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Transcript
00:00 In this video, we are talking about air shots
00:02 and what happens under the rules of golf
00:05 if you attempt to hit the ball
00:06 and you fail to make contact.
00:08 And I guess, Jez, there's two scenarios.
00:09 There's one where ball's sitting perfectly well
00:13 and you attempt to hit it and you miss it,
00:15 which is probably something that higher handicap golfers
00:17 might do from time to time.
00:19 There's also another scenario where
00:21 your ball's sitting up in the rough,
00:22 like in this scenario.
00:23 - Fluffy stuff.
00:24 - You're trying to make good contact with the ball.
00:27 Often it'll be a chip shot around the greens
00:28 and the club just goes straight underneath it
00:31 and you don't make contact with the ball.
00:33 Now, what happens in that scenario?
00:35 Are you penalised?
00:36 - Well, you're not penalised as such,
00:38 but the important thing here is
00:40 whether you were intending to hit the ball.
00:43 And a stroke is defined as the forward movement
00:46 of the club made to strike the ball.
00:48 So if that was your intention,
00:50 it makes no difference whether you make contact
00:52 with the ball or not.
00:53 It is a stroke, therefore the penalty,
00:56 which isn't really a penalty,
00:57 is just another stroke on your score.
00:59 - It counts.
00:59 It counts as one. - It basically counts.
01:01 - Yes.
01:01 - If you tried to hit the ball and missed it, it counts.
01:04 - Now, there are a couple of other things
01:05 to talk about here.
01:06 One of the scenarios that we thought about
01:08 was if your ball's in a tree.
01:09 - Yeah.
01:10 - Go on, talk me through this one.
01:11 - Well, this came up in a recent piece
01:12 we did in the magazine.
01:14 If the ball's in a tree, you can't reach it,
01:16 so you decide to hit another branch
01:18 to make the ball move.
01:19 - Yes.
01:20 - Then--
01:21 - Does that count as a shot?
01:22 - It doesn't count as a shot,
01:24 but what it does mean is that you get penalised
01:27 for moving your ball at rest under rule 9.4.
01:29 - Right, okay.
01:30 - So, the net result is the same.
01:32 It's another shot on your scorecard.
01:33 So, you can't hit something else
01:35 to make your ball move and expect to get away with it.
01:37 - Okay.
01:38 And then, what's the last scenario we're gonna talk about?
01:40 - Well, the last extremely niche scenario
01:42 that I doubt many people have ever come across
01:44 in their timing golf is--
01:45 - If you have, let us know.
01:47 - If the club head separates from the shaft
01:50 on the backswing, crucially on the backswing,
01:53 and you then miss the ball on the way down
01:56 with the remains of the shaft,
01:58 that would not count as a stroke.
02:00 However, if the club had separated on the downswing,
02:03 by that point, you've made a forward movement
02:05 of the club with the intention of striking the ball,
02:07 it would count as a stroke.
02:09 - Niche.
02:10 - Niche indeed.
02:11 - Very niche.
02:12 But hopefully, in this scenario,
02:13 now air shots do happen,
02:15 hopefully Jez's advice there
02:16 will explain exactly what to do.
02:17 (upbeat music)
02:20 (upbeat music)