- 2 days ago
5 Rules Golfers Always Breaks.
The rules of golf can be complex and difficult to interpret at times and there are some that golfers nearly always get wrong! In this video, Joel Tadman is joined by resident rules expert Jeremy Ellwood to highlight five rules of golf that most players have got wrong at some point.
The rules of golf can be complex and difficult to interpret at times and there are some that golfers nearly always get wrong! In this video, Joel Tadman is joined by resident rules expert Jeremy Ellwood to highlight five rules of golf that most players have got wrong at some point.
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00:00Hello everyone and welcome to Gog Magog Golf Club here in Cambridgeshire where I'm going to be
00:03talking you through five rules that golfers often break. It's fair to say that even the most basic
00:08of rules in the game of golf can often be misunderstood or misinterpreted and it's
00:13important you don't fall foul of any of the most basic rules that can cost you shots. So I'm going
00:17to be joined in this video by rules guru Jeremy Elwood. I'm going to talk through five scenarios
00:22that often golfers fall foul on the rules of golf. So without further ado, let's head to the golf
00:26course and see what they are. Right Jezza, I've pushed my t-shirt on this hole. I'm only 100 yards
00:31from the green and I've got a pretty much clear shot. You see my ball is inbounds. The outbounds
00:36hugs the line of this fence so it goes behind you there and behind me here. It does. But unfortunately
00:40I've got this out-of-bounds post which is annoyingly in my swing because without it I'd have a clear
00:44swing. You would. Presumably this is just like a 150 post or a yellow or red stake in a penalty area.
00:51I can just whip that out and I'd have a clear swing. Is that a fair comment? It's sadly not a fair
00:55comment because this is not treated the same way as a red or yellow penalty area stake which
01:01are usually movable obstructions. So you just pull them out, play a shot, carry on. This
01:06is a boundary object under the rules and even though that particular one is easily movable.
01:11That's right. Yeah, I can just completely check it out.
01:14You're not allowed to touch it because it is a boundary object. So in this particular instance,
01:19and this is what a lot of people get wrong, you would not be allowed to touch that. And if you did so,
01:25and then played your shot, there would be a penalty. And what would the penalty be?
01:29Penalty would be the general penalty. So two shots because you've improved the conditions
01:34affecting the stroke. However, there's a small proviso. If you got here and pulled the stake out
01:39and someone came across and said, no, you can't do that before you played your shot, you'd be okay
01:44as long as you put the stake back exactly where it was. So that's a clear distinction because in this
01:49particular scenario, I'm able to kind of rotate the position of the post, which might help the
01:55kind of light of my swing. I'm not even allowed to do that. And again, if you did do that, you'd
01:59have to put it back exactly where it was when you got here before playing your shot to avoid the penalty.
02:05So you have it. Golden rule number one. Do not touch out of bounds posts. We will get a penalty.
02:11Now, Jez, another of the most broken rules in golf comes down to identifying your ball in the rough.
02:16I've hit my ball in the rough here. It's a pretty thick light. It looks like my golf ball,
02:20but I just need to check. And what is the mistake that a lot of golfers make in this situation?
02:25Well, this is probably the one I see broken most often. They'll wander over,
02:29just bend down, pick the ball up, have a look and plonk it back down. Sometimes in the same lie,
02:35sometimes in a slightly different lie. But what they're forgetting to do is mark the position of
02:40the ball first before lifting it, which you have to do. And failure to do so will cost you a one-stroke
02:46penalty under rule 7.3. You used to have to also get someone to come over and observe you
02:52doing the lifting process. You don't have to do that anymore, but you do still have to mark the
02:56position of the ball before lifting it. So even if you're just twisting it to find out if it shows
03:02you have to mark the position of the ball. If you're going to get your hands on the golf ball,
03:04you have to mark the position of it first. It's just a tee in the ground kind of next to it.
03:08Yeah, ideally. To do whatever you need to do so I can see that's mine. And then it's very important
03:12to put it back in exactly the same place. Yeah, exactly the same place and play on.
03:18Safe in the knowledge it is definitely your ball. There you go. Don't make that mistake. Use the tee,
03:22mark your ball and you won't get that shot penalty. Right, Jess, my ball has come to rest on this road.
03:28Direction of play is pretty much straight kind of that way. Yeah. I know I'm entitled to a drop.
03:33You are. But there's a rule here that golfers often get wrong. Well, yeah, there's a phrase that
03:39golfers often get wrong. This is an immovable obstruction. You're entitled to relief.
03:45But you have to find your nearest point of complete relief. And a lot of golfers think that
03:51that entitles them to a good lie or a perfect place to drop. But the reality is sometimes it doesn't.
03:56And in this scenario, this is a great example because A, if you wanted to drop on the grass,
04:01you're not taking full relief. So that's not allowed. Because that's to be still on the road still.
04:04Yeah. And B, your nearest point of complete relief is going to be,
04:08the reference point for it is going to be right in the middle of that hedge.
04:12And although you get a one club length arc from that, I guess you could potentially
04:16perch yourself there and play it a bit like that. It would be very difficult.
04:19Yeah. You could make sure your heels are right off the road.
04:22Right. But a lot of golfers say, well, that's not fair. Surely I should bend.
04:25Let me drop over this side where there's a better surface. But that's not what the rules,
04:30you know, you don't get relief from a hedge in the rules of golf.
04:33All you're getting relief from is this immovable obstruction. And it is based around
04:37the nearest point of complete relief, which in this scenario would be
04:41reference point in the hedge and probably no way you can actually drop it. So yeah,
04:46then you're a bit stuck. I think in this particular scenario,
04:49you'd probably just play it off the road, which you're entitled to do.
04:51You can do that at any stage. The other options, you could take an unplayable drop.
04:55Which would be going back online or going back to the tee and playing under stroke and distance
05:00or trying to get it to club lengths over there, which I don't think is going to
05:03quite be enough even in this scenario. So in this particular case, you've either got
05:07to perch very precariously on a little bit of the grass there and play it with the ball
05:12like that close to your feet, or you've got to play it as it lies and risk damaging your club a little
05:15bit. Yeah. So then the key takeaway here is in golf, it's not always the nicest point of relief.
05:20You've got to take the nearest point of relief and sometimes it puts you in a bit of a tricky spot.
05:24That's got miles right. There's some thick rough down there. I think I'm just going to hit another
05:34one, Jez. Okay. Now, in this rule about often broken rules, this is probably a number two. All
05:44you've said is I hit another one. You haven't said, I'm hitting a provisional ball. And that would mean
05:50that ball would become the ball in play. So even if you found the first one in a reasonable spot,
05:56you wouldn't then be able to play it. Right. Now, you don't actually have to say specifically the
06:00word provisional. It's a good idea to probably. You just have to hit another one and say, I'm going
06:05to hit another one in case I can't find the original. You've got to say any phrase that conveys
06:09some doubt as to whether you're going to find the original. If you just say, I'm hitting another one,
06:13or I'm going to reload, it's not enough. And that would then become the ball in play and effectively
06:18you'd be two shots worse off on the hole probably. Yeah. I think a lot of golfers do what I was about
06:23to do, almost to kind of leave their options open. They kind of- Yeah. Well, that's one thing,
06:27you can never choose between balls as you're in golf. So you can't, you know, even if you want,
06:32your first ball might have ricocheted off a tree and come back into the middle of the fairway.
06:35If you hadn't made it clear this second one was a provisional, you wouldn't be able to play it.
06:39Cool. So there you go. Make sure you make that distinction when you're hitting another ball off the tee.
06:42If you're not sure what your first one is, always say provisional or something to that effect,
06:46and you're not going to get caught up by the rules of golf. Right, Jez, I've had a pretty good
06:50teacher here, but unfortunately it's just crept into the rough and I've drawn a horrific lie.
06:54There's a big tuft of grass behind my ball. And I think in this particular scenario, a lot of golfers
06:58might obviously feel a bit undone by and try and gain better access to the back of the ball
07:04by a few different means that possibly are frowned upon in the rules of golfing. Yeah.
07:08Put their foot behind the ball, use their club, whatever it might be. Use their club a bit too
07:12vigorously to just get that access to the ball a little bit more. So what are the rules of
07:16golf saying in this situation? Yeah, the rules of golf say you can't do anything that improves
07:20the conditions affecting your stroke. And 8.1a is the rule you need to look at to see what you
07:27can't do. And then 8.1b tells you what you can do. But if you came in here and while no one was
07:34looking just sort of trampled that down, suddenly you can get three more clubs to it. That would be
07:39considered improving the conditions affecting your stroke and you would be penalized the general penalty.
07:44So it's considered quite a bad breach of the rules because it puts you in a better position than
07:51you should be in. Part of the game of golf is playing as it lies. And there are quite a few
07:55scenarios in other areas that this might apply. Yeah. You might be in the thick rough and you
08:00do a bit of excess swishing of the long grass so the club doesn't get snagged up so much coming down.
08:04You might be under a tree and there's one particular branch that just needs to be snapped away to
08:10let you have access to the ball. You can't do any of that. You've just got to accept what's happened
08:17and try and make the best of a bad situation. So that concludes our look at the five rules golfers
08:23often break. I do hope you found it useful. If there are any other rules that you sometimes fall
08:27foul of, do let us know down in the comments if we've missed any. And if you like this video,
08:31click the like button and subscribe to the Golf Month YouTube channel so you don't miss any of our other
08:35rules videos. But that's all from me here at Gobblegog Golf Club. I'll see you next time.
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