In this video, Neil Tappin and Jezz Ellwood look at the tech so many golfers now use on the course. They highlight the rules-related do's and don'ts!
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00:00As in every area of life tech has become a really important part of the experience of playing golf
00:05for many players and in this video we're going to take a look at the rules of golf and look at
00:09what you are and are not allowed to use tech for while you're out on the golf course competing. So
00:15this might be apps on your phone, laser range finders, we're even going to look at adjustability
00:20within golf clubs and even training aids as well. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of
00:25Jez Elwood, he's the Golf Monthly Rules Guru, he'll be able to tell you exactly what you are
00:29and are not allowed to use tech for while you're competing out on the golf course. Right we're here
00:34at the London Club, let's get started. Right so the first thing to say is that this is quite a
00:40technical, quite a complicated part of the rules of golf. If you are interested in finding out
00:45exactly what all the details are, go to rule 4.3a and you'll have to do it in the full rules,
00:51not the players edition, it won't have all the detail in there. You can find the full
00:55rules on the RNA's website. Okay so let's start Jez with looking at weather conditions, in particular
01:00I guess wind. Wind yeah. There's some things that you are and are not allowed to do when it comes
01:04to judging the wind, what are you not allowed to do? What you're not allowed to do is have something
01:09at the course with you that actually measures wind direction and speed on the ground. At that
01:15given moment? Yeah so an app on your phone that tells you it's blowing from the northeast and
01:20it's 15 miles an hour. As of right now, so you could be stood on a par three thinking this is
01:24into the wind but how much into the wind? You can't find that information out but you are allowed
01:27to look at weather forecasts. Yeah you could look at the BBC weather forecast and it would say
01:32today's wind is 20 miles an hour from the northeast, that's fine because that is a forecast
01:38rather than what is actually happening on the ground live. Yes and there's also a slightly
01:44strange element in this rule about using an artificial, something artificial to judge the wind.
01:50Yes I think we'll all have seen and we'll all have done throwing up the grass or whatever to
01:55try and work out where the wind's coming from. That's fine. That is fine. With the rules say
01:59what you can't do is use anything artificial to do that same thing so the example it gives
02:03is powder. I've never seen anyone throw up powder to measure wind speed and direction but
02:08maybe some people have done. You can't do that but no problem in whipping out a light piece of grass
02:14from somewhere, throwing it up and seeing what's going on. Yeah I think the advice here from us
02:17would just be be careful if you're using your phone while you're out on the golf course and
02:20don't use an app that tells you kind of live wind speeds, that's probably the only scenario where
02:25you're likely to come unstuck here. Right so the next one is all about lasers and I think for the
02:30most part people know that these things now are legal within the rules of golf, that you don't
02:34they don't need to be a part of a sort of local rule enabling you to use them or a competition
02:39rule enabling you to use them but there is something that you need to be slightly careful
02:44of here Jess what is it? Yeah there is with the rangefinder a lot of them now are pretty clever
02:48devices they can adjust the distances for slopes so if you're playing 150 yards shot uphill it
02:56might tell you yes it's 150 yards but effectively it's playing 165 yards because of the slope you
03:02cannot use that feature in competitive golf. A lot of rangefinders have that functionality
03:07and you just need to be careful that it is switched off before you play it's the sort of
03:12thing that can happen it can accidentally be flicked on during the course of a round of golf
03:15just be wary of it because it's the sort of thing where if you accidentally use it in a scenario
03:20you could get caught out even if you're not trying to gain that advantage by finding out what it is
03:24going up or downhill. Yeah and I think some of the rangefinders I believe even have a different kind
03:28of front piece that you can put on it so that it shows your fellow players that it's in legal mode.
03:35I know there's another device that has a flashing light on it that shows when it's
03:39legal versus not legal again that highlights to the playing partners whether you're using it
03:43properly or not so just one to be careful of if you're using lasers out on the golf course.
03:47Now there's quite a bit of tech out there that helps golfers figure out certain things about
03:51their golf game for instance how far they hit the ball and you just need to be a little bit
03:56careful when it comes to this information if you're playing in competition. Jez what do people
04:00need to look out for here? Okay well it's essentially a differentiation between information
04:04gathered before the round and information gathered during the round. Right okay. So you can use your
04:08historical stats to to look at during the round and work things out what you can't do is use any
04:14stats you've generated during that round to then affect what club you hit on a certain hole or how
04:20you how you decide to play a certain hole. So for example you're playing that day and for whatever
04:24reason your three wood's only going 200 instead of 220 you therefore decide to hit driver on a
04:29certain hole because you know you're going to need that to clear a lake but because that's
04:32been based on information gathered during that round that is not allowed. It's strange because
04:37you would think that information is already logged inside your brain but what you can't do
04:41is use your technology to find out exactly how far each of those previous three wood shots have
04:45gone right? Yes during that round. You can look back on your previous record that you hit your
04:50three wood 215 on average or whatever it is. Yes so it's a fine line and it's a kind of it's a little
04:55bit of splitting hairs here but it's something that I think is important to know for all of those
04:59golfers that like to use this sort of tech to find out how far they hit the ball. Okay so some of
05:04these rules are fairly niche but they're well worth knowing about and the next one Jez we're
05:08going to talk about is video and audio. So what are you allowed to watch and what are you allowed
05:13to listen to and what are you not allowed to watch and listen to? Well I think it says here
05:18that you are allowed to listen to video or hear audio on unrelated matters so you can catch up
05:24on the news in the middle of the round and it does say you can listen to background music. So
05:29your speaker that you've got on the buggy that's fine that can be playing music as long as? Yeah
05:33well it then goes on to say what you can't do is listen to music or audio to eliminate distractions
05:38or help with your swing tempo. So if you've found the perfect song that has a drum beat that suits
05:44how you want to take the club away and get back to the ball you can't play that to help you take
05:48the club away and get back to the ball. Yes. Essentially. Now I'll be honest and say I'm not
05:52entirely sure how that rule gets policed but it's in there anyway. It's in there. Now the other
05:56important one to talk about is about video footage of the of the competition that you're currently
06:02playing in. Yes that's another interesting one it says you can't watch video footage of other
06:07players playing holes out on the course during that competition that might help you decide what
06:12club to hit or what strategy to adopt on a certain hole. Again not sure how often that happens.
06:19I don't play in enough high quality profile events for that to happen. People don't often video
06:24competitions that I'm playing in certainly but it's in there I guess to cover all possible
06:29eventualities and it's in there for a reason but it might be quite a niche reason. Yes so there you
06:35have it that's what you need to know when it comes to video and audio. Okay so this one is about
06:39training aids and stretching devices I guess you would say so things like resistance bands
06:45and so Jez you are allowed to use these things if you're stretching right? Yeah you are there's a
06:51specific exclusion it says you can use any equipment for general stretching other than
06:56making a practice swing. Right and herein lies the area you just need to be slightly wary of so if you
07:00for instance had some alignment sticks in your bag yeah you would be able to use them to help
07:04you stretch you might sort of hold them and sort of do some stretching you know rotations whatever
07:09it might be but what you can't do is let's say you want to hit a draw down this fairway you can't
07:14then put the alignment sticks on the ground in the direction that you want to be in practice it and
07:19then hit and then take the alignment sticks away and hit the shot because that would be giving you
07:22an unfair advantage. Yeah that's that comes under the not allowed in any other way creates potential
07:26advantage by helping you prepare for a stroke yes I think that would also mean you couldn't put the
07:30resistance band under your foot and make a practice swing with it because it specifically excludes
07:35making a practice swing when you're using stretching equipment. So yeah I think that's
07:38the key distinction here and I think for a lot of golfers they will have alignment sticks or
07:42maybe other training aids stashed somewhere in the bag okay to use them to stretch with
07:47not okay if you're using them to make a practice swing or to prepare yourself for the shot that
07:51you're about to play that would be in breach of the rules. Okay so for this one we're going to
07:55talk about the tech that is within a lot of today's metal woods in particular the adjustability that
08:00we see so the stealth driver that I've got in my hands here has a movable weight and it has an
08:03adjustable loft sleeve now Jez yeah when it comes to adjusting these on the golf course mid-round
08:09what do you need to be careful of? Well you need to be careful of the fact you can't do it
08:12essentially yes you know tempting though it may be if you're hitting a weak fade that day and you
08:17want to straighten it up a bit to move it across yeah that is not allowed under the rules or if
08:21you've been to the range been practicing with the driver in a very specific setup and then forgotten
08:26to put it back and you've already played two holes you're not allowed to change that I'm afraid no
08:31you're not what you can do is if a screw comes loose or falls out or whatever you can restore
08:36the club to the condition it was in at the start of the round yes that is the extent of any tinkering
08:41you can do yes so well worth remembering if you have adjustable I think it's mostly woods but I
08:46think there's certainly some putters out there that you can adjust as well Jez you've also got
08:50some quick fire little things around text for people to remember yeah I mean if you're really
08:54wanting to get into the equipment side of it there's a whole hundred page document but that
08:59really covers what happens before the manufacture of the club effectively right okay what the comp
09:04how the clubs have to be made to conform yes but three quick fire ones which you may or may not
09:09know tees can only be a maximum of four inches long right not sure who'd want I suppose maybe
09:13long driving people use high tees but yeah possibly they're not covered by the rules of golf
09:17in those long long driving competitions you can't use a two-faced chipper so because a chipper is
09:23not a putter it's needs to conform to the rules of other golf clubs and they can only have one
09:29striking face so yes a two-faced chipper is not allowed attempt to know it may be and then
09:34uh putter grips putter grips yeah putter grips you can only put them on putters so
09:40if you've developed a chipping stroke that is effectively your putting stroke
09:43slightly extended and you want to put a putter grip on it to make it feel more comfortable
09:48you can't do that because you need a normal golf you need a grip with a round cross section only
09:52putter grips can have that flat bit down the front yes so hopefully when it comes to equipment
09:57hopefully that's helpful okay so there you have it that's our look at tech within golf it's
10:02complicated at times it is a bit niche also at times but hopefully there's some things in there
10:06that you might find useful because there might be occasions where you encounter some of this stuff
10:10if you have any questions please do leave them below we'd love to hear from you but that's it
10:14for now from the london club thanks for watching we'll see you next time