5 Rules Penalties Every Golfer Needs to Avoid
Neil Tappin is joined by rules guru Jeremy Ellwood to look at some of the simple rules related mistakes golfers are making. They offer 5 rules penalties every golfer needs to avoid covering what happens in some crucial scenarios on the course.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the London Club.
00:01 In this video, looking at the five rules penalties
00:05 that every golfer really needs to avoid.
00:07 And these are all things that are careless mistakes
00:10 that golfers might make.
00:11 And I think if you play the game for long enough,
00:13 over enough years, you'll probably end up making
00:15 a few of these mistakes at some point,
00:17 and they can cost you penalty shots.
00:19 But hopefully, after watching this video,
00:21 you'll be able to avoid them.
00:22 Right, let's head out now onto the heritage course
00:25 here at the London Club,
00:26 look at our first golf rules mistake.
00:29 (upbeat music)
00:31 Okay, so the first one on our list relates to equipment,
00:36 and in particular, these things, your laser range finders.
00:38 Now, I've already zapped the flag here,
00:41 and I found out that it's 199 yards.
00:43 We're on the 17th hole of the heritage course
00:44 at the London Club.
00:45 It's 199, but it's downhill.
00:47 And this tells me it's playing 192.
00:50 Very handy in practice.
00:51 - Yes. - But.
00:53 - But if you're at this stage of a round in a competition,
00:56 and you'd had that slope function on for the whole round,
00:58 I'm afraid you would be disqualified.
01:00 - Oh no, I'm out. - Yeah.
01:01 Rule 4.3a gives you one strike and you're out, almost.
01:05 The first offense, first breach,
01:06 whatever you want to call it,
01:07 of leaving the slope function on is a two-shot penalty
01:11 or a loss of hole in match play.
01:12 But if you then zap another yardage on the next hole,
01:16 that second offense and any ones beyond that
01:19 mean you are no longer-- - You're a goner.
01:20 - You are no longer playing in this competition.
01:22 - Oh, no.
01:23 And so you've got to be careful,
01:24 because on the side of the range finders
01:26 is often a little switch that you can toggle on and off.
01:29 Here it says slope addition when it's in slope.
01:31 I'd need to just push that down,
01:33 now I'm out of slope, and I can use this in competition.
01:36 It's the sort of thing that you can't accidentally leave on.
01:39 - You can, and if you realize too late,
01:41 then it is, as you say, bad news.
01:43 - Yes, beware.
01:44 Okay, so this one, Jez, is really carelessness, isn't it?
01:53 - Carelessness, lack of patience,
01:55 lack of ability to control the putter,
01:57 I suppose, really, as well.
01:58 - Which is one of my problems.
01:59 Talk me through what's going on here.
02:00 - Well, we're talking about a scenario on the putting green.
02:02 Both balls are on the putting green in stroke play.
02:05 You putt and you hit another ball at rest
02:07 because someone's raking a bunker
02:09 and faffing around somewhere and you think--
02:10 - Right, you haven't asked them to mark it.
02:12 - You haven't asked them to mark it.
02:13 You're pretty sure you're not going to hit it.
02:15 And then the thing goes off in your hands and you do hit it.
02:17 - Yeah, so it's just an avoidable mistake,
02:19 but it can cost you, can't it?
02:20 - Cost you, it costs you two shots in stroke play.
02:23 You have to then replace the ball that was struck
02:25 where it was, your ball stays where it is.
02:28 So I guess that may help you, perhaps, in a way,
02:31 in that it would have stopped it
02:32 going further past the hole, but you've cost yourself.
02:35 - And in match play?
02:35 - In match play, no penalty.
02:37 Again, the ball is replaced and everyone just carries on
02:40 with their business as if nothing happened.
02:42 - A lot of these, just be wary of what could
02:44 potentially happen in a situation like this.
02:46 If there is another ball somewhere near the hole,
02:48 then ask that player to mark it.
02:49 - Definitely, because it's a needless shot
02:52 given away just like that.
02:54 - Okay, so for this one, I'm going to talk you through
02:59 the following scenario, which I think
03:01 is probably fairly common, actually.
03:02 - Definitely, yeah.
03:03 - This is just to the right of the 17th green,
03:05 quite heavy rough around here.
03:07 Let's imagine I've blazed my tee shot out to the right
03:09 and I'm in here somewhere, and I come down
03:12 and I see a golf ball in the rough.
03:14 I can see it's a tight list, fantastic, mine's a tight list.
03:17 Brilliant, it's exactly where I think it is,
03:19 so I'm going to play it.
03:20 What am I in danger of doing here, Jez?
03:21 - Well, I think people do this quite a lot, don't they?
03:23 You're in danger of playing a wrong ball.
03:25 I think maybe people are so relieved they've found a ball
03:28 where they think theirs was going to be
03:29 that they don't perhaps follow the checking procedures
03:32 carefully enough before then playing it.
03:34 - Okay, so that begs the question then,
03:36 what is the checking procedure?
03:37 So, I come down, instead of just going off to my golf bag
03:41 to grab a club, I'm going to actually have a look at this,
03:43 but how do I do it?
03:43 - Okay, so you can't see that it's yours
03:45 from where it's lying, you can't see the marking,
03:47 so you're allowed to lift it to identify it,
03:50 but you must mark the position of the ball first.
03:52 - With T-peg?
03:52 - T-peg, ideal, lift it up, check it's yours.
03:56 You can't clean it other than the extent necessary
03:59 to be able to identify it as yours.
04:01 There's nothing on that one anyway.
04:02 - Pop it back. - Pop it back down,
04:03 and then play on if it is indeed yours,
04:05 but if it isn't yours, that's when we run into trouble,
04:08 so if you haven't gone through that checking procedure,
04:10 just go on ahead and play it.
04:11 - Yeah, and so, quickly, Jez,
04:12 what's the penalty for playing a wrong ball?
04:14 - Okay, well, the penalty is the general penalty,
04:16 so in match play it would be loss of hole.
04:18 In stroke play it would be two shots,
04:20 so it's quite severe, but you also have to then
04:22 correct the error in a timely fashion in stroke play,
04:25 and that means before you hit your tee shot on the next hole
04:28 or if it's the last hole,
04:30 before you return your scorecard.
04:31 - Okay.
04:32 - And if you don't correct your error in time,
04:34 I'm afraid it's the old DQ.
04:36 - Oh dear, so, I mean, beware.
04:38 In scenarios like this, it is possible
04:42 that you could play a wrong ball,
04:43 and it would be incredibly frustrating
04:45 to get peen lights for that, so watch out.
04:47 (upbeat music)
04:50 - Okay, so, we've manufactured a situation here,
04:53 so you're going to have to go with us a bit on this,
04:55 but it's not uncommon, and it's well worth knowing.
04:57 So my golf ball is on the edge of the collar
05:00 and the fairway, there's a loose impediment,
05:02 a twig, next to it.
05:04 So I'm going to move that twig.
05:05 - Yes.
05:06 - Because I know that I can, under the rules,
05:07 I can move loose impediments.
05:08 - You can, but in this case it was perhaps
05:12 an unwise thing to do,
05:13 because your ball has now moved.
05:15 - It's moved an inch.
05:16 - It has, now I think a lot of people now,
05:19 for various reasons, think there's no penalty
05:21 for accidental movement of your ball
05:23 in the general area of the golf course,
05:24 which is where we are, fairway, rough, fringe, whatever,
05:27 but there is still a penalty if you cause your ball to move,
05:30 and in that scenario there,
05:31 it was clearly your movement of the twig
05:34 that made the ball move,
05:35 therefore you are penalised one stroke,
05:38 and you must put the ball back where it was.
05:40 - Why the confusion, do you think?
05:41 - Well, I think because you're no longer penalised
05:43 for accidental movement of the ball on the putting green,
05:46 you're no longer penalised for accidental movement
05:48 of the ball when you're searching for it,
05:51 I think people have maybe read too much into that
05:53 and think that you can actually just
05:55 accidentally move your ball anywhere and it's fine,
05:57 just replace it, carry on.
05:59 Well, you do replace it and carry on,
06:00 but there is a one stroke penalty accompanying it.
06:02 - Yes, so be careful, again, like all of these,
06:04 just be careful of what you're doing,
06:06 make sure that that loose impediment
06:08 that you're about to move is not gonna cause
06:09 the ball to move, then you should be fine.
06:11 (upbeat music)
06:15 - So this one is all about something you have to do
06:18 on your scorecard after your round.
06:20 Jez, what are we talking about here?
06:22 - Well, I mean, the critical thing we were looking at here
06:24 is that you must sign the scorecard to attest
06:28 the score that you've just compiled.
06:29 I guess sometimes you come off the course,
06:31 you're a bit flustered, you've made a mess of the last,
06:34 someone distracts you when you're on the ice--
06:35 - Yeah, it's hot, you wanna drink.
06:37 - Your mind's not quite there,
06:38 and suddenly the card's in the box
06:40 without your signature on it,
06:42 and then you could have played your heart out for four hours
06:44 and it will all be to no avail
06:46 because you will be disqualified.
06:48 - Yeah, and it's interesting,
06:48 'cause I think the more we head down this route
06:50 of a lot of us using apps for scoring,
06:54 maybe people get out of the kind of mindset
06:56 of filling out an old-fashioned scorecard, as it were,
06:59 but there are gonna be tournaments when you need to do it,
07:01 and if you do do it,
07:02 then you need to put your signature on it.
07:03 - You do.
07:04 - And the other thing, Jez, is with the individual scores,
07:07 like the main thing, what else do you need to do?
07:08 - Well, I mean, you've also gotta make sure
07:10 your marker's signed and that your handicap is correct,
07:13 so you're signing to say you played off the correct handicap
07:15 and then beyond that, the gross scores,
07:17 you've gotta make sure they're correct
07:19 for each individual hole.
07:20 You don't have to do any of the maths.
07:22 That's not your responsibility,
07:24 and the one to be really wary of here
07:26 is you signing for a score on an individual hole
07:29 that is lower than that which you actually achieved.
07:32 - Because if you do that--
07:33 - If you do that, again, I'm afraid it's four fruitless hours
07:36 and the big DQ against your name.
07:38 - Yeah, so as with a lot of these,
07:40 just make sure you take that care and attention.
07:43 Your scorecard is a very valuable thing.
07:45 If you get it wrong, it could be really costly.
07:47 - So there you have it.
07:48 That's a look at our five rules penalties
07:50 golfers really need to avoid.
07:52 If you think there's anything probably more important,
07:54 actually, in there that people miss out
07:56 and the sort of careless mistakes, rules-related,
07:59 that they might make on the golf course,
08:00 leave some comments below.
08:02 If you've liked the video,
08:02 please do hit the Like button as well.
08:04 But that's it for now from the London Club.
08:06 We'll see you next time.
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