Golf Monthly rules expert Jezz Ellwood explains what you can and can't do on the tee under the rules of golf.
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00:00 Hello, I'm on the 14th tee on the international course at the London Club.
00:08 It's a 179-yard par 3 playing in that direction and we're here to talk about the teeing area.
00:14 The teeing area is one of the specifically defined parts of the golf course from which
00:18 we start every hole, obviously.
00:20 But it can be a variety of sizes because it depends how far the tee marks are set apart
00:26 as to how wide or narrow an area you get to tee off from.
00:29 Regardless of how wide it is, it always extends back two club lengths from the front most
00:34 and outer most extremities of whatever tee markers are being used on the day.
00:40 The ball has to be wholly outside the defined teeing area for you to be deemed to be playing
00:44 from outside the teeing area.
00:46 So if even just a tiny part of the ball is within that area I've specified, then you're
00:50 okay.
00:51 You can also stand outside the teeing area to play a ball that is within the teeing area.
00:56 So what are the penalties if you tee off from outside the teeing area either inadvertently
01:01 or perhaps you play from the wrong set of tees, you wander over to the yellows by mistake
01:05 when you're not concentrating?
01:07 Well the penalties are the same and in match play there actually is no penalty.
01:12 You are not penalised for playing from outside the teeing area.
01:15 However, what can happen is that your opponent may ask for the stroke to be cancelled and
01:20 for you to replay from within the teeing area.
01:23 So it will probably depend how well you've struck that first ball as to whether you get
01:26 asked to play again.
01:28 In stroke play it's a very different story.
01:30 It's a two-stroke penalty straight away and then you must take further action to remedy
01:35 the situation before you tee off on the next hole, make a stroke at the next hole or before
01:40 you return your scorecard if it's your last hole.
01:43 And you must go back and play the hole again from within the teeing area.
01:47 So the bad news is it's a two-stroke penalty.
01:50 The good news is that none of the strokes made with the ball played from outside the
01:53 teeing area count.
01:55 And if you don't rectify the mistake in that time frame specified, then I'm afraid the
02:00 penalty will escalate to disqualification.
02:02 A couple of other things to mention on the teeing area.
02:06 The first is because the ball is not in play, you're allowed to do things here that you're
02:09 not allowed to do elsewhere on the course.
02:11 So you can make a dent with your club to put the ball on if you want to.
02:16 You can tramp stand down anything.
02:18 You can remove dew, frost, water.
02:22 You can break grass if you want to tee off in a certain place and there's a tuft of grass
02:26 just behind your ball.
02:27 You can break that grass off before you tee off.
02:30 And the other thing that's worth mentioning, and I'm not sure how many people know this,
02:32 is that any time your ball is within the teeing area of the hole being played, you can re-tee
02:37 it.
02:38 Now that might seem a bit notional because that's not going to happen very often, but
02:43 it does mean that if you're playing foursomes and your partner happens to whiff it or barely
02:47 move it, you can tee the ball back up and play it from any part of the teeing area you
02:52 wish if it had remained within the teeing area.
02:55 Just a handy little one to know to perhaps limit the damage when things are already going
02:59 a little bit wrong.
03:02 (chimes)
03:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]