- 9 minutes ago
In this video Neil Tappin and Jezz Ellwood take a look at the rules of golf. They de-mystify 6 rules that can catch regular golfers out. The mistakes in this video are all easily avoidable - but you need to know what they are first. This should help you steer clear of any unwanted penalty shots.
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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
00:03six avoidable golf rules mistakes. Now these are all things that golfers tend to do on the course
00:09that can end up costing them penalty shots. Now those players aren't necessarily trying to break
00:14the rules or gain an advantage but just by not knowing each of these rules in enough detail
00:18they can end up causing themselves a real problem. Now I'm going to be joined in this video by golf
00:24monthly rules guru that's Jez Elwood and he's going to talk you through exactly what you need
00:28to know in each of these scenarios to help you out on the golf course to help you avoid
00:31making any unwanted rules mistakes. Right let's get started.
00:41Okay so Jez I've hit quite a good shot in here. This is the 12th hole at The London Club.
00:45I've
00:45carried the water. It doesn't matter that I've only carried it by a few inches. Fair enough.
00:49But I do have this little sprinkler head on my line and the lie is very tight. I'm very keen
00:54to putt
00:55this. Okay. I'd be doing everything that I could I think to try and get relief in this scenario.
01:00Tell me what I can and cannot do. Well the only way you'll get relief in that scenario there is
01:05if there's a local rule. Okay. You might think this is puttable therefore I want to putt so I
01:11should be entitled to putt but the rules don't quite see it that way. They would say yes you get
01:17relief if
01:17you're standing on it or if your ball is on it but if it's just on your line between you
01:22and the flag
01:23there is no automatic relief unless it interferes with your error of intended swing.
01:27And unless I was sort of doing some sort of weird kind of. You would have to
01:29yeah contort things a bit to try and claim that so. It's not that's not happening.
01:34Your first point of call now is the scorecard if you're desperate to putt it and if the scorecard
01:38doesn't have the local rule that allows additional relief for this scenario then you would you could
01:44putt it if you wanted to but you'd be going straight through the sprinkler head and if the local
01:48rule does exist it will typically say sprinkler head within two club lengths of the green which
01:55that is and if your ball is within two club lengths of that sprinkler head which it is and the
02:00sprinkler
02:00head is directly on your line then you would be entitled to the nearest point of relief away from
02:05that. No I have actually haven't looked at the local rules here so I don't know whether I get relief
02:08here. No. In which case I'm going to just play it because I don't want to die. Again if you've
02:12forgotten
02:12to check the local rules and none of you have access to them out on the course. Best to play
02:16it as it is. Best to
02:17assume that the local rule doesn't exist. This is going to be a test. This will be a test but
02:24well we'll see.
02:29Well it's not brilliant but it's almost a gimme. It's almost a gimme. I think I'll take that.
02:39Right so we have a situation here that can cause players some problems. So I've hit my ball
02:45down the right hand side of this hole and I've found as you can see a nasty little spot. Very
02:50nasty tuft. But we've found my ball or at least I think I've found my ball. I now need to
02:55identify it.
02:57Now the process involves marking the position of the ball doesn't it? It does and the problem,
03:02the avoidable mistake a lot of people make is not marking it position first. Right okay. And if they do
03:09that then unfortunately that attracts a penalty. This rule changed a few years ago so that you
03:14didn't have to call your your playing companions over to observe the process but you do still have
03:20to mark the ball before you lift it. Right so you don't have to be here to watch. I don't
03:23have to be
03:24here though. But I do need to mark the position. I do need to put it back exactly where it
03:27was originally.
03:27So I put my tee in into this grass which I can just about see right underneath the ball. Lift
03:32up my ball
03:34and I can see from the markings that it's mine. Yeah. But there's also a bit of mud on my
03:38ball here
03:38Jez. Can I clean that? Well you can clean that only if you need to to be able to identify
03:43the ball
03:44and looking at that probably don't. No you can clean it and see on that side. So that is another
03:48breach that will cost you a penalty if you were to clean that ball more than was necessary. Again that
03:53would be a penalty stroke and it's rule 7.3 penalty stroke for both breaches whether you fail to mark
03:59the
03:59position or whether you clean it more than is necessary to identify it. Yeah so put this one
04:04back exactly where it was right in this tuft. Yeah good luck with that. And I'll have a go at
04:11this.
04:11And it's one of those rules that is easy to get to get wrong. Just make sure you always mark
04:16the
04:16position of the ball before you identify it. Find out that it's yours then put it back exactly where it
04:21was.
04:27Okay so for this one you're going to need to use a little bit of imagination. So imagine
04:31that this the yellow penalty area stake on the ground in front of us is not that. Instead it's
04:36a white line drawn on the ground to mark out of bounds. Yeah. The question that we're looking to
04:42answer in this part Jez is when is a golf ball in bounds and when is it out of bounds.
04:46And the reason
04:47that we've put the ball in this very very specific position here is that depending on the direction
04:51of play this ball is either in bounds or out of bounds. Yes. Demystify please. Okay well let's
04:57assume first that this here the side I'm on is the coarse side edge. So I'm out of bounds and
05:04you're
05:04in bounds. That's right. Now if any of the ball is overhanging the coarse side it's in bound. So if
05:10you
05:10look closely here you can see that some of the ball is over the edge of the coarse side edge
05:15of the
05:15boundary. So although that ball is on the line it is in bounds. Yeah and I would be able to
05:20play this
05:20in that direction. You could and you could stand out of bounds to do so and that wouldn't be a
05:24problem. Oh that's good to know. If we flip it round so this is now the coarse side over here.
05:29So yeah. If you look over the top of it none of the ball is overhanging that edge. So although
05:35that
05:36ball is also on the line that would be out of bounds if we were playing that way. And oh
05:41the heart is
05:41broken in that scenario isn't it. By what half a centimeter. As much as you might be standing there
05:46looking at it trying to figure out a way to call that as in in play it's not it's out
05:51of bounds.
05:51It is and your only option then is to go back and replay under stroke and distance if you haven't
05:57already played a provisional ball which you would then have to move across and play if you had.
06:02Yeah so it's actually it's pretty clear but all the thing you need to understand is is any of the
06:07golf ball overhanging the coarse side. If it is you're inbounds. If it's not you're out.
06:21Oh. Oh that was to win the hole. Yeah that was tough but um I hope you're not just going
06:28to go
06:28ahead and tap that in. I was. Match play I'm now the ball further from the hole the order of
06:35play
06:36in match plays the player further from the hole as it is in stroke play but in stroke play ready
06:41golf
06:41allows you to do whatever you you want almost. Yes. But in match play it's a different kettle of fish
06:47if you go ahead and tap that in you've played out of turn. Yes. I could in theory ask that
06:55you
06:55replay the shot in the correct order by which time it might be a little bit
06:59harder to hole possibly. Harder to hole. Which is the reason for the rule really.
07:03A frostier relationship. Yeah well undoubtedly yes. If I make this then your little insurance policy
07:08potential is gone. As you say it's an awkward scenario that you you want to avoid so um best
07:16just to remember that in match play you have no no right to hole out if your ball is closer
07:22to the hole
07:22than your opponents. Yeah this one is on me I needed to go straight up and mark this one to
07:28avoid any kind of awkward situation between us that's the best thing to do isn't it. Yeah it's
07:32definitely the best thing to do so just remember while in ready in stroke play ready golf would
07:37perhaps encourage you to walk up and tap that in it's not quite the same in match play. Okay go
07:42on then
07:42Jez knock yours in. Okay. Or miss it.
07:52Oh no. Oh no. So I've got that to win the hole. You can have that. Thank you.
08:04Tricky shot this. Into the wind. I have to lean on this a bit to get it there. Oh. Uh
08:09-huh.
08:11Um. Ah. Okay. Right. Well. Okay. Now allow me to just stop you there before you hit that. Yeah. We
08:22have a scenario here and we get I get a lot of emails about this uh people who think that
08:28there is now no penalty for you accidentally moving your ball anywhere on the golf course and
08:33and that's not the case there are some exceptions now that weren't there before but if you move your
08:39ball like you did there when you put the club down behind it the ball moved an inch didn't it.
08:44Yep
08:44it's come off this tuft it's now in a much worse line. It is. Quite looking forward to hitting it
08:47off there.
08:48Yeah well you will get to hit it off there in a minute. Okay that's good. Because what people
08:51often fail to do a they don't realize it's still a penalty um for accidental movement but it is
08:57under rule 9.4 but you also have to now replace the ball before you play it. Right. So you've
09:03now
09:03got to try and replace it back on that that tuft that it was invitingly sitting on. It was.
09:09And then play it. So there's a penalty for causing the ball to move but if you had played it
09:13from the
09:14place it rolled to there's a worse penalty of the general penalty for playing from the wrong place.
09:19So that would be two strokes in stroke play or instant loss of hole in match play. It's an
09:24interesting one there. So I mean the general rule of thumb Jess would be if you've moved the ball
09:27anywhere on the golf course it's got to go back to where it originally was right. That's the case
09:31yes. Yeah. Yeah if you've if you've if you're deemed to have caused it to move. But if you've if
09:36it's happened on the putting green no penalty. Nope you still have to replace it. You have to replace it.
09:40But if it's happened here. Yeah. Ah. Yeah that's probably the only other issue that has changed
09:47since the rules had the big makeover in 2019 is you're no longer penalized if you cause the ball
09:52to move when you're looking for it. Okay yes. But again you have to replace it in the spot it
09:57was in
09:58estimating it to the best of your ability if you can't be 100% sure exactly where it was. And
10:03you know
10:03if you weren't stood here I think in that scenario I would probably always call over my playing part
10:07at least one playing partner to say look this has just happened. Yeah. I'm now not improving
10:12my life by moving it I'm putting it back to where it originally was. Yeah. Penalty shot. Yeah. And
10:15then get on with it. So now you've got to you know you'll know this time that it's best not
10:19to put
10:19the club down behind the ball before attempting to play. Yeah I've now made I've made a tricky shot
10:25somewhat harder because I'm in a now in a bad mood as well. So let's give it a go.
10:31Oh get down. Oh no it's gone left. This is going to end up quite a big score I'm afraid.
10:38Just short of the gorse but you're probably chipping for a bogey at best I would think.
10:54Oh get down. It's gone left. It's quite thick in the rough over there. It is at the moment isn't
11:00it.
11:01I think I'm gonna have to hit another one.
11:05Okay so I see you've teed it up a bit more but what you haven't done is something that's fairly
11:10important at this point if you're playing in a competition and that is to make it obvious that
11:15this is a provisional ball and you only want to use it if you can't find the original. Right so
11:20me just saying in that scenario I'm going to hit another one. Yeah. That's not good enough. It's not
11:24enough. No you've either got to say I'm going to hit a provisional or you've got to indicate very
11:28clearly that the ball you're hitting is one that you only want to use if you can't find the original
11:33and I think if you look into the decisions or the interpretations whatever they're called these days
11:39it says phrases like I'm going to hit another one just in case are good enough. Right okay.
11:43But if you just say I'm going to hit another one that ball would automatically become the ball in
11:47play even if you find your original ball in a perfect line. When it comes to the rules of golf
11:52clarity is everything and so I would always advise people just to say I'm going to hit a provisional.
11:57It just avoids any kind of doubt in a situation like this. Yes. And the other thing I would say
12:02is
12:02that we often get comments on our videos saying oh why are you taking this is all a bit over
12:07the top,
12:07this is all a bit much, who cares? Well that's fine if you're just playing in a friendly isn't it?
12:11You do what you like in a friendly. Whatever, I mean if you were playing in a friendly and I
12:13said
12:13I'm going to hit another one here you're not going to suddenly invoke a penalty on me.
12:17Well I might too. I'd hope you would.
12:19We wouldn't play much friendly golf together after that probably. No.
12:22But this is this is not for people who are just bunting around with their mates,
12:26this is just trying to help people who might find themselves playing in a competition.
12:30Someone calls them up on something like this and they get a bit aggrieved but it's really a matter
12:34of just knowing what you have to do. Yeah or they're playing for their handicap.
12:38Those things that's where it's important that you know rules like this and you don't end up
12:42making avoidable mistakes. So there you have it that's our look at avoidable golf rules mistakes.
12:48If you do have any questions please feel free to leave some comments below. We understand that at
12:52times the rules of golf can feel quite complicated. They're there for a reason and it really does pay
12:57to know them in as much detail as you can. And that's it for now from The London Club.
13:01Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
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