage.
Sorenstam even voluntarily attended rules seminars. That’s more than can be said for most touring pros. The European Tour used to run rules clinics at tour events but had to cancel them because of poor attendance.
Too bad more of today’s touring pros don’t follow Sorenstam’s lead. Not only could it save them money, but it could mean the difference between winning and losing.
Alistair Tait has passed the R&A’s Refereeing and Rules of Golf Exam.
