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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
00:50area.
00:51I can just whip that out and I'd have a clear swing. Is that a fair comment? It's sadly not
00:55a fair
00:55comment because this is not treated the same way as a red or yellow penalty area stake which
01:00are usually movable obstructions. So you just pull them out, play a shot, carry on. This
01:05is a boundary object under the rules and even though that particular one is easily movable.
01:12That's right, I can just completely check it out. You're not allowed to touch it because it is a
01:17boundary object. So in this particular instance, and this is what a lot of people get wrong,
01:21you would not be allowed to touch that. And if you did so and then played your shot,
01:26there would be a penalty. And what would the penalty be?
01:29The penalty would be the general penalty. So two shots because you've improved the
01:33conditions affecting the stroke. However, there's a small proviso. If you got here and
01:38pulled the stake out and someone came across and said, no, you can't do that
01:41before you played your shot, you'd be okay as long as you put the stake back exactly where it was.
01:46So that's a clear distinction because in this particular scenario, I'm able to kind of rotate
01:52the position of the post, which might help the kind of light of my swing. Yeah, I'm not even
01:57allowed to do that. And again, if you did do that, you'd have to put it back exactly where it
02:01was when
02:02you got here before playing your shot to avoid the penalty. So you have a golden rule number one,
02:07do not touch out of bounds posts, we will get a penalty. Now, Jez, another of the most broken rules
02:13in golf comes down to identifying your ball in the rough. I've hit my ball in the rough here.
02:17Yeah. It's a pretty thick lie. It looks like my golf ball, but I'll just need to check.
02:21Yeah. And what is the mistake that a lot of golfers make in this situation? Well,
02:25this is probably the one I see broken most often. They'll wander over, just bend down, pick the ball
02:31up, have a look and plonk it back down. Sometimes in the same lie, sometimes in a slightly different lie.
02:38But what they're forgetting to do is mark the position of the ball first before lifting it,
02:42which you have to do. And failure to do so will cost you a one stroke penalty under rule 7
02:48.3.
02:49You used to have to also get someone to come over and observe you doing the lifting process. You don't
02:54have to do that anymore, but you do still have to mark the position of the ball before lifting it.
02:58So even if you're just twisting it to find out if it's yours, you have to mark the position of
03:03the ball.
03:03If you're going to get your hands on the golf ball, you have to mark the position of it first.
03:06It's just a tee in the ground kind of next to it.
03:08Yeah, ideally.
03:08To do whatever you need to do so I can see that's mine.
03:11Yeah.
03:11And then it's very important to put it back in exactly the same place.
03:14Yeah.
03:15In the same place and play on safe in the knowledge it is definitely your ball.
03:20There you go. Don't make that mistake. Use the tee. Mark your ball and you won't get that shot penalty.
03:25Right, Jez, my ball has come to rest on this road. Direction of play is pretty much straight
03:30kind of that way. I know I'm entitled to a drop.
03:33You are.
03:34But there's a rule here that golfers often get wrong.
03:38Yeah, there's a phrase that golfers often get wrong. This is an immovable obstruction. You're
03:42entitled to relief. But you have to find your nearest point of complete relief. And a lot of golfers
03:50think that that entitles them to a good lie or a perfect place to drop. But the reality is sometimes
03:55it doesn't. And in this scenario, this is a great example because A, if you wanted to drop on the
04:00grass, you're not taking full relief. So that's not allowed. Because that's to be still on the road
04:04still. Yeah. And B, your nearest point of complete relief is going to be, the reference point for it,
04:09is going to be right in the middle of that hedge. And although you get a one club length arc
04:13from that,
04:14I guess you could potentially perch yourself there and play it a bit like that. It would be very
04:19difficult. Yeah, you could make sure your heels are right off the road. Right. But a lot of golfers say,
04:23well, that's not fair. Surely I should bend. Let me drop over this side where there's a better
04:27surface. But that's not what the rules, you know, you don't get relief from a hedge in the rules of
04:32golf. All 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 a reference point in the hedge
04:42and probably no way you can actually drop it. So then you're a bit stuck. I think in this particular
04:48scenario, you'd probably just play it off the road, which you're entitled to do. You can do that at any
04:52stage. The other options, you could take an unplayable drop, which would be going back online
04:57or going back to the tee and playing under stroke and distance or trying to get it to club lengths
05:01over there, which I don't think is going to quite be enough even in this scenario. So
05:06in this particular case, you've either got to perch very precariously on a little bit of the grass
05:10there and play it with the ball like that close to your feet, or you've got to play it as
05:14it lies and
05:14risk damaging your club a little bit. Yeah. So then the key takeaway here is in golf,
05:18it'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 I hit another one. You haven't said, I'm hitting a provisional ball, and that would mean
05:50that that ball would become the ball in play. So even if you found the first one in a reasonable
05:56spot, you wouldn't then be able to play it. Right. Now you don't actually have to say specifically the
06:01word 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 some
06:09doubt 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
06:23was 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 well 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 out by the rules of golf.
06:49Right, Jez, I've hit a pretty good tee shirt here, but unfortunately it's just crept into the rough
06:52and I've drawn a horrific lie. There's a big tuft of grass behind my ball. And I think in this
06:56particular scenario, a lot of golfers might obviously feel a bit undone by and try and gain
07:02better access to the back of the ball by a few different means that possibly are frowned upon in the
07:07rules of golfing. Put their foot behind the ball, use their club, whatever it might be.
07:11Use their club a bit too vigorously to just get that access to the ball a little bit more.
07:15So what do the rules of golf say in this situation?
07:17Yeah, the 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
07:29.1b tells you what you can do.
07:31But if you came in here and while no one was looking just sort of trampled that down and suddenly
07:37you
07:37can get three more clubs to it, that would be considered improving the conditions affecting
07:41your 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.
07:52Part of the game of golf is playing as it lies.
07:54And there are quite a few scenarios in other areas that this might apply?
07:58You might be in the thick rough and you do a bit of excess swishing of the long grass so
08:02the club doesn't get snagged up so much coming down. You might be under a tree and there's one
08:07particular branch that just needs to be snapped away to let you have access to the ball. You can't
08:12do any of that. You've just got to accept what's happened and try and make the best of a bad
08:18situation.
08:20So that concludes our look at the five rules golfers often break. I do hope you found it useful.
08:25If there are any other rules that you sometimes fall foul of, do let us know down in the comments
08:29if we've missed any. And if you like this video, click the like button and subscribe to the Golf
08:32Month YouTube channel so you don't miss any of our other rules videos. But that's all from me here,
08:37a good book golf club. I'll see you next time.
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