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In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Golf Monthly rules expert Fergus Bisset to talk through the 5 golf rules that are surprisingly vague or unclear. Whether it's determining if your ball is in a hazard, declaring a provisional or understanding what constitutes advice, there are actually quite a few grey areas in the rule book that you need to be careful of.
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00:00Hello and welcome to The London Club and this video in which we're going to take a look at
00:03the five golf rules that are surprisingly vague. Now there are certain rules in the book that are
00:09very clearly black and white and there are a few others where there's a little bit of a grey area
00:13and it's there for a very good reason and we're going to talk about exactly what those are in
00:17this video. I'm joined by golf rules expert Fergus Bissett. Right let's get started.
00:30Now Fergus for this one we're going to talk about advice and advice is a term that you'll see within
00:37the rules of golf but there is a little bit of I think something around it that would leave people
00:41feeling a little unsure at times. Tell me what constitutes advice and more importantly I think
00:48what are the things that people need to watch out for? Okay good um this is rule 10.2a which
00:53deals
00:54with advice. Now a player is not allowed to give advice to other players in the competition nor is
01:01a player allowed to ask advice from anybody other than their caddy. Now advice is a comment or an
01:07action that would influence a player in the way that they either selected a club or chose to play
01:13a hole. Play the shots. So me telling you here this is a 150 odd yard par three over water
01:19it's
01:19difficult me telling you I've just hit an A time I'm going to get a penalty for that. You would
01:23be
01:24receiving a general penalty. What if I subtly showed you the bottom of the golf club? I'm afraid you would
01:28also be in contravention of 10.2a there yeah you can't show me. Now I would not be allowed to
01:34ask you
01:35what club you've hit. I could however before we played the hole say oh remember the fourth hole
01:41roughly the same length what club did you hit there? Right that would be okay. That seems a bit odd
01:46that you can do that but you can't ask what club I fit here. It does seem quite odd there.
01:50I would be allowed to have a little look in your bag and say ah the A town's been saying
01:56you must have
01:56hit an A town here but I'm not allowed to move that out of the way. Don't be touching my
02:02equipment.
02:02You're in contravention of the rule if you touch a player's equipment or clubs. Yeah interesting.
02:08And another thing about what I've said that you can ask your caddy a spectator might give you some
02:13advice. Not me I don't think I have very many spectators. If they did you wouldn't receive a
02:18penalty in that instance however you would have to encourage them to not give you any further advice
02:23if they continued to give you advice as you went around and you hadn't discouraged them from doing
02:28that you would you would breach 10.2a and receive the general penalty. Interesting. So there's some
02:32quite you know things you've got to watch out for. Subtle differences between what you can and can't
02:37do here the sort of thing that could really catch you out if you're playing in competition just be
02:41very careful of that make sure you aren't going out of your way to ask the advice of any of
02:45your
02:45playing partners. Now this one refers to wind direction and Fergus we're all used to throwing up a
02:52few blades of grass to figure out what the wind's doing. There is some wind they're just going over there.
02:56Yeah. But there's some things here that you're not allowed to do aren't there. Explain to us what
03:01you can and can't do around wind direction and making that judgment call. This is rule 4.3a which
03:06is to do with allowed and prohibited use of equipment. You're not allowed to use a piece of equipment
03:12that artificially eliminates the requirement for essential skill or judgment within golf. Now throwing
03:18up grass that's fine grass isn't equipment it's grass. That's good to know. However there are 4.3a
03:26part 2 deals with wind direction and it says there are certain things that you can't do if for some
03:32reason you had some powder with you. I don't know why you might some talcum powder. I don't have any
03:35talcum powder with me today. That would be part of your equipment and if you threw that in the air
03:39to assess which way the wind was going that there would be a penalty there. Right okay. And you are
03:44not,
03:45I mean if you have a hanky in your pocket you're not allowed to to wave that. You see it
03:50like a flag
03:50and just figure out one there. Or if you happen to have a ribbon in your bag again I don't
03:55know you may
03:56do but you're not allowed to use that. Right okay. So you've got to be quite careful with what you're
04:01doing and you would receive the general penalty if you tested the wind in one of those ways. Yeah.
04:05With an artificial object. Yeah. If you did it again you'd be disqualified. Two shots or out so quite harsh.
04:12Now that leads me to asking the question then. Okay. What about range finders because my range finder
04:18as most do has slope to it. So if I was zapping this out I know not to use slope
04:22in competition. Yeah okay.
04:23The hole that we're playing here is a par three. It's definitely down. It's probably down 10 yards or so.
04:29Why is it that I can have the yardage through this. Right. But I can't have the slope as well.
04:36The reason is because the yardages are publicly available information. The yardage is something
04:42that you will be given on. Yes I can see. Absolutely. Down there yeah. However you have to use your
04:49judgment to decide how much the slope here would impact that yardage. And if you use a device to
04:55tell you that that's in contravention of that rule of prohibited use of equipment. Ah good advice.
05:00And I'm going to throw in an extra piece of advice. When you're playing golf just make sure that your
05:04slope is turned off before you start if you're playing in competition because that could definitely
05:10catch you out.
05:18Oh that's a bit dicey over there. I was over there the other week but that's not very good. I
05:22think
05:22I'm going to have to play another one. Okay. Now Ferg I know from experience from having done this with
05:29you before, having spoken about this subject before, that when you have to hit a provisional ball
05:34you need to be quite prescriptive I'd say about what you're about to do. Is that fair?
05:39That is fair. 18.3 which is a provisional ball. 18.3b says that you need to make it clear
05:47to your
05:47playing partners that you are playing a provisional ball. If you don't make it clear that you're
05:52playing a provisional ball then this ball that you're about to hit will automatically become
05:56the ball in play. Even if Lyman is sitting in the rust no problem. Exactly. So what I just said
06:01then
06:01which was oh that's dicey over there I'm going to have to I think I'm going to have to play
06:05another.
06:06Is that good enough or is that not good? That's not good enough. Do I have to say I need
06:08to play a
06:09provisional? You have to technically the rules would like you to say that you must play that
06:15you're going to play a provisional. Right. I think here's where there's sort of uncertainty.
06:19Some uncertainty because if you said I'm going to play another one just in case
06:23that suggests that you're playing a provisional ball. That's good enough.
06:27Because of the doubt. Because of the doubt. And if you said I'm going to play another one
06:30under rule 18.3 if you're a real rules botan. I like it. Another thing would be
06:38that perhaps not on the tee but say that you were down in the fairway and your playing partners were
06:42somewhere else. If you required to play a provisional ball at that point you wouldn't
06:46be able to tell them before you hit the shot. Am I not shouting across the fairway? No you wouldn't
06:50need to do that. You would play your provisional and then you would go to your partners and say I
06:54have
06:54played a provisional ball. Okay. Now okay there's there's some uncertainty about the wording here.
06:59My advice and the rules advice is always just categorically state I am playing a provisional
07:05ball. Right. Well Fergus I'm playing a provisional ball. Correct.
07:16And you might want to play another one.
07:21Okay so I have hit my tee shot on the 14th hole here at the London club into this position
07:26in here.
07:27Now I know that Fergus this is an immovable obstruction. But the golf rules are slightly
07:33vague in this scenario. And I'll tell you why. Because the green is over your left shoulder.
07:40Just over there. The fairway is behind me. Behind my back. The nearest point to the fairway.
07:45And I would be doing everything I could I think to be getting a free drop from here. Okay. By
07:51coming
07:51along and saying I was going to hit a four iron onto the green from this position. Yeah. Now tell
07:58me
07:58as my personal referee that that's perfectly acceptable. I would seriously question you.
08:0716.1a part 3 says that you will not be entitled to relief if it is clearly unreasonable. Right.
08:15So you think this shot with a four iron is clearly unreasonable. Well basically you would get a
08:20relief if you were taking a shot that you meant you were going to be taking anyway. And the immovable
08:27obstruction affected either the live ball your stance as it does would do in this case. Yes. Or the swing
08:35path.
08:36Now you have to be honest about the type of shot that you would realistically be taking on from here.
08:42Now I can see that if you aim down that line you're hitting over rough and trees. For about 100
08:50yards. Your
08:51ball is buried thick in the rough. There is no way you would be taking on that shot. So realistically
08:57I
08:58would be chipping it back out. Everyone would be chipping it back out. Which means I'm now not
09:02standing on the path. Exactly. So you would not be entitled to free relief. And that would be
09:08the honest way. And a referee in competition would say that. So in amateur golf you just have to be
09:15honest. Even if I pleaded. I think even if you pleaded. They would just say. Please look. Go on.
09:21You have a go at that shot. I want to see it. I'm going to stand up. All right. I'm
09:24going to prove
09:25you wrong. Right. I'm going to prove you wrong. Here we go. Yeah. Yeah. I can get a four iron
09:29out.
09:29I mean. But you're just going to hit it straight into the rough. I'm not. Oh my god. Well that
09:37ball
09:38will never be seen again. I mean there was no. It was just unreasonable. It was an unreasonable
09:44situation. Okay. So we have another scenario for you where the rules of golf are a little bit vague.
09:51Purposefully vague. Fergus. Now the scenario for you is that I've hit my shot from over here just to
09:57we're playing down the right hand side of the hole. The ball's gone over the crest of the hill.
10:01We've both seen it go over the crest of the hill. And we know there's water. And we know there's
10:05a
10:05penalty area down here. Now I was hoping against hope that I might find my ball sitting on this grass
10:11here. But I haven't found it. It's gone in there. Or at least we're virtually certain it's gone in there.
10:19Explain to me how we need to proceed in that scenario. Well yeah. This is known or virtually certain. This
10:24is a term that's used in the modern rules quite a bit. And it is the standard for deciding what
10:29has
10:29happened to a player's ball. Has it gone in a penalty area? Has it been moved? How was it moved?
10:34Those sorts of situations. Now here I think we can be virtually certain and in the definitions of the
10:42rules that's being 95% sure. So 19 times out of 20 the ball will have come over the crest
10:48of the hill.
10:49The fact that it's not here means it's in there. Okay. One in a thousand times a seagull's picked up
10:55your ball. Unlikely. Highly unlikely. Highly unlikely. Yeah. We're virtually certain we are 95%
11:01at least sure that the ball has gone in the penalty area and you would take relief accordingly from a
11:07red penalty area. In this scenario, it's fairly clear. It's very clear. However, if what we were standing
11:14on here was heavy, thick, fescue, the sort that you're struggling to find your golf ball in anyway.
11:20Yep. That's where virtually certain in the rules, the terminology really kicks in because
11:25can you be virtually certain that your ball's gone in there? It may well have done, but you can't be
11:29sure, can you? Probably not. And in that case, I think you wouldn't be able to say that you were
11:3495%
11:35sure that what has happened, you think has happened, has happened. You could well be in the thick grass.
11:40In that instance, you would have to search for your ball and have your three-minute search. And if you
11:44couldn't find it, I think you would have to go back and play again.
11:48Probably feeling a little bit hard done by, but better feeling hard done by than potentially
11:53breaking the rules and causing any sorts of issues for yourself. Correct.
11:57So there you have it. If you are unsure about whether your ball might have gone in,
12:00if you're not virtually certain, then it's best just to go back and hit another.
12:05So there you have it. That's our look at the five golf rules that are surprisingly vague.
12:10Hopefully, Ferguson's explanations there have helped you whenever you find yourself
12:13in any of those scenarios. If you're unsure about anything, please do leave some comments below.
12:17We'll get back to as many of you as we can. And of course, don't forget to hit the like
12:21and subscribe buttons. But thanks for watching. We will see you next time.
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