- 3 minutes ago
In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by resident rules expert Fergus Bisset to run through the 5 rules mistakes that will cost you a one-shot penalty. These would be classed as relatively minor breaches where it wouldn't seem like you're gaining a massive advantage over the field, yet they do still unfortunately incur a penalty under the rules so be sure to watch them all to make sure you don't have to add any unwanted shots to your scorecard.
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00:00Hello and welcome to The London Club and this video in which we're going to take a look
00:03at the five golf rules mistakes that everyone should know but that will only cost you one
00:09stroke if you make them. They'll only cost you one stroke because for the most part
00:13they are deemed to be a sort of minor infraction in the rules but they are well worth knowing
00:19because these are mistakes that we can all make. I'm joined in this video by golf rules expert
00:23Fergus Bissett. And finally this video is being sponsored by our very good friends at HalloFresh.
00:28We have an amazing offer for anyone watching this video and more on that later. Get out there,
00:33onto the golf balls and get started. Right Fergus, so I have just hit my approach shot into this green
00:39and I've hit it terribly thin, really quite thin. Okay. And before I go about the delicate process
00:46of trying to get this one up and down I quite want to see whether I've caused any sort of
00:49terminal
00:50damage to my golf ball. Okay. And now I know I'm now in danger of incurring a one-shot penalty
00:55if
00:56I'm not careful. Come to the rescue. Tell me what I can and can't do. Okay. Rule 4.2c part
01:03one.
01:04It trips off the tongue. It does. Now, if you were not reasonably sure that there had been damage to
01:12your ball you would not be able to lift it. You could incur a one-shot penalty for lifting it
01:15if you didn't really believe that there was some damage to it. Oh really? Oh right. So the fact
01:19that I have to hit this terribly thin is okay. That's okay. So you're okay. Now you have to mark
01:24your ball before you lift it. Okay. If you didn't mark it like that and you lifted it you would
01:30incur
01:31a one-shot penalty. Okay. So I'm okay so far. So you're okay. Now you can have a look at
01:35it. Now it looks
01:37pretty clean but if your ball had some dirt on it you would not at this point be able to
01:42clean it.
01:43If you cleaned it even to have a look if it was cut or cracked you would get a one
01:48-shot penalty. Is
01:48that right? Okay. So you can't clean the ball. Don't need to clean the ball. There's no mud or dirt.
01:53And actually the golf ball is looking perfectly okay. Perfectly okay. In which case you would
01:59replace it carefully and play on. There would be no penalty. My ball, the original position of my ball
02:05was right next to the marker like so. Yep. You have to put it back exactly as it was. So
02:12I have to put it
02:12back like that. So anything else than that is wrong. Any other spot. You have to put it back
02:16on the exact spot. Correct. So clearly if I put it back there that's incorrect. That's an incorrect.
02:22That would be in contravention of 14.2b2. Okay. You would be incorrectly replacing a ball. Now
02:30in this scenario what if I go okay well I put it back in the wrong spot so I'm just
02:33going to pop it
02:33into the right spot. That's now in the right spot isn't it? It is in the right spot. However,
02:39it's still an incorrect replacement of the ball. You have to replace the ball by hand on the exact
02:44spot. Do you? So in that case you again would be one stroke penalty territory. Right so before
02:50picking, that's interesting, before picking up the tee I need to pick it up. Yeah. Pop it back down
02:54again. Yeah. Okay we're all good. Yeah that's on the exact spot. No penalty. You have now no one stroke
03:00penalties. Okay fine. This is looking, the grass underneath this ball is looking very tight though. Yeah.
03:10Oh. Not bad. And that's a slightly fat. Slightly fat. But it's trundling down there quite well
03:15actually. I'll take that. Okay so there you have it. If you're unsure whether you might have
03:18damaged your golf ball, you are allowed to check, just make sure you mark it. You place it back
03:22exactly as it was and that you don't clean it. You'll avoid a one stroke penalty.
03:27Right so I've got two words for you Fergus. Slow play. And actually slow play can cost you penalty shots.
03:34Or in this specific scenario penalty shot. Explain to me Ferb what we're talking about specifically.
03:41Okay so I've just missed a putt. I'm a bit frustrated about that and I want to have another go.
03:46I'm allowed to do that. Yeah you're allowed to do that. Rule 5.5b you're allowed to have another go.
03:50But rule 5.6a you are not allowed to unreasonably delay play. Okay. If there was a group behind
03:58waiting to play their shot and I spent five minutes desperately trying to hold this putt, I would be
04:03unreasonably delaying play. I'd be in contravention of that rule and it would be a one shot penalty.
04:07Yeah so this specifically relates to practicing on the golf course doesn't it? So why do you think it's
04:11only a one shot penalty then? Well I think it's just a minor blip that first time. You've just made
04:16a mistake. You maybe haven't noticed the people behind you. You weren't intentionally unreasonably
04:19delaying play. So it's a one shot penalty. But if you keep doing it, if you're sort of so
04:25oblivious to the group behind you, you just keep doing it through the round. What happens in that scenario?
04:28Well it can escalate. If you break that rule for a second time, say you did the same thing on
04:33the
04:33next green, it's general penalty. So two shots. If you did it another time, the following green,
04:39you'd actually be disqualified. Okay. So I think in all of these rules we
04:42are talking about what happens when you are playing in competition, not when you're playing friendlies with
04:46your friends. However, I think with this particular scenario, I think we both agree that any time you're
04:51unduly delaying play is not a good thing. Try and keep up with play. If you can do that in
04:56competition,
04:57then you'll avoid any of these penalty related scenarios.
05:02Okay, so I've just taken a free drop away from an immovable obstruction. Now, Fergus,
05:06you told me that I've incurred in the process of doing that, a one shot penalty. Enlighten me,
05:12what exactly did I get wrong here? Because it felt like I did a lot of stuff correctly.
05:16You did do a lot of stuff correctly, but I'm afraid you were in contravention 14.3b,
05:22taking an incorrect drop. Now, you ascertained your nearest point of relief.
05:27You did that correctly. Well done. Thank you.
05:30You marked that. Very good. You used the driver correctly. No club cover on it. Perfect.
05:36You measured it. Marked the spot at the end. One club length. One club length. Thereby establishing
05:42your relief area. You dropped the ball in that relief area. Correct. Unfortunately, you dropped the
05:49ball at shoulder height. And not at knee height. And not at knee height. So, knowing how particular
05:56the rules are about these things, again, it does lead me to think, why is that only a one shot
06:01penalty
06:01and not a two shot penalty? Why is that not the general penalty? Good question. I think a one shot
06:06penalty is given when the breach of the rules is deemed to gain only minor advantage. Now, in this
06:12instance, the advantage you have gained is not possibly enough. But you have actually not gone by
06:18the rules. So, it would be unfair to give you a two shot penalty for doing something that didn't give
06:23you
06:23a huge advantage. Now, you know, you could have re-dropped and incurred no penalty. If you
06:31would remember. If I hadn't have played the shot. The problem was that you played the shot. Okay.
06:35And then that is when the one shot penalty comes into play. So, it's a minor raffle and knuckles
06:41for that particular incursion of the rules. It's not the worst offence anyone's ever committed,
06:46but it's enough to get you a penalty shot. Right. We're going to take a quick break from
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08:19you
08:19can focus much more on your golf. Okay, so for this one we are talking about accidentally moving a ball
08:25that is at rest. And there's probably two scenarios that I can think where that would be most likely,
08:31probably, which would be mindlessly wandering around and you accidentally kick your ball.
08:35Or a scenario like this where you're about to hit your shot, you put the club behind the ball and
08:39you
08:39accidentally, as I've just done there, you nudge the ball. It's gone, it's rolled off its axis, it's
08:45close to the hole than it was before. Yeah. Tell me, Fergus, I can just replace that without penalty.
08:51No, I'm afraid not. But I can on the tee. You could, if you had done it on the tee,
08:55you haven't
08:55started the hole yet, you would just put the ball back on the tee. If you knocked it off, there's
08:59no
08:59penalty there. But unfortunately, you have started the hole. Rule 9.4b, ball has been moved at rest.
09:07It's a one-shot penalty and you must replace the ball where it was. If you played it from there,
09:12that would be ball played from the wrong place, which would incur a further general two-strip penalty.
09:17A two-strip penalty. So we're back to our position, back to our thing about moving the ball back.
09:21Do I need to, I don't need to mark the position, I'm putting it back to where it was.
09:24No, you just replace it by hand.
09:25Which is here. Yeah.
09:26So probably there. Does the same thing apply that we talked about earlier in the video?
09:30If I use my club just to nudge it back.
09:32Again, yes. So you'd be in danger of having one-shot penalty for moving a ball at rest
09:39and then incorrectly replacing the ball if you rolled it back. So yeah, be careful when you're
09:43doing that. Do you know, this is a rule that I, I play a lot of golf with my 10
09:48-year-old son.
09:48He often puts his club behind the ball a bit too close and he'll just nudge it. And he just,
09:53he looks at me and I say to him, I think you might have incurred a penalty shot there. He
09:57looks to me as
09:57if to say, what are you talking about dad? How is there any advantage from that?
10:01I think, and that again is what we're talking about. The advantage is, is minor. It's not,
10:06you know, that's why it's only a one-shot penalty. So as long as you put it back,
10:09it's a one-shot penalty, but it is still a penalty.
10:11Yeah. Another one that's really well worth keeping an eye out for.
10:15So for our last one-shot penalty rule, Fergus, we've gone for one of the most common rules,
10:22scenarios people might face on the golf course, and that's hitting a ball out of bounds. Now,
10:25you are going to have to use your imagination slightly. Imagine that down the right-hand side
10:29of this hole over my left shoulder is a row of white stakes, and I've just sprayed one way right,
10:35Fergus. Explain to me why we're talking about that in this video.
10:40Well, I think people would think that going out of bounds is, it is a monumentally awful thing to do,
10:46isn't it? You really feel like you've thrown shots away. And it feels like two penalty shots,
10:52doesn't it? Yeah, because you're teeing another one up. But in fact, the penalty is only one shot.
10:57Rule 18, a ball out of bounds. One penalty shot applies. And of course, how to proceed if you do
11:04hit one out of bounds is that you have to re-tee from the position that you've hit before. So
11:09it's
11:09stroke and distance. The one penalty shot is all that there is though, and then you're playing your
11:14third shot from here. So it seems extremely harsh, but in fact, it's one of the few scenarios where you
11:21only incur one penalty shot for your misdemeanor. But as you say, it feels like a two-shot penalty,
11:25and also worth pointing out, as we often say, the old provisional ball rule is worth mentioning in
11:30this scenario because if you're not 100% sure it's out... Yes, then you've got to hit a provisional
11:35ball. You've got to announce it's a provisional ball. You might well find your one down there.
11:39You might not, but if you've hit your provisional, you'll at least have something in play.
11:42Yeah. So next time you spray a ball out of bounds, think to yourself, oh, it's not so bad.
11:45It's only a one-shot penalty. So there you have it. Those are the five golf rules mistakes that
11:52will only cost you one shot. Now, one shot is still a lot. They're well worth avoiding. If you
11:57do have any questions at all about any of the content in this video, post them below. We'd love
12:01to hear your thoughts. And of course, hit the like and subscribe button as well. But that's it for now
12:05from The London Club. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
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