- 9 hours ago
In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Golf Monthly Rules Guru Jezz Ellwood to discuss why the rules of golf are so complicated. Because golf takes place in a natural landscape, there is a possibility for a number of different situations to occur during your round and if you find yourself in one, the rules are there to help you continue with your round in the most appropriate way. For many, this means the rules book is complex and hard to understand - hopefully this video will explain why the rules of golf are (and have to be) the way they are.
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00:03Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to The London Club and this video in
00:08which we're going to answer the question about why the rules of golf seem to be so complicated.
00:13Now we produce a lot of rules videos and we get a lot of comments from people saying that when
00:18they're starting out playing golf the rules of golf just seem very complicated and hard to
00:22understand so we're going to look at why they are the way they are. Now before we start please do
00:27leave some comments below. What do you think of the rules of golf? Have you just started playing
00:31golf? Have you found them easy enough to understand to be able to get up and running with the game?
00:36We'd be really interested to hear your thoughts but let's head out now onto the golf course here
00:40at The London Club and look at why the rules of golf seem to be so complicated. Okay so Jez,
00:45I think the first thing to say is that the ruling bodies the RNA and the USGA are not trying
00:50to make
00:51the rules of golf any more complicated than they need to be. The issue that they face is what Jez?
00:57Well the issue they face is that golf is played on a large arena you know 100 acres maybe a
01:04golf course
01:05wildly different terrain and landscape, trees, water, bushes, thick rough, short grass, all sorts
01:12of things you might come into contact with out on the golf course. So you're playing on this vast arena
01:18whereas as an example a sport like tennis is played on a court that is certain dimensions wherever and
01:25you know you hit the ball and it's either in or out. I know there's a lot more to tennis
01:29than that
01:29but in essence you know tennis is a lot more simple to govern. Yes and so within that wide open
01:37landscape where many different scenarios can pop up you want to create an even playing field for
01:43everybody in the field. So if you find yourself in a situation like this I guess this is a good
01:48starting point yeah you're on a tee yeah and let's say you've just carved one out to the right hand
01:53side yes and you know it's thick rough out there you may have lost your ball you might not have
01:58lost
01:58your ball yeah what happens? Well this is the problem you see because every time you say golf should just
02:04be a very simple hit it find it hit it again something like that happens you hit it you don't
02:11find
02:11it now what do you do how do you how do you proceed with your round or you do find
02:16it but it's physically
02:17unplayable how do you carry on with your round? The rules have to present ways in which you can carry
02:23on to complete your round rather than your round just stopping because you've lost your ball. Yeah and
02:27the other thing I would add here is that there's a big difference between playing friendly golf and
02:32playing competition yes like Jess and I you and I play quite a lot of friendly golf together and there
02:37are
02:37situations on the golf course there are situations on the golf course where it's like if it's a bit
02:43faster to do it in a certain way or it's you're not really gaining any sort of advantage we'll just
02:47proceed under a slightly different version of the rules as it were but if you're playing for your
02:53handicap if you're playing in a competition you you can't just think about yourself you have to think
02:57about the whole field and it being fair for everybody don't you? You do and I think I guess the
03:01most
03:01common one people in friendlies will play is if they've lost one and nobody wants to walk 250 yards
03:07back you'll just drop another one down yeah yeah but that is not a rule of golf so you can't
03:13do that
03:13when you're playing in a competition where everybody is expected to be playing by the same set of rules
03:19so we don't you know we get all sorts of comments about well we don't do that in a friendly
03:24really we're not too worried about what people do in friendlies because that's up to you isn't it
03:29that's up to you it's when you're playing against a hundred other people in the club medal and some
03:34people are playing by one rule and other people are playing by a different rule that's when it
03:37really doesn't work and that's when this book has to have a huge number of what-if scenarios to cover
03:42all the eventualities that might happen out on a golf course yeah and the last thing to say here
03:47i think is that that rule book that jezz is holding yeah they've actually worked incredibly hard haven't
03:52they yeah to try and make it as small easy to understand as they possibly can for people i think
03:57yeah i think
03:57there's a there's a perception that the the rule makers like it to be complicated but they don't and in
04:02the
04:02revisions for 2019 one of the primary objectives was to simplify the rules as much as possible
04:10while still governing all the various eventualities that might take place out in the course so this
04:14player's edition is 50 pages shorter than the previous rule book which is here and the number of
04:21rules has come down from 33 to 24. so there is a concerted effort on the part of the rule
04:27makers to
04:29streamline things as much as it's practical to do so yes and there are certain rules related scenarios
04:34that pop up much more often than other rules related scenarios and the book has to cover
04:38just about everything to make sure that whatever happens on the golf course there's something in
04:42there that tells you how to proceed and how not to proceed so that it's fair for everybody okay jess
04:48let's take a slightly closer look at one of those situations we mentioned earlier where the rules
04:52have to cover quite a few different things so behind us here we're just off the playing line on the
04:5717th
04:58here at the london club we've got some really big bushy area imagine i've carved my tee shot in here
05:03now the rules need to help me out yes to ensure that i can carry on with my round of
05:09golf don't
05:09they they do as we said you know can you find it okay you can find it but it's not
05:14playable what do you
05:16do what if you can't find it what do you do yeah so if i can find it and the
05:21the only rule available
05:22to me was to take a two club lengths and drop away from it well that might not in this
05:27scenario that
05:27wouldn't take me clear of the bushes i'd still be as you said i'd still be completely snookered so i
05:32need more options you would be and you know if you can't physically retrieve the original ball
05:36what do you do then there has to be some option to to allow you to carry on if it
05:41would tear you close
05:42to shreds to get to the ball yes so all of these things have to be covered in the rule
05:45this is just
05:46one scenario that might happen fairly typically out on a golf course so we have the unplayable ball
05:52options that give you three options in that scenario and you don't have to retrieve the original ball
05:57you can drop within two club lengths you can go back online or you can go back to where you
06:01last
06:02played from exactly and also the ruling bodies also need to try and keep play moving as much as possible
06:07prevent slow play so they also give you the option from the the previous shot to play a provisional
06:12ball so if you think that ball might be lost you get the chance to play a provisional ball
06:17to help speed play up in this sort of scenario so all that's got to be covered in the rules
06:21you know
06:22the ball is lost then what do you do well the rules say that you have to go back and
06:26play from
06:27where you last played from but they also say that to mitigate that being the potential outcome
06:33you can play a provisional ball at that point when you think it might be lost rather than having
06:38to walk a long way back but then what are the rules governing that provisional ball when can you
06:41hit it up until when are you no longer allowed to play it all of that has to be covered
06:46and you could
06:46just say i'll just do what you like and play play another one here there but if you're playing in
06:51a
06:51competition and you're playing by that set of rules and someone else is playing by a different code then
06:56you're not playing a level playing field it's not fair so hopefully that just explains how just one
07:02very common very common scenario on the golf course needs to be covered by quite a few words in the
07:08rule book by quite a few paragraphs that explain what you need to do in various different scenarios
07:14okay so there you have it that's just a few really simple but quite typical scenarios of explaining why
07:19the rules of golf seem to be so complex and it's because ultimately jen if you look behind us in
07:24this
07:24shot you'll see all the different things the rules of golf need to cover yes this is a you know
07:30quite a high point on the london club it's a vast acreage here you can see bushes you can
07:34see carp paths you can see water you can see buildings you can see bunkers you can see areas
07:39of rough the rules have to allow you to proceed with your round of golf wherever you find yourself
07:45in amongst all that wherever your ball is lying you have to have a way to allow you to continue
07:51with
07:51your round and that means that ultimately you're never going to be able to write them all on the back
07:55of a scorecard they have to be more complex they have to cover more things in order to make the
08:01game as fair as possible and as we said at the start jes if you there's a difference between playing
08:05friendlies and playing in competitions but if you are playing in competitions then having a basic
08:10understanding for this stuff is a really good idea isn't it it is and you know play as it lies
08:15you
08:15might play a round of golf where you don't need to look at the rule book at all every now
08:18and again it
08:19happens you you just play it as it lies the whole way around but the rule book has to cover
08:23all the times when
08:24you just simply can't play it as it lies yes how many penalty shots is it where do you drop
08:29it why
08:29do you drop it there how far back can you all these things have to be covered because you can't
08:34always
08:34play the ball as it lies there you have it please do leave some comments below what do you think
08:38about
08:38the rules of golf we'd be interested to hear your thoughts and if you haven't done already please do
08:42hit the subscribe button to make sure that you don't miss any of our videos but that's it for now
08:46thanks for watching we'll see you next time
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