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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 affecting
01:34the stroke. However, there's a small proviso. If you got here and pulled the stake out and someone
01:39came across and said, no, you can't do that before you played your shot, you'd be okay as long as you
01:44put the stake back exactly where it was. That's a clear distinction because in this particular
01:49scenario, I'm able to kind of rotate the position of the post, which might help the kind of light of
01:55my swing. Yeah, I'm not even allowed to do that. Not allowed to do that. And again, if you did do
01:59that, you'd have to put it back exactly where it was when you got here before playing your shot to
02:04avoid the penalty. So you have it. Golden rule number one, do not touch out of bounds posts,
02:09we will get a penalty. Now, Jez, another of the most broken rules in golf comes down to identifying
02:15your ball in the rough. I've hit my ball in the rough here. It's a pretty thick light. It looks
02:19like my golf ball, but I'll just need to check. Yeah. And what is the mistake that a lot of golfers
02:24make in this situation? Well, 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
02:45stroke penalty 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's yours,
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. Yeah. And then it's very
03:12important to put it back in exactly the same place. Yeah. Back 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, Jez, my ball has come to
03:26rest on this road. Direction of play is pretty much straight kind of that way. Yeah. I know I'm
03:32entitled to a drop. You are. But there's a rule here that golfers often get wrong. Well, yeah,
03:38there's a phrase that golfers often get wrong. This is an immovable obstruction. You're entitled to
03:42relief. But 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. And in
03:56this scenario, this is a great example because A, if you wanted to drop on the grass, you're not
04:01taking full relief. So that's not allowed. Because that's to be stood on the road still. Yeah. And B,
04:06your nearest point of complete relief is going to be, the reference point for it, is going to be
04:10right in the middle of that hedge. And although you get a one club length arc from that, I guess you could
04:15potentially perch yourself there and play it a bit like that. It would be very difficult. Yeah, you've got to make sure
04:20your heels are right off the road. Right. But a lot of golfers say, well, that's not fair. Surely I
04:25should bend, let me drop over this side where there's a better surface. But that's not what the
04:29rules, you know, you don't get relief from a hedge in the rules of golf. All you're getting relief from
04:34is this immovable obstruction. And it is based around the nearest point of complete relief, which
04:39in this scenario would be reference point in the hedge and probably no way you can actually drop it.
04:45So yeah, then you're a bit stuck. I think in this particular scenario, you'd probably just play it off the
04:50road, which you're entitled to do. You can do that at any stage. The other options, you could take an
04:53unplayable drop, which would be going back on line or going back to the tee and playing under stroke and
04:59distance or trying to get it to club lengths over there, which I don't think is going to quite be
05:03enough even in this scenario. So in this particular case, you've either got to perch very precariously
05:09on a little bit of the grass there and play it with the ball like that close to your feet, or you've
05:13got to play it as it lies and risk damaging your club a little bit. Yeah. So then the key takeaway here is
05:17in golf, it's not always the nicest point of relief. You've got to take the nearest point of relief,
05:21and sometimes it puts you in a bit of a tricky spot.
05:29That's gone 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 you've
05:44said is hit another one. You haven't said, I'm hitting a provisional ball, and that would mean that
05:52that ball would become the ball in play. So even if you found the first one in a reasonable spot, you
05:56wouldn't then be able to play it. Right. Now, you don't actually have to say specifically the word
06:01provisional. It's a good idea to probably. You just have to hit another one and say, I'm going to hit
06:05another one in case I can't find the original. You've got to say any phrase that conveys some doubt as to
06:10whether you're going to find the original. If you just say, I'm hitting another one or I'm going to
06:14reload, it's not enough. And that would then become the ball in play and effectively you'd be
06:19two shots worse off on the hole probably. Yeah. I think a lot of golfers do what I was about to do,
06:24almost to kind of leave their options open. They kind of. Yeah. Well, that's one thing you can never
06:28choose between balls in golf. So you can't, you know, even if you want your first ball might have
06:33ricocheted off a tree and come back into the middle of the fairway. If you hadn't made it clear,
06:36the second one was provisional, you wouldn't be able to play it. Cool. So there you go. Make sure
06:40you make that distinction when you're hitting another ball off the tee. If you're not sure
06:43where your first one is, always say provisional or something to that effect. And you're not going
06:46to get caught up by the rules of golf. Right, Jez, I've hit a pretty good teacher here,
06:50but unfortunately it's just crept into the rough and I've drawn a horrific lie. There's a big tuft
06:55of grass behind my ball. And I think in this particular scenario, a lot of golfers might
06:58obviously feel a bit undone by and try and gain better access to the back of the ball by a few different
07:05means that possibly are frowned upon in the rules of golf. Yeah. Put their foot behind the ball,
07:09use their club, whatever it might be. Use their club a bit too vigorously to just get that access
07:14to the ball a little bit more. So what do the rules of golf say in this situation? Yeah,
07:17the rules of golf say you can't do anything that improves the conditions affecting your stroke.
07:23And 8.1a is the rule you need to look at to see what you can't do. And then 8.1b tells you what you
07:30can do. But if you came in here and while no one was looking just sort of trampled that down,
07:36suddenly you can get three more clubs to it. That will be considered improving the conditions
07:41affecting your stroke and you would be penalized the general penalty. So it's considered quite a
07:48bad breach of the rules because it puts you in a better position than you should be in. Part of the
07:52game of golf is playing as it lies. And there are quite a few scenarios in other areas
07:57that this might apply. Yeah. You might be in the thick rough and you do a bit of excess swishing
08:01of the long grass so the club doesn't get snagged up so much coming down. You might be under a tree
08:06and there's one particular branch that just needs to be snapped away to let you have access to the
08:11ball. You can't do any of that. You've just got to accept what's happened and try and make the best of
08:18a bad situation. So that concludes our look at the five rules golfers often break. I do hope you
08:24found it useful. If there are any other rules that you sometimes fall foul of, do let us know down in
08:28the comments if we've missed any. And if you like this video, click the like button and subscribe to
08:32the Golf Month YouTube channel so you don't miss any of our other rules videos. But that's all from
08:36me here at Gobblegogl Golf Club. I'll see you next time.
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