Avoidable Golf Rules Mistakes Every Golfer Makes
In this video Neil Tappin and Jezz Ellwood take a look at the rules of golf. They de-mystify 6 rules that can catch regular golfers out. The mistakes in this video are all easily avoidable - but you need to know what they are first. This should help you steer clear of any unwanted penalty shots.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the London Club and this video in which we're going to take a look at six
00:04avoidable golf rules mistakes. Now these are all things that golfers
00:08tend to do on the course that can end up costing them penalty shots. Now those players aren't necessarily trying to break the rules or
00:14gain an advantage, but just by not knowing each of these rules in enough detail
00:18they can end up causing themselves a real problem. Now I'm going to be joined in this video by golf monthly rules guru
00:25that's Jez Elwood, and he's going to talk you through exactly what you need to know in each of these
00:29scenarios to help you out in the golf course to help you avoid making any unwanted rules mistakes. Right, let's get started.
00:41Okay, so Jez, I've hit quite a good shot in here. This is the 12th hole at the London Club.
00:45I've carried the water. It doesn't matter that I've only carried it by a few inches.
00:49But I do have this little sprinkler head on my line and the lie is very tight. I'm very keen to putt this.
00:55Okay. I'd be doing everything that I could, I think, to try and get relief in this scenario.
01:00Tell me what I can and cannot do. Well, the only way you'll get relief in that scenario there is if there's a local rule.
01:06Okay. You might think this is puttable, therefore
01:10I want to putt, so I should be entitled to putt, but the rules don't quite see it that way.
01:14They would say, yes, you get relief if you're standing on it or if your ball is on it.
01:19But if it's just on your line between you and the flag,
01:23there is no automatic relief unless it interferes with your area of intended swing.
01:27Unless I was sort of doing some sort of weird... You would have to, yeah, contort things a bit to try and claim that.
01:32That's not happening. Your first point of call now is the scorecard if you're desperate to putt it and
01:37if the scorecard doesn't have the local rule that allows additional relief for this scenario,
01:42then you could putt it if you wanted to, but you'd be going straight through the sprinkler head.
01:48And if the local rule does exist, it will typically say
01:51sprinkler head within two club lengths of the green,
01:55which that is, and if your ball is within two club lengths of that sprinkler head,
01:59which it is, and the sprinkler head is directly on your line,
02:01then you would be entitled to the nearest point of relief away from that.
02:05No, I actually haven't looked at the local rules here, so I don't know whether I get relief here,
02:09in which case I'm going to just play it because I don't want to dice.
02:11Again, if you've forgotten to check the local rules and none of you have access to them out on the course,
02:15best to play it as it is. Best to assume that the local rule doesn't exist.
02:18This is going to be a test. Yeah, this will be a test, but,
02:24well, we'll see.
02:29Well, it's not brilliant, but it's almost a gimme.
02:32It's almost a gimme. I think I'll take that. Yeah.
02:40Right, so we have a situation here that can cause players some problems.
02:44So I've hit my ball down the right hand side of this hole
02:47and I've found, as you can see, a nasty little spot.
02:50Very nasty tuft.
02:51But we've found my ball, or at least I think I've found my ball.
02:54I now need to identify it. Yeah.
02:56Now, the process involves marking the position of the ball, doesn't it?
03:01It does, and the problem, the avoidable mistake a lot of people make is not marking it position first.
03:07Right, OK.
03:08And if they do that, then unfortunately that attracts a penalty.
03:12This rule changed a few years ago so that you didn't have to call your playing companions over
03:17to observe the process, but you do still have to mark the ball before you lift it.
03:22Right, so you don't have to be here to watch me do it, but I do need to mark the position.
03:25I do need to put it back exactly where it was originally.
03:27So I put my tee in into this grass, which you can just about see right underneath the ball,
03:32lift up my ball, and I can see from the markings that it's mine.
03:36Yeah. But there's also a bit of mud on my ball here, Jez.
03:39Can I clean that?
03:40Well, you can clean that only if you need to, to be able to identify the ball.
03:44And looking at that, you probably don't.
03:46So that is another breach that will cost you a penalty.
03:50If you were to clean that ball more than was necessary, again, that would be a penalty stroke.
03:54And it's rule 7.3, penalty stroke for both breaches, whether you fail to mark the position
04:00or whether you clean it more than is necessary to identify it.
04:03Yeah, so put this one back exactly where it was, right in this tuft.
04:08Yeah, good luck with that.
04:10And we'll have a go at this.
04:11And it's one of those rules that is easy to get wrong.
04:15Just make sure you always mark the position of the ball before you identify it.
04:19Find out that it's yours, then put it back exactly where it was.
04:27Okay, so for this one, you're going to need to use a little bit of imagination.
04:30So imagine that the yellow penalty area stake on the ground in front of us is not that.
04:35Instead, it's a white line drawn on the ground to mark out of bounds.
04:40Yeah.
04:40The question that we're looking to answer in this part, Jez,
04:43is when is a golf ball in bounds and when is it out of bounds?
04:46And the reason that we've put the ball in this very, very specific position here
04:50is that depending on the direction of play,
04:52this ball is either in bounds or out of bounds.
04:54Yes.
04:54Demystify, please.
04:56Okay, well, let's assume first that this here, the side I'm on is the course side edge.
05:03So I'm out of bounds and you're in bounds.
05:04That's right.
05:05Now, if any of the ball is overhanging the course side, it's in bounds.
05:10So if you look closely here, you can see that some of the ball
05:13is over the edge of the course side edge of the boundary.
05:16So although that ball is on the line, it is in bounds.
05:19Yeah, and I would be able to play this in that direction.
05:21You could and you could stand out of bounds to do so and that wouldn't be a problem.
05:24Oh, that's good to know.
05:25If we flip it round, so this is now the course side over here.
05:29So, yeah.
05:30If you look over the top of it, none of the ball is overhanging that edge.
05:35So although that ball is also on the line,
05:37that will be out of bounds if we were playing that way.
05:40And, oh, the heart is broken in that scenario, isn't it?
05:43By what? Half a centimetre maybe?
05:44As much as you might be standing there looking at it,
05:46trying to figure out a way to call that as in play, it's not.
05:50It's out of bounds.
05:51It is and your only option then is to go back and replay under stroke and distance
05:56if you haven't already played a provisional ball,
05:58which you would then have to move across and play if you had.
06:01Yeah, so it's actually, it's pretty clear,
06:04but all the thing you need to understand is,
06:06is any of the golf ball overhanging the course side?
06:09If it is, you're in bounds.
06:10If it's not, you're out.
06:21Oh, oh, that was to win the hole.
06:25Yeah, that was tough.
06:26But I hope you're not just going to go ahead and tap that in.
06:30I was.
06:31Match play.
06:33I'm now the ball further from the hole.
06:35The order of play in match play is the player further from the hole,
06:39as it is in stroke play.
06:40But in stroke play, ready golf allows you to do whatever you want almost.
06:45Yes.
06:45But in match play, it's a different kettle of fish.
06:47If you go ahead and tap that in, you've played out of turn.
06:51Yes.
06:52I could, in theory, ask that you replay the shot in the correct order,
06:57by which time it might be a little bit harder to hole possibly.
07:01Which is the reason for the rule, really.
07:03Frostier relationship.
07:04Yeah, undoubtedly, yes.
07:05If I make this, then your little insurance policy potential is gone.
07:11As you say, it's an awkward scenario that you want to avoid.
07:15So best just to remember that in match play,
07:18you have no right to hole out if your ball is closer to the hole than your opponent.
07:23Yeah, this one is on me.
07:25I needed to go straight up and mark this one to avoid any kind of awkward situation between us.
07:30That's the best thing to do, isn't it?
07:31Yeah, it's definitely the best thing to do.
07:33So just remember, while in stroke play,
07:36ready golf would perhaps encourage you to walk up and tap that in.
07:39It's not quite the same in match play.
07:41Okay, go on then, Jez.
07:42Lock yours in.
07:43Okay.
07:44Or miss it.
07:52Oh no.
07:53Oh no.
07:54So I've got that to win the hole.
07:57You can have that.
08:00A tricky shot, this.
08:05Into the wind.
08:06I have to lean on this a bit to get it there.
08:13Okay, right, well.
08:17Okay, now allow me to just stop you there before you hit that.
08:21Yeah.
08:21We have a scenario here and we get, I get a lot of emails about this.
08:26People who think that there is now no penalty
08:30for you accidentally moving your ball anywhere on the golf course.
08:33And that's not the case.
08:35There are some exceptions now that weren't there before.
08:38But if you move your ball like you did there,
08:40when you put the club down behind it, the ball moved an inch, didn't it?
08:44Yep, it's come off this tuft.
08:45It's now in a much worse line.
08:46It is.
08:47I'm quite looking forward to hitting it off there.
08:48Yeah, well, you will get to hit it off there in a minute.
08:50Okay, that's good.
08:51Because what people often fail to do,
08:52A, they don't realise it's still a penalty.
08:56For accidental movement.
08:57But it is, under rule 9.4.
08:59But you also have to now replace the ball before you play it.
09:02Right.
09:03So you've now got to try and replace it back on that tuft
09:05that it was invitingly sitting on.
09:07It was.
09:09And then play it.
09:10So there's a penalty for causing the ball to move.
09:12But if you had played it from the place it had rolled to,
09:15there's a worse penalty, the general penalty,
09:17for playing from the wrong place.
09:19So that would be two strokes in stroke play
09:21or instant loss of hole in match play.
09:23It's an interesting one, that.
09:25The general rule of thumb, Jez,
09:26would be that if you've moved the ball anywhere on the golf course,
09:28it's got to go back to where it originally was, right?
09:30That's the case, yes.
09:33If you're deemed to have caused it to move, yeah.
09:35But if it's happened on the putting green, no penalty.
09:38No, you still have to replace it.
09:39But you have to replace it.
09:40But if it's happened here, ah.
09:42Yeah, that's the problem.
09:44The only other issue that has changed
09:47since the rules had the big makeover in 2019
09:50is you're no longer penalised
09:51if you cause the ball to move when you're looking for it.
09:54Okay, yes.
09:55But again, you have to replace it in the spot it was in,
09:58estimating it to the best of your ability
10:00if you can't be 100% sure exactly where it was.
10:02And do you know, if you weren't stood here,
10:04I think in that scenario,
10:05I would probably always call over my playing partner,
10:07at least one playing partner,
10:09and say, look, this has just happened.
10:11I'm now not improving my lie by moving it,
10:12I'm putting it back to where it originally was,
10:14penalty shot, and then get on with it.
10:16So now you've got to, you know,
10:17you'll know this time that it's best not to put the club down
10:20behind the ball before attempting to play.
10:22I've made a tricky shot.
10:25Somewhat harder, because I'm now in a bad mood as well.
10:28Let's give it a go.
10:31Oh, get down.
10:33Oh no, it's gone left.
10:34This is going to end up quite a big score, I'm afraid.
10:38Just short of the gorse,
10:40but you're probably chipping for a bogey at best, I would think.
10:52Oh, get down.
10:55Gone left.
10:58It's quite thick and rough over there.
10:59It is at the moment, isn't it?
11:00I think I'm going to have to hit another one.
11:05Okay, so I see you've teed it up a bit more,
11:07but what you haven't done
11:09is something that's fairly important at this point
11:11if you're playing in a competition,
11:12and that is to make it obvious
11:14that this is a provisional ball
11:16and you only want to use it if you can't find the original.
11:19Right, so me just saying in that scenario,
11:21I'm going to hit another one, that's not good enough?
11:25No, you've either got to say, I'm going to hit a provisional,
11:27or you've got to indicate very clearly
11:29that the ball you're hitting is one
11:31that you only want to use if you can't find the original.
11:34And I think if you look into the decisions
11:36or the interpretations, whatever they're called these days,
11:39it says phrases like, I'm going to hit another one
11:41just in case are good enough.
11:42Right, okay.
11:43If you just say, I'm going to hit another one,
11:45that ball would automatically become the ball in play
11:47even if you find your original ball in a perfect line.
11:51When it comes to the rules of golf, clarity is everything.
11:54And so I would always advise people just to say,
11:56I'm going to hit a provisional.
11:57It just avoids any kind of doubt in a situation like this.
12:00Yes.
12:01And the other thing I would say
12:02is that we often get comments on our videos saying,
12:05oh, why are you taking, this is all a bit over the top.
12:07This is all a bit much, who cares?
12:09Well, that's fine if you're just playing in a friendly, isn't it?
12:11You like in a friendly.
12:12Whatever, I mean, if we were playing in a friendly
12:13and I said, I'm going to hit another one here,
12:15you're not going to suddenly invoke a penalty on me.
12:17Well, I might do.
12:18I'd hope you would.
12:19We wouldn't play much friendly golf together after that.
12:21No.
12:21But this is not for people who are just bunting around with their mates.
12:25This is just trying to help people
12:27who might find themselves playing in a competition.
12:30Someone calls them up on something like this
12:32and they get a bit aggrieved,
12:33but it's really a matter of just knowing what you have to do.
12:36Yeah, or they're playing for their handicap.
12:38Those things, that's where it's important that you know rules like this
12:41and you don't end up making avoidable mistakes.
12:44So there you have it.
12:45That's our look at avoidable golf rules mistakes.
12:48If you do have any questions, please feel free to leave some comments below.
12:51We understand that at times the rules of golf can feel quite complicated.
12:55They're there for a reason,
12:56and it really does pay to know them in as much detail as you can.
12:59That's it for now from the London Club.
13:01Thanks for watching.
13:01We'll see you next time.