- 1 hour ago
In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by golf rules guru Jezz Ellwood. They go through the most confusing rules in the book and offer simple explanations about how to proceed. Jezz's advice here will help you avoid any penalty shots whenever you're competing.
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00:00As most golfers know the rules of golf can at times feel fairly confusing and that's what this
00:06video is going to try to tackle. So we're going to look at seven rules that golfers still find
00:10confusing even if they've played the game for quite a while. I'm going to be joined by Jez
00:15Elwood, Golf Monthly Rules Guru and he's going to talk through each of these scenarios and explain
00:19a why they're a little bit confusing and b exactly how you should proceed in each of these
00:24situations. We're here at the London Club, let's get started.
00:34One. Very funny. But this part of the video is about when you are and when you are not penalised for
00:42accidentally moving your ball which I've just done there thankfully on the tee no penalty. No penalty
00:48because at this point on the whole the ball is not in play you haven't made a stroke at it unless that
00:52was an abnormally short backswing. It was not. So the ball is not in play so if you move it off the tee
00:58fine. But there are plenty of scenarios on the golf course where you do get penalised for doing
01:02something like this. Jez let's talk about for the first one you're searching for your ball you hit it
01:07in some deep rough and you're looking for it you're swishing around you accidentally move the ball what
01:11happens then? Well this is one of the new exceptions that came in in 2019. Before if you'd trodden on your
01:17ball when you were searching for it you would have been penalised. Now you're not you must replace the ball
01:22where it was or where you estimate it to have been before you kicked it or nudge it with a club
01:27to the best of your ability and then play on penalty free. So no penalty but you must replace the ball.
01:33Must replace the ball. What happens about let's say you're in the rough or you're on the fairway
01:37and you put the club down behind the ball as I've just done there and you nudge it off
01:40or you drop something on the ball like a head cover or a towel or I don't know you could be
01:46carrying anything a coin. Yeah well this is where some of the confusion has really come in and
01:50we've had quite a lot of letters golf monthly from people who think there is no longer any penalty
01:55for any accidental movement but that's not the case. The default position is still a penalty if you
02:01accidentally or deliberately but if you accidentally move your ball with the club by dropping something
02:06on it there is still a penalty. You've got to be careful around your ball once it's in play in the
02:12general area of the golf course. Yes but the same isn't true on the putting green. It isn't again in that
02:18previous scenario you do have to replace the ball before you play on. Very important. Putting green
02:22that was another exception that came in that any accidental movement so whether you nudge it with
02:27the putter on a practice stroke or drop a coin on it or catch it with your foot any accidental movement
02:34of the ball on the putting green is no longer a penalty. You must replace the ball before you play
02:39your next stroke. All really useful to know because these scenarios they do happen. I can guarantee you at
02:44some point in your golfing life you are going to accidentally move the ball while you are looking
02:48for it in deep rough. Knowing that it's not a penalty but you do have to replace it is key and
02:52it's worth just underlining that in all of these scenarios you always have to put the ball back.
02:57There's never a scenario where you move it accidentally and then play it from wherever
03:00it's come to rest. That is true and if we were going to stress one thing it is that if you move your
03:04ball whether it's accidentally or not on the fairway in the rough there is still a penalty despite a lot of
03:10people believing that there isn't. There you go. Okay so this is one of the very few scenarios in
03:20the game of golf where players will need to make a judgment call and it's not easy this particular
03:25scenario and it all boils down to a phrase that is known or virtually certain. Jez explain to us
03:31what's going on in this scenario. Well you'll find that phrase in the definitions section of the book and
03:36you know circumstance like this you've hit your tee shot it's come around some trees that you can't
03:40see it's heading towards the penalty area yes um you think it's gone in there but when you get
03:46down here there's this area of very thick grass big area thick rough right on line with where your
03:50ball was heading didn't see it go in didn't see no one saw a splash either in your group or in a group
03:56ahead calling back and saying it definitely went in so you haven't got certainty and then the rules say
04:02virtually certain means 95 percent so yes so that's a bit of an intangible how you work that out i don't
04:08know but for me in this scenario here because this grass is so long and thick and right in the spot
04:15where your ball was heading for i would find it quite hard to say that was 95 certain it went into
04:20the water yeah and the truth is different people are likely to interpret this rule in slightly different
04:25ways i think you've got to be honest you've got to be honest with yourself as well in this scenario
04:29am i sure my my ball's gone in there i think i'm probably maybe at best 60 it could easily be in here
04:35i'm obviously going to have a very good look for it if i if you find yourself having a good
04:39look for it in the thick rough it means you're probably not certain it's gone in there are you
04:43indeed and of course the difference then is can you drop just here where the ball
04:48allegedly last crossed the edge of the penalty area or because you can't find it do you have to
04:52go back and play again under stroke and distance so it's a big difference and i'm sure a lot of people
04:58would err on the side of it must have gone in mate but that's not quite well if we were playing a friendly
05:03game of golf i wouldn't i wouldn't mind whatsoever in that scenario i'm sure you would say to me yeah
05:08just drop it somewhere near but if we were playing for handicap or you're playing in a competition
05:12you really need to think very carefully about this so a rule that is well worth knowing when you find
05:17yourself in this very tricky but not totally uncommon scenario
05:27okay so without question this is one of the most misunderstood rules of golf and jez i'm not
05:32referring here to the um to the cart path this is an immovable obstruction and nobody is expecting
05:38you to play the ball from the cart part the bit that i think is misunderstood and confused is often
05:45where you get your relief from yeah now we've chosen this specific spot very very specifically
05:51and it does happen so jez talk us through what often happens in this scenario and how people should
05:57under the rules proceed i think it's misinterpretation people think it's on the path
06:02and that's that's that so you can take relief wherever you get away from the path not nearer
06:07the hole but it's where the ball is lying on the path that's important the key point
06:12and you get your nearest point of complete relief from where it's lying and in this case
06:16much as you would want to come this way i would definitely want to go i'd like to be playing in this
06:20direction here so going around the corner there i definitely want to hit mine from over there in the
06:24fluffy semi-rough or thick foot high grass over here and some people might even say well i can't
06:30drop there because i'm not really getting relief i'll go back over there but you have to remember
06:35what you're getting relief from you're getting relief from this abnormal course condition cart path
06:39immovable obstruction rules of golf don't give you relief from thick grass so if the thick grass is
06:46your nearest point of complete relief that is where you have to drop and there's only one nearest
06:50point of completely there's not a few different options it's one spot and in this scenario as you
06:54said jezz it's kind of in here isn't it yeah all of this bad lie the ball bit about here so that your
06:59club has no chance of hitting the path on the way through on the way through of course you don't have
07:04to take relief you can play it from as it lies that'll be down to the individuals to whether they
07:09want to kind of potentially endanger the bottom of their golf club by hitting a shot like this i think
07:13i'd probably have to i would probably take this relief here yeah and they try and just somehow we'll see how
07:20bad let's have a look see how bad it is and then get it back into play
07:26so that i would say was complete relief your club was sitting much better but i think i can hit this
07:32well i can
07:36yep so you're back in play and you've proceeded uh in accordance with the rules rather than
07:43going to where you would like to play from and then potentially breaking them hopefully that helps
07:47you when you're in a situation like this
07:57weak that's not very good uh i'd quite like to have another go at that jezz now yeah in order for
08:03me to do that i need to know whether i'm allowed to practice on the golf course or not during a
08:07competition around a golf do i have permission to have another go at this well you do if there's no
08:13one waiting to play in hands on hips waiting for you to get out of the way which there isn't anyone
08:17on the whole so i'm fine so hit this again there is a limited amount of practice you can do in a
08:22round um and it's confined to the putting green you've just played or the teeing area you're next
08:29about to play from so you can practice your putting and chipping on or near either of those
08:34two areas you can't practice any bunker shots so if you've fluffed a bunker shot you can't have
08:39another go i can't think of the time i've ever hit a practice bunker shot on the golf course well
08:43i'm sure someone has but you're not allowed to not allowed and and if you are holding up the
08:46groups behind they are going to be very angry about that anyway so you're likely to hear about
08:50it after the round of golf yeah anyway um so this one is fine i can it's fine yeah you'll find
08:56all the detail in rule 5.5 what if i breach the rule if you breach the rule by playing a practice
09:02shot you're not allowed to in a place you're not allowed to or you are unduly delaying play you'll
09:06get the general penalty so if it's between holes as it would be in this scenario that would apply to
09:12the next hole you're about to play good so in match play you would get to the next tee and you'd have
09:17already lost that hole before you play it so you might as well walk on to the next hole great okay
09:23well i get to have another go at this yeah i'm not going to hit such a bad putt this time i promise
09:29yeah a little bit more authority only just went in though oh i mean there's no in is in yes i know i know
09:35it's always second time isn't it yeah okay so this is a scenario within the rules of golf that many
09:46players find confusing even if they played the game for many years and in order to for us to
09:50illustrate the point we've made two pitch marks one that is off the green just on the free and
09:56fringe here and one that is on the green but both of these are directly on the line of my shot i would
10:01definitely want to putt this jezz now one of these i can repair one of them i can't explain to me what's
10:06going on well there's a difference between the green and not the green the putting green as it's
10:12called in the rules you can repair a pitch mark on the putting green at any time okay whether your
10:17ball is lying on the green or off the green so that's no problem the one off the green you're not
10:22allowed to touch to repair that would be braking rule 8.1a which talks about conditions affecting the
10:29stroke yeah you're not allowed to improve the turf conditions uh the ground conditions that would be
10:34deemed to be doing that right and the penalty is pretty severe it's two shots in stroke play or loss
10:40of hole in match play so ouch the general penalty definitely want to avoid that so i'm going to repair
10:44this what about if how about if my ball came to rest yeah and then that pitch mark was made by my
10:52playing partner well it's uh it's a one in a million shot probably but in that scenario you would be
10:58allowed to repair it because you're entitled to the conditions that prevailed when your ball came to
11:03rest uh that pitch mark wasn't there at that point so in that rare rare scenario you would be able to
11:09then repair that pitch mark yeah that was created after your ball had come to rest that is unlikely it
11:14is much more likely that you're going to have a situation like this with a pitch mark yeah it does
11:17happen and i'm going to have to chip this and this is not my favorite shot no
11:21oh i didn't read it properly oh and that's three feet left okay so i have had a total nightmare here
11:36i have hit a tee shot from uh way over behind me and i've sprayed it mild right and i'm on the the green
11:44here and this is not the green no i'm playing i now need to hit a seven iron in this direction here yeah
11:49what do i need to avoid doing jezz well you need to avoid hitting a seven iron off this finely
11:53prepared surface i really don't want to make a difference the putting greens here are perfect as
11:58well uh this is a wrong green as far as the rules of golf are concerned and play from it is prohibited
12:04so you cannot play from it uh you cannot play if your feet are on the green and your ball isn't
12:10you've got to have complete um you've got to be completely away from the wrong green yes not in
12:15interfering with stance or golf swing so my nearest point of complete relief somewhere where i'm not
12:20going to take a divot and it goes from there somewhere like that and then yeah down here
12:25somewhere so i'd be dropping just here and then i can continue to play that's it yep and uh that is
12:33what you would expect most people to do but somebody on the pga tour a few years ago
12:37did actually play from the wrong green yes full iron shot probably because they're very good at just
12:42nipping the ball off the top but that possibly is in play to stop you from damaging damaging the
12:47green essentially i think it's important to remember as well even on a links course where
12:51you might be out and back and there are two greens very close together and it would be quite
12:55feasible to putt from one to the other you still can't do it you have to take relief that's
12:59good from the wrong green advice because i think i wouldn't even consider i think a lot of
13:03people would just think okay there's only a little bit of fringe i'll just putt back to my green
13:06but you can't do that yeah and if you do do it even in that scenario it's the general penalty which
13:11is two shots and it is and you'll find this all in rule 13.1 f there you go so playing from the
13:18wrong green there's a rule to protect you from doing it because it will damage the golf course
13:22make sure you run through the process that i've just been through and you should be fine
13:25oh no ah
13:39okay so for this one we have over elaborated a little bit yeah and you might need to use your
13:44imagination a little bit because obviously i'd never hit a putt that bad no well actually i have
13:50done but um it's worth remembering your options when you hit a really awful shot like that one the
13:56one that i've just hit jess that one's gone over the crest of this hill it's gone down into a bunker
14:00it's gone right into the back of the bunker which is an almost an unplayable position i'm now really
14:04scratching my head thinking what do i do now explain to me what my options might be you've putted it could
14:10have gone into the water it could have gone into a terrible lie as you say it's now at the back lip you've
14:14got no shot you're thinking you might have to take an unplayable but what you're probably not thinking is
14:19why don't i just putt it again under stroke and distance yes yes there's a shot to add
14:24so if if you two putt from there you know it's effectively three more shots but sometimes that
14:29just might be your best option best option in a scenario like this it's also worth remembering that
14:34if you've chipped so in that scenario if i was just off the green i'd thinned my chip
14:38not wholly unlikely again that option is open to me just remember that because i think when people
14:44get onto the green they sort of forget that that is a possibility don't they yeah definitely i mean
14:47it might be a case where you're very close to a ridge you're only four feet from the hole and
14:52you've just hit it a fraction too hard and suddenly it's off the front of the green well having seen
14:57the first part you might think okay my best chance here is to have another go at that four footer yes
15:02and you might be thinking okay well that means taking stroke and distance from
15:06nearer the hole but you're allowed to do that on the putting green you can take stroke and distance
15:11just as you can anywhere else on the golf course and if that means
15:15you're nearer the hole and where your ball have come to rest you are allowed to do you're allowed
15:18to do that so it's worth remembering hopefully a situation like that doesn't arise for you but if
15:23it does try to keep that idea in mind so there you have it that's our look at the seven rules golfers
15:29still find confusing even if they've played the game for a long time there are reasons why some of
15:33these roles rules are a little bit confusing but hopefully jezz's explanations have helped to clear
15:39things up for you if you do have any questions please do leave some comments below we'd love to hear what you have to
15:43to say but that's it for now from the london club thanks for watching we'll see you next time
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