Why the Rules of Golf Are So Complicated
In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Golf Monthly Rules Guru Jezz Ellwood to discuss why the rules of golf are so complicated. Because golf takes place in a natural landscape, there is a possibility for a number of different situations to occur during your round and if you find yourself in one, the rules are there to help you continue with your round in the most appropriate way. For many, this means the rules book is complex and hard to understand - hopefully this video will explain why the rules of golf are (and have to be) the way they are.
Transcript
00:00 (golf club whacks)
00:02 - Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly,
00:06 and welcome to the London Club,
00:07 and this video in which we're going to answer the question
00:09 about why the rules of golf seem to be so complicated.
00:13 Now we produce a lot of rules videos,
00:15 and we get a lot of comments from people saying
00:17 that when they're starting out playing golf,
00:20 the rules of golf just seem very complicated
00:22 and hard to understand.
00:23 So we're gonna look at why they are the way they are.
00:25 Now before we start, please do leave some comments below.
00:28 What do you think of the rules of golf?
00:30 Have you just started playing golf?
00:31 Have you found them easy enough to understand
00:34 to be able to get up and running with the game?
00:36 We'd be really interested to hear your thoughts.
00:39 But let's head out now onto the golf course
00:40 here at the London Club,
00:41 and look at why the rules of golf
00:42 seem to be so complicated.
00:44 Okay, so Jez, I think the first thing to say
00:46 is that the ruling bodies, the RNA and the USGA,
00:49 are not trying to make the rules of golf
00:52 any more complicated than they need to be.
00:54 The issue that they face is what, Jez?
00:57 - Well, the issue they face is that golf is played
01:00 on a large arena, you know, 100 acres, maybe, a golf course.
01:05 Wildly different terrain and landscape, trees, water,
01:09 bushes, thick rough, short grass,
01:12 all sorts of things you might come into contact with
01:15 out on the golf course.
01:16 So you're playing on this vast arena,
01:18 whereas, as an example, a sport like tennis
01:21 is played on a court that is certain dimensions wherever,
01:24 and, you know, you hit the ball,
01:26 and it's either in or out.
01:27 I know there's a lot more to tennis than that,
01:29 but in essence, you know,
01:31 tennis is a lot more simple to govern.
01:34 - Yes, and so within that wide open landscape
01:38 where many different scenarios can pop up,
01:40 you want to create an even playing field
01:42 for everybody in the field.
01:44 So if you find yourself in a situation like this,
01:47 I guess this is a good starting point.
01:49 You're on a tee, and let's say you've just carved one out
01:52 to the right-hand side,
01:54 and you know it's thick rough out there,
01:56 you may have lost your ball,
01:57 you might not have lost your ball.
01:58 - Yeah.
01:59 - What happens?
02:00 - Well, this is the problem, you see,
02:02 'cause every time you say golf should just be
02:04 a very simple hit it, find it, hit it again,
02:08 something like that happens.
02:09 You hit it, you don't find it.
02:11 Now what do you do?
02:12 How do you proceed with your round?
02:15 Or you do find it, but it's physically unplayable.
02:18 How do you carry on with your round?
02:19 The rules have to present ways
02:22 in which you can carry on to complete your round
02:24 rather than your round just stopping,
02:25 because you've lost your ball.
02:27 - Yeah, and the other thing I would add here
02:29 is that there's a big difference
02:31 between playing friendly golf and playing competition golf.
02:33 Like, Jez and I, you and I play
02:35 quite a lot of friendly golf together,
02:36 and there are situations--
02:37 - Not that friendly, to be honest.
02:38 - There are situations on the golf course
02:40 where it's like, if it's a bit faster
02:43 to do it in a certain way,
02:44 or you're not really gaining any sort of advantage,
02:47 we'll just proceed under a slightly different version
02:50 of the rules, as it were.
02:52 But if you're playing for your handicap,
02:53 if you're playing in a competition,
02:55 you can't just think about yourself.
02:56 You have to think about the whole field
02:58 and it being fair for everybody, don't you?
03:00 - You do, and I guess the most common one
03:02 people in friendlies will play is if they've lost one
03:05 and nobody wants to walk 250 yards back,
03:07 you'll just drop another one down.
03:08 - Yeah, ball's just gone out of bounds, you can see it.
03:10 - Yeah, but that is not a rule of golf,
03:12 so you can't do that when you're playing in a competition
03:15 where everybody is expected to be playing
03:18 by the same set of rules.
03:19 So we get all sorts of comments about,
03:21 well, we don't do that in a friendly.
03:24 Really, we're not too worried
03:25 about what people do in friendlies
03:27 because that's up to you, isn't it?
03:28 That's up to you.
03:29 It's when you're playing against 100 other people
03:32 in the club medal and some people are playing by one rule
03:35 and other people are playing by a different rule,
03:36 that's when it really doesn't work.
03:38 And that's when this book has to have
03:40 a huge number of what-if scenarios
03:42 to cover all the eventualities
03:44 that might happen out on a golf course.
03:45 - Yeah, and the last thing to say here, I think,
03:47 is that that rule book that Jez is holding,
03:49 they've actually worked incredibly hard, haven't they,
03:51 to try and make it as small, easy to understand
03:55 as they possibly can for people, I think?
03:57 - Yeah, I think there's a perception
03:58 that the rule makers like it to be complicated,
04:01 but they don't.
04:02 And in the revisions for 2019,
04:04 one of the primary objectives was to simplify the rules
04:08 as much as possible while still governing
04:11 all the various eventualities
04:12 that might take place out on the course.
04:14 So this player's edition is 50 pages shorter
04:17 than the previous rule book, which is here.
04:20 And the number of rules has come down from 33 to 24.
04:24 So there is a concerted effort
04:26 on the part of the rule makers to streamline things
04:30 as much as it's practical to do so.
04:31 - Yes, and there are certain rules-related scenarios
04:34 that pop up much more often
04:35 than other rules-related scenarios.
04:37 And the book has to cover just about everything
04:39 to make sure that whatever happens on the golf course,
04:42 there's something in there that tells you how to proceed
04:44 and how not to proceed so that it's fair for everybody.
04:47 Okay, Jez, let's take a slightly closer look
04:49 at one of those situations we mentioned earlier,
04:51 where the rules have to cover quite a few different things.
04:54 So behind us here, we're just off the playing line
04:57 on the 17th here at the London Club.
04:59 We've got some really big, bushy area.
05:00 Imagine I've carved my tee shot in here.
05:03 Now, the rules need to help me out
05:06 to ensure that I can carry on with my round of golf,
05:09 don't they? - They do.
05:10 - If I fit my ball in there.
05:10 - As we said, you know, can you find it?
05:13 Okay, you can find it, but it's not playable.
05:15 What do you do?
05:16 What if you can't find it?
05:18 What do you do?
05:19 - Yeah, so if I can find it,
05:20 and the only rule available to me
05:23 was to take two club lengths and drop away from it,
05:26 well, that might not, in this scenario,
05:27 that wouldn't take me clear of the bushes.
05:29 I'd still be, as you said,
05:30 I'd still be completely snookered,
05:31 so I'd need more options. - You would be.
05:33 You would be, and you know,
05:34 if you can't physically retrieve the original ball,
05:37 what do you do then?
05:37 There has to be some option to allow you to carry on
05:40 if it would tear your clothes to shreds to get to the ball.
05:43 So all of these things have to be covered in the rule,
05:45 and this is just one scenario
05:47 that might happen fairly typically out on a golf course.
05:50 So we have the unplayable ball options
05:52 that give you three options in that scenario,
05:55 and you don't have to retrieve the original ball.
05:58 You can drop within two club lengths,
05:59 you can go back online,
06:00 or you can go back to where you last played from.
06:02 - Exactly, and also, the ruling bodies
06:04 also need to try and keep play moving
06:06 as much as possible, prevent slow play,
06:07 so they also give you the option
06:10 from the previous shot to play a provisional ball.
06:12 So if you think that ball might be lost,
06:14 you get the chance to play a provisional ball
06:17 to help speed play up in this sort of scenario.
06:20 - So all that's got to be covered in the rules.
06:22 The ball is lost, then what do you do?
06:24 Well, the rules say that you have to go back
06:26 and play from where you last played from,
06:27 but they also say that to mitigate
06:31 that being the potential outcome,
06:33 you can play a provisional ball at that point
06:35 when you think it might be lost,
06:36 rather than having to walk a long way back.
06:38 But then what are the rules governing that provisional ball?
06:40 When can you hit it up until?
06:42 When are you no longer allowed to play it?
06:44 All of that has to be covered,
06:45 and you could just say, "Oh, just do what you like
06:48 "and play another one here, there."
06:50 But if you're playing in a competition
06:51 and you're playing by that set of rules
06:53 and someone else is playing by a different code,
06:56 then you're not playing a level playing field, are you?
06:59 - It's not fair.
06:59 So hopefully that just explains how just one very common,
07:04 very common scenario on the golf course
07:06 needs to be covered by quite a few words in the rule book,
07:08 by quite a few paragraphs that explain
07:11 what you need to do in various different scenarios.
07:14 Okay, so there you have it.
07:15 That's just a few really simple,
07:17 but quite typical scenarios of explaining
07:19 why the rules of golf seem to be so complex.
07:21 And it's because, ultimately, Jez,
07:23 if you look behind us in this shot,
07:25 you'll see all the different things
07:26 the rules of golf need to cover.
07:28 - Yes, this is quite a high point on the London Club.
07:31 It's a vast acreage here.
07:33 You can see bushes, you can see cart paths,
07:35 you can see water, you can see buildings,
07:37 you can see bunkers, you can see areas of rough.
07:40 The rules have to allow you to proceed
07:42 with your round of golf wherever you find yourself
07:45 in amongst all that.
07:47 Wherever your ball is lying,
07:48 you have to have a way to allow you
07:51 to continue with your round.
07:52 - And that means that, ultimately,
07:53 you're never gonna be able to write them all
07:55 on the back of a scorecard.
07:56 They have to be more complex.
07:58 They have to cover more things
07:59 in order to make the game as fair as possible.
08:02 And as we said at the start, Jez,
08:04 there's a difference between playing in friendlies
08:06 and playing in competitions.
08:07 But if you are playing in competitions,
08:09 then having a basic understanding for this stuff
08:12 is a really good idea, isn't it?
08:13 - It is, and play it as it lies.
08:14 You might play a round of golf
08:16 where you don't need to look at the rule book at all.
08:18 - Every now and again it happens.
08:20 - You just play it as it lies the whole way round,
08:21 but the rule book has to cover all the times
08:23 when you just simply can't play it as it lies.
08:26 How many penalty shots is it?
08:28 Where do you drop it?
08:29 Why do you drop it there?
08:30 How far back can you?
08:31 All these things have to be covered
08:33 because you can't always play the ball as it lies.
08:35 - So there you have it.
08:36 Please do leave some comments below.
08:37 What do you think about the rules of golf?
08:39 We'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
08:40 And if you haven't done already,
08:41 please do hit the subscribe button
08:43 to make sure that you don't miss any of our videos.
08:45 But that's it for now.
08:46 Thanks for watching.
08:47 We'll see you next time.
08:48 (upbeat music)
08:51 (upbeat music)