- 2 hours ago
Deputy editor Joel Tadman is joined by resident rules expert Fergus Bisset to run through the six most broken rules in golf. We think we've uncovered the rules that golfers most often misunderstand or interpret correctly and we've got the clarification needed to ensure you don't make the same golf rules mistakes.
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00:00Now, do you know your red stakes from your white stakes?
00:02Your free drops from your penalty drops?
00:04I think even the most honest of golfers
00:06have fallen foul of the rules of golf from time to time.
00:08So in this video, I'm joined by rules expert,
00:11Fergus Bissett here at the incredible Elsa course
00:13at Trump Turnberry, where we're going to cover off
00:15some of the most broken rules in golf.
00:17And make sure you watch number four,
00:19because I think it's one that most golfers
00:20in their lifetime have broken at some point.
00:23Right, let's get on with the video.
00:25Right, so Fergus, my ball, as you can see,
00:27has come to rest just off the green here.
00:29Someone in the group in front, I saw them hit a bunker shot,
00:32hit a load of sand into this area here.
00:34And if you look at the definition of the green,
00:37you can see here that some of the sand is off the green,
00:39some of the sand is on the green.
00:42Because I'm so close to the green, I'm on the fringe,
00:44I want to putt it towards the hole,
00:45which is in this direction.
00:47Presumably, I'm allowed to just brush all the sand away,
00:50off the green, and I can be on my way.
00:53You have to be very careful here.
00:55Two different rules apply.
00:568.1a says that you cannot smooth down,
01:00or remove sand or soil anywhere on the golf course,
01:03other than on the putting green, or on a teeing area.
01:07The fringe is not the putting green.
01:09You're not allowed to remove the sand and soil from there.
01:1213.1c, however, says that you are allowed to smooth,
01:16or remove sand or soil from the putting green.
01:19You could do that with a towel, with your hand, with a club,
01:22but not the fringe, so in this instance, yes,
01:26you may remove the sand that's on the putting green.
01:28So I can brush this away, because that's on the green.
01:31Be very careful that you don't get to across the edge there,
01:33because off the fringe, if you were to touch that,
01:35remove that in any way, then you would incur
01:38the two-shot general penalty.
01:40So you've done that correctly now, you can't remove any more,
01:44so if you want to have a putt at it, you now can.
01:46Yeah, since you say that, because obviously,
01:47before I make a go at this putt, you said sand or soil,
01:50but things like worm casts, which obviously are made of soil,
01:55that would be off the green, I'm allowed to remove those?
01:57You are, they're classed as a loose impediment,
01:59and a loose impediment can be moved anywhere
02:01on the golf course.
02:02But just general soil?
02:03General loose soil, no, but a worm cast,
02:06it's something that's been created by an insect or a worm
02:08in this instance, and you can move that on the rule 15.1.
02:11That's an important distinction there, so.
02:13Yeah, I'm not going to chip this, I'm going to have a go at it,
02:15even though there's sand clearly in my way.
02:19Let's see how we get on.
02:23Pretty good, it didn't affect it too much.
02:26So there you go.
02:27I think that's a rule that a lot of golfers fall foul of.
02:29If you've got sand off the green and on the green,
02:32you can only remove it on the green,
02:34and if you do it off the green,
02:35it'll cost you a couple of penalty shots.
02:40Yes.
02:41Well done.
02:41Birdie.
02:45We've got a problem here, Fergus.
02:47Uh-huh.
02:47I've just holed out for birdie,
02:49and this is not my golf ball.
02:51Who do you?
02:51I started the hole with.
02:52It's the same make and model, honest mistake,
02:55but the markings are slightly different.
02:57Okay.
02:58What do I do here?
03:00When did you play the wrong ball, do you think?
03:03Well, I think off the tee, I hit it into the rough.
03:05It was a deep, deep lie.
03:06I sort of hacked it out, didn't really check it properly.
03:09So off the tee, my second shot, it was possibly around there.
03:12Okay, well, rule 6.3.
03:14You need to correct this mistake.
03:16A lot of people might make the mistake of thinking,
03:19okay, I've incurred the general two-shot penalty.
03:21Add it to their score, move on to the next hole.
03:24If you do that without correcting it,
03:25you could be disqualified if you tee off the next hole.
03:27You've got to correct the mistake before you tee off on the next.
03:30So, you're going to have to go back to where you played your second from.
03:34Hopefully, you'll find your ball.
03:35You've got three minutes to find it.
03:37Okay.
03:38If so, you play it from there with a two-shot penalty.
03:41If you can't find it, you're going to have to go back to the tee
03:44where you'll be playing five.
03:46So, good luck.
03:47Go back and see if you can find your ball for the second shot.
03:49I've gone from sort of elation for a birdie to disaster.
03:53To possible disaster.
03:54Potentially making double digits on a par five.
03:56But as long as you correct the mistake, you avoid the ultimate disaster,
03:59which might be teeing off the next and facing disqualification.
04:02Exactly.
04:02Yeah.
04:02So, if you've got a good round going and you make the mistake of playing the wrong ball,
04:06correct the mistake before you tee off on the next hole,
04:08then you won't get disqualified.
04:12Hey, Joel.
04:13What are you up to?
04:14Oh, I've just subscribed to the Golf Month YouTube channel.
04:16It's great.
04:17They've got tips, what's in the bag videos, equipment videos, rules videos,
04:21everything you'd ever need.
04:22Oh, man.
04:24I'm subscribing to that.
04:25Great.
04:26Have you?
04:34That's a pretty good shot there, Fergus.
04:37I'm about to play this hole as well and I really want to know what club you hit there.
04:41Am I allowed to ask you?
04:43You are not.
04:44Rule 10.2a, which deals with advice, says that you are not allowed to either give or receive
04:51advice from another player in the competition.
04:53Our advice is a comment or an action that will influence a player in club selection and how
04:59they play a stroke and how they play a hole or how they play the entire round.
05:03In this instance, I'm not even allowed to show you.
05:06Right.
05:06I'm not allowed to give you advice.
05:08You're not allowed to ask for advice.
05:09You could have a quick look in my bag, see what club I've hit, as long as you don't root
05:14around in my bag, but you're not allowed to ask me, I'm afraid, Joel.
05:17Yeah, I mean, I think that's a pretty common scenario, isn't it?
05:19People wanting to know, just a throwaway comment, oh, what did you hit there?
05:22But if you do that, you are contravening the rules of God.
05:25You are and you will get the general two-shot penalty if you do so.
05:28Okay, so there you go.
05:29You mustn't ask a playing partner what club they hit.
05:32It counts as advice and it's going to cost you a couple of shots.
05:43I've just turned that over.
05:44It's pretty tight to the ocean there, Fergus, and all the rocks and stuff.
05:49I think I only hit provisional.
05:52You can't do that, I'm afraid.
05:54Right.
05:55It's a penalty area.
05:55I can see the red stakes there, so you think it's possibly gone into a penalty area.
06:01You can only play a provisional ball if you think your ball is either
06:04gone out of bounds or is lost somewhere on the golf course.
06:08If you've gone into a penalty area, you have to proceed under rule 17.
06:12And there are options that you have there, one of which would be to play again from the tee.
06:16But if you do so, that's not going to be a provisional ball.
06:19That will now be the ball that's in play.
06:21And if you got down there, having played another ball off this tee,
06:25and found that your original ball was in play, it would be out of the game
06:29and you would be playing the second ball that you hit.
06:31Even if I declare it as a provisional.
06:33Yeah, you can't.
06:35I can't declare it as a provisional.
06:37That's the point.
06:38And obviously, even if it's in the penalty area and I can't find it,
06:41that doesn't matter because it's a penalty area.
06:44That's okay.
06:45And then if you hadn't played one, you would have the option to come back and play again.
06:49If you could see where it had gone over the line down there,
06:52you might be able to take a lateral two club length drop.
06:56However, if you just played another ball immediately from here,
06:59that will be the ball that's in play.
07:00So there you go.
07:01You can't hit a provisional ball if your ball goes into a penalty area.
07:05You can only do it if it's lost in the general area of the course
07:07or out of bounds.
07:08Be careful of that one because it could cost you a couple of shots.
07:12I've hit my ball into a spot of bother here.
07:15I'm pretty sure it's my ball.
07:16I'm just going to check because it's very deep.
07:17I can't quite see.
07:19I know I'm allowed to lift the ball up to check it.
07:21Oh, okay.
07:24It is my ball.
07:25Yeah, okay.
07:25You made a bit of a mistake though.
07:27Oh no, what have I done?
07:28You didn't mark.
07:29You need to mark the spot before you lift it.
07:31Even if it is your ball, even if you put it back in the correct place,
07:35you haven't marked it, so you're going to incur a one-shot penalty.
07:39Sorry.
07:39Even though I put it back exactly where it was.
07:41There are a few things that you need to be very careful of when you're doing this.
07:45First things first is you have to be unsure whether it's your ball.
07:49A lot of mistakes can be made, but if you can see it's your ball and you pick it up,
07:53no matter how well you do it, it's going to be a one-shot penalty.
07:56Right.
07:57If you don't mark it as you have just done, it's a one-shot penalty.
08:01You're allowed to, when you've lifted it, you're allowed to clean it enough to be able to identify
08:06it. If you clean it any more than that, that's a one-shot penalty.
08:09Okay.
08:09When you put it back, you've also got to be very careful because if you don't put it back in
08:13exactly the same place, you're going to be playing the ball from a wrong position. 14.7 is going to
08:19come into play and you're going to get the general penalty of two shots, not one shot.
08:23Right. So there you have it. That's a really important rule that one,
08:25Fergus. Definitely one that I think a lot of golfers break, probably accidentally in most cases. If you
08:30are looking to identify your ball and you can't quite see it's yours, make sure you mark the position of
08:34it with the T, that's going to get you out of all sorts of trouble.
08:42I'll just tap it in.
08:44Sure. No worries, Ferg. Take your time.
08:47Ah. I've just realised something, Fergus. We've just talked about giving advice on the T.
08:53I've just told you to take your time. Does that count as advice?
08:57I would say it's close to, but I don't think it is. I think that's the same take your time
09:02in that instance as a throwaway comment in the spirit of the game. You weren't intending
09:05to influence my stroke there. It was a purely sporting comment. I think if you had elaborated
09:13at all and you'd said something like, Fergus, take your time on that because last time you
09:17rushed your putt and you don't want to miss that short one again, that probably would constitute
09:23advice and you'd be in line to get the general penalty of two shots. But I think in that instance,
09:28yeah, a throwaway comment. And you've had that clarified by the RNA?
09:32Yeah, I spoke to the RNA about that one. We got a reader's question in about that. And if it's
09:37purely a throwaway comment like that, it's not advice. It's not constituted advice. But yeah,
09:44if you sort of gave any more, your stroke was a bit quick or you decelerated on that,
09:49so take your time, that's advice. There you go. So be careful when you're making sort of throwaway
09:53comments. Just taking your time is fine, but anything more than that could constitute advice
09:57and you'd get two shots added to your score. So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this video
10:01and you've learned something about the rules of golf. And if you find yourself in any of those
10:05situations, you'll know exactly how to proceed and then hopefully not incur any unnecessary penalty
10:10shots. That's all from me. I'm Fergus here at the wonderful Elsa course at Trump Turnberry.
10:15We'll see you next time.
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