Rules worth repeating
HAL LENOBEL
Contributing Columnist
golf@lbknews.com
Despite the fact that I have noted these Rules previously, they are worth repeating and should help speed up play. Play the ball as it lies. (13-1) Don’t touch it unless a Rule permits. (18-2)
Play the course as you find it. Don’t improve your lie, the area of your intended swing or your line of play or a reasonable extension of that line beyond the hole by moving, bending or breaking anything fixed or growing, except in fairly taking your stance or making your swing. Don’t press anything down. (13-2) Don’t build a stance. (13-4)
If your ball is in a bunker or a water hazard, don’t touch the ground in either type of hazard or the water in the water hazard with your hand or club before the downswing. (13-4)
Strike at the ball with the clubhead. Don’t push or scrape it. (14-1) If your club strikes the ball more than once in a single stroke, count the stroke and add a penalty stroke. (14-4)
If you play a wrong ball (except in a hazard) in match play you lose the hole. In stroke play you incur a two-stroke penalty and must then correct the mistake by playing the correct ball or by proceeding under the Rules. (15-3)
Match & Stroke Play
Put an identification mark on your ball. If you can’t identify it as yours, it’s lost. (27-1)
If your ball becomes unfit for play, you may replace it, without penalty, on the holewhere it becomes unfit or between holes. (5-3)
Count your clubs. You are allowed a maximum of 14 clubs. (4-4)
Unless a Local Rule is in place, don’t use an artificial device or unusual equipment for gauging or measuring distance. (14-3)
Don’t ask for advice from anyone except your partner or your caddie. Don’t give advice to anyone except your partner. (8-1)
During a hole you may make a practice swing but not play a practice stroke. Between holes you may practice chip and putt on or near the putting green of the hole last played or the tee of the next hole but not from a hazard. (7-2)
Play without delay. (6-7)
Lifting, Dropping and Placing
Before lifting a ball that has to be replaced (e.g., when the ball is lifted on the putting green to clean it), its position must be marked. (20-1)
When dropping, stand erect, hold the ball at shoulder height and arm’s length and drop it. A dropped ball must first strike a part of the course where the Rule requires. (20-2b) If a dropped ball strikes the player, his partner, or their caddies or equipment, it must be redropped without penalty. (20-2a)
A dropped ball must be redropped if it rolls into a hazard, out of a hazard, onto a putting green, out of bounds or to a position where there is interference by the condition from which relief is taken (in case of immovable obstructions, abnormal ground conditions, embedded ball and wrong putting green). A re-drop is also necessary if the dropped ball comes to rest more than two club-lengths from where it first struck a part of the course or nearer the hole than its original position, the nearest point of relief under Rule 24-2 and 25 or where the ball last crossed the margin of a water hazard under Rule 26-1. If the ball when redropped rolls into any position listed above, place it where it first struck a part of the course when re-dropped. (20-2c)
If it is impossible to determine the spot where the ball is to be replaced, through the green, drop it. (20-3c)
Putting Green
Don’t touch the line of your putt unless a Rule permits. (16-la) You may repair ball marks and hole plugs on the line but not any other damage, such as spike marks. (16-lc) You may lift your ball from the putting green, and if desired, clean it. Always replace it on the exact spot. (16-lb)
Don’t test the surface by scraping it or rolling a ball. (16-Id)
If your ball played from the putting green, strikes the flagstick in match play you lose the hole or in stroke play you incur a two-stroke penalty. (17-3)
Always hole out unless in match play your opponent concedes your putt. (2-4, 3-2,16-2)
This concludes my pace of play guide. Adhering to the Rules will help speed play and create an aura of fairness.
