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Resident Rules of Golf expert Fergus Bisset joins Golf Monthly editor Neil Tappin to discuss the situations where the Rules of Golf differ between strokeplay and matchplay and how knowing matchplay rules could well win you a hole or the match! The Rules of Golf can sometimes feel confusing and complicated, so hopefully this video explains the Rules of Golf in a way that makes them easier to understand.
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00:00When it comes to the rules of golf there are some significant differences between match
00:04play and stroke play and these are things that every golfer should really get to know.
00:09So in this video I'm going to be joined by a golf monthly rules guru, Fergus Bissett
00:13and he's going to talk me through five times where the rules differ between match play
00:18and stroke play.
00:19We're here at the London Club, let's get started.
00:22Okay, so we are on the tee here of the 16th hole on the international course at the London
00:26Club and I've teed my ball up but Fergus, if I was being honest with myself, I think that
00:33ball is slightly ahead of the tee market and this is one of those scenarios where there
00:39is a difference between how you proceed in stroke play and in match play.
00:43Yes.
00:44Explain.
00:45Okay, rule 6.1B, playing from outside the teeing area.
00:48Now if you played this shot in match play and I was your opponent, I would have a choice
00:54to make.
00:55Okay.
00:56If I had noticed that you played from outside the teeing area, I would see where you've hit
00:59the shot and I would decide whether I was going to cancel your stroke.
01:02Right, so my trademark carve out to the right, you might decide to let me off and let me.
01:05I might just say, you carry on.
01:06You carry on, son.
01:07However, if you've ripped it down the middle, I might say, you play from outside the teeing
01:11area, cancelling that stroke, please play again from within the teeing area.
01:14Right.
01:15If you played from outside the teeing area in stroke play, you're in a bit more trouble.
01:20Okay.
01:21You get a two-shot general penalty and you would be required to re-tee within the teeing
01:27area and play three off the tee.
01:30Now, if you didn't correct the mistake…
01:31But it's three off the tee, but that first stroke gets cancelled.
01:33It's three off the tee because you incurred a two-shot penalty.
01:36Yes.
01:37Yes.
01:38Correct.
01:39The new ball is in play.
01:40The new ball becomes the one in play.
01:41If you didn't correct the mistake and you continued to play the ball that was played
01:43from outside the teeing area, you completed the hole and then started another hole, you
01:47would be disqualified.
01:48But that's only going to happen if your playing partners decide to only tell you after you've
01:54continued to play, which strikes me as something very unlikely, but if it did happen, it's not
02:00great form, I would say.
02:01I would say it's not great form and you would think it wouldn't happen, someone would advise
02:04you that you had made a mistake.
02:06Yes.
02:07But yes, if it did happen, that would be the consequences.
02:09I guess the point here is either way, it's always best to make sure that you're teeing
02:13off from slightly behind the markers.
02:15Don't leave any doubt there because it could cost you.
02:19Okay, so this one refers to playing out of turn and again, there is a difference between
02:25match play and stroke play in this scenario.
02:27So imagine that we are playing over the camera, so we're playing in this direction.
02:30My golf ball is clearly closer to the target than yours is, Fergus, but you are still raking
02:36your bunker footprints or something, you're talking to somebody on another fair, I don't
02:40know what you're doing.
02:41So I decide that I want to go first.
02:42Okay.
02:43Now in match play, what happens next?
02:45Okay, well it's rule 6.4, which deals with playing in turn or the order of play.
02:51In match play, unless we had agreed for you to play first in order to save time, then I
02:56might decide that I don't like what you've just done, particularly if you've hit a very
03:03good shot.
03:04Good shot.
03:05You've played out of turn and I have the option in match play to cancel your shot and
03:09ask you to play again.
03:10Same as if you're ahead of the tee, Marcus, as we've already talked about on the tee.
03:14Exactly.
03:15But it's different in stroke play and match play.
03:16Why do you think it's different?
03:17Why is the order, I guess the order is more important?
03:20Yeah, in stroke play, ready golf is encouraged.
03:24It would be prudent for you to play first if I was taking some time to rake a bunker.
03:30It's not going to affect the result of that hole, whereas in match play, it's really quite
03:34important who gets the first blow in.
03:36If you get to go first and stick one to six feet, I'm under pressure, I would have liked
03:41to have the chance to put you under pressure.
03:43So that's why I would have had the option to cancel your shot.
03:48So are we saying here that if you play out of turn in stroke play, there's no penalty
03:51then?
03:52There's no penalty.
03:53There is no penalty.
03:54But what's it say in the rule book?
03:55Is it is encouraged to keep to the honours?
03:57What's the rule?
03:58The basic guidelines is that you would keep to the same honours system from the tee and
04:03playing from who's furthest away goes first on the way up to the green and to the hole.
04:09But ready golf is what's encouraged.
04:11So if it's safe and responsible and reasonable to do so, then play out of turn.
04:16Keep playing flowing.
04:18Keep playing flowing.
04:19It's a good message and one that will certainly help in stroke play.
04:22In match play, however, keep an eye out for that one.
04:31Oh, I'll take that.
04:32That's a good shot.
04:33Now, I did notice, Ferg, that one potential problem here, I may have just grazed the sand
04:41on the way back.
04:42Yeah.
04:43With my club.
04:44Did you notice that?
04:45I did notice that, yeah.
04:46Presumably that's fine though.
04:48No, I'm afraid not.
04:50It's in contravention of rule 12.2b that-
04:53You follow me around all the time.
04:55I know.
04:56I'm a menace.
04:57I am.
04:58You are a menace.
04:59So I've broken the rules.
05:00It's the general penalty.
05:01Now, this is where we need to ask-
05:02Two shots.
05:03Two shots?
05:04Well, are you playing match play or stroke play?
05:06Well-
05:07Because there's going to be a difference.
05:08We're playing a match and I'm free up.
05:10Let's have a little bit of a discussion about the general penalty.
05:14Now, the general penalty in stroke play is two shots.
05:18You're correct.
05:19But the general penalty in match play is loss of hole.
05:22Okay.
05:23So if you'd made that breach of the rules in stroke play, it's a two-shot penalty you would
05:28add to your score at the end of this hole.
05:30Yeah.
05:31In match play, you have immediately lost the hole.
05:33Lost the hole.
05:34What's the next?
05:35For instance, another example of that would be say you ran onto the tee, the first tee,
05:39one minute late.
05:40In stroke play, that would be a two-shot penalty.
05:43In match play, you'd have lost the first hole.
05:45Really?
05:46Yeah.
05:47Okay.
05:48So it's worth knowing that the general penalty still exists in stroke play and match play.
05:51Yes.
05:52But it means different things in different formats.
05:54Yes.
05:55It's two shots in stroke play, loss of hole in match play.
05:57Okay.
05:58That's pretty much all you need to know here.
06:00However, make sure that you also remember the other caveats that we're exploring in this video.
06:04I did.
06:05Okay.
06:06So for this one, let's talk holing out.
06:08And there's a big difference, obviously, between match play and stroke play.
06:11Let's start with match play.
06:12In this scenario, I've just rolled a ball up from 15 feet to about 15 inches.
06:18Yeah.
06:19There or thereabouts.
06:20I would be looking at you at this moment in time thinking, Fergus, are you going to give
06:23me this putt?
06:24Is this a gimme?
06:25Yeah.
06:26And you would say…
06:27In match play, I would say, it is a gimme.
06:28Oh, thank you.
06:29Pick it up.
06:30Pick it up.
06:31For a win.
06:32For a win.
06:33I concede that stroke.
06:34And that's fine.
06:35You don't have to put it in the hole.
06:36I could concede a stroke, a hole or a match at any point.
06:41Okay.
06:42So you can do it on the tee.
06:43Yes.
06:44You're next to the hole.
06:45Yeah.
06:46You might concede.
06:47I might concede the hole to you and say, pick it up.
06:49Don't worry about it.
06:50Let's go to the next.
06:51And that just helps pace of play.
06:52It keeps the pace of play up during the round.
06:54But it's not the same in stroke play.
06:56There is no such thing as a gimme in stroke play.
06:59If I've rolled this up from 15 feet to here and I pick it up and walk off to the next tee
07:03thinking that you've given it to me, what happens to me in this scenario?
07:06Well, in standard stroke play, if you don't haul out, move to the next tee and tee off on the
07:11next hole without correcting the mistake of not hauling out, you'll be disqualified.
07:14Disqualified.
07:15BQ.
07:16No coming back.
07:17Goodbye.
07:18That's it.
07:19Yes.
07:20But there are different forms of stroke play, aren't there?
07:22Good point.
07:23So let's talk about the difference between medal and stable foot here, because it's
07:26an important one.
07:27Okay.
07:28So in standard stroke play, you have to haul out.
07:31Other forms, stable foot being one of them, par bogey competitions, max score competitions,
07:36for instance, you don't actually have to haul out.
07:39Stable foot, for instance, if that putts for a 10, you're getting zero points on the
07:43hole.
07:44Regardless.
07:45It doesn't matter whether you haul it or not.
07:46Yeah.
07:47So if you pick it up, you just put a zero on the scorecard, across on the scorecard,
07:49no points on that hole, move on to the next hole, and you can complete the round without
07:53being disqualified.
07:54No penalty shots, no disqualification, all good.
07:56And again, it's about pace of play.
07:58If you've hit your 10th shot and you're still in the rough on the right-hand side, pick
08:01it up.
08:02Don't keep hacking your way through the hole.
08:04Get your head into the game for the next hole, I would say, just to help keep pace of play moving.
08:08Hopefully that tells you the difference between stroke play and match play, and that there
08:12are no gimmies in standard medal stroke play.
08:16Okay, so for this one, we're talking about moving your opponent or your playing partner's
08:23golf ball.
08:24And there's a difference there, the difference between match play and stroke play.
08:27So let's say in this scenario, Fergus, you've hit your ball to here, but I'm mindlessly
08:32kind of wandering up, and I think your ball is way up the fairway over there.
08:35Okay.
08:36And I thought that's a golf ball from another part of the court, and I've just picked it
08:39up.
08:40Right.
08:41So what do you think about stroke play?
08:42Well, in match play, rule 9.5b, you're going to incur a one-shot penalty.
08:47You've lifted a ball at rest.
08:49You've lifted your opponent's ball at rest.
08:51You will replace the ball where it was, but you'll get a one-shot penalty.
08:56One-shot penalty.
08:57It's one of those occasions in the rules where it is a one-shot penalty, which is quite rare,
09:00actually, because the general penalty, I know we're talking about stroke play and match
09:03play, but the stroke play general penalty is two shots.
09:04So it's one of those occasions where it is a one-shot penalty.
09:07What's the penalty, then, in stroke play?
09:10There's no penalty in stroke play.
09:11Right.
09:12If you lift the playing partner's ball in stroke play, you simply replace it, and there's
09:16no penalty.
09:17So it's a one-shot penalty in match play, but no penalty in stroke play.
09:20So I will finish with a very simple piece of advice, which is probably best not to pick
09:24up your playing partner or your opponent's ball at any time on the golf course.
09:28It can get you in a bit of bother.
09:31There ends our look at the occasions when the rules differ between stroke play and match
09:35play.
09:36If you have any questions or comments, please do leave them in the box below.
09:39We'd love to hear what you have to say.
09:40And also, please don't forget to subscribe to the Golf Monthly channel for more rules-related
09:44videos, and also hit the like button for this video as well.
09:47And thanks for watching.
09:48But for now, from The London Club, it's goodbye.
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