Golf Monthly rules expert Jezz Ellwood explains what you can and can't do on the tee under the rules of golf.
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00:00Hello, I'm on the 14th tee on the international course at the London Club. It's a 179 yard par
00:11three playing in that direction and we're here to talk about the teeing area. The teeing area is one
00:15of the specifically defined parts of the golf course from which we start every hole obviously
00:20but it can be a variety of sizes because it depends how far the tee marks are set apart
00:26as to how wide or narrow an area you get to tee off from but regardless of how wide it is it
00:31always extends back two club lengths from the front most and outermost extremities of whatever
00:36tee markers are being used on the day. The ball has to be wholly outside the defined teeing area
00:43for you to be deemed to be playing from outside the teeing area so if even just a tiny part of
00:47the ball is within that area I've specified then you're okay. You can also stand outside the teeing
00:53area to play a ball that is within the teeing area. So what are the penalties if you tee off
00:58from outside the teeing area either inadvertently or perhaps you play from the wrong set of tees
01:03you wander over to the yellows by mistake when you're not concentrating. Well the penalties are
01:08the same and in match play there actually is no penalty. You are not penalized for playing from
01:14outside the teeing area however what can happen is that your opponent may ask for the stroke to be
01:19cancelled and for you to replay from within the teeing area so it will probably depend how well
01:25you've struck that first ball as to whether you get asked to play again. In stroke play it's a very
01:29different story it's a two stroke penalty straight away and then you must take further action to remedy
01:35the situation before you tee off on the next hole make a stroke at the next hole or before you return
01:41your scorecard if it's your last hole and you must go back and play the hole again from within the teeing area
01:47so the bad news is it's a two stroke penalty the good news is that none of the strokes made with
01:52the ball played from outside the teeing area count and if you don't rectify the mistake in that time
01:58frame specified then I'm afraid the penalty will escalate to disqualification. A couple of other
02:04things to mention on the teeing area the first is because the ball is not in play you're allowed to
02:09do things here that you're not allowed to do elsewhere on the course so you can make a dent with your club to
02:14put the ball on if you want to you can stand down anything you can remove dew frost water
02:22you can break grass if you want to tee off in a certain place and there's a tuft of grass just
02:26behind your ball you can break that grass off before you tee off and the other thing it's worth
02:31mentioning I'm not sure how many people know this is that any time your ball is within the teeing area
02:36of the hole being played you can re-tee it now that might seem a bit a bit notional because that's not
02:42going to happen very often but it does mean that if you're playing foursomes and your partner happens
02:46to whiff it or barely move it you can tee the ball back up and play it from any part of the teeing area
02:52you wish if it had remained within the teeing area just a handy little one to know to perhaps
02:57limit the damage when things are already going a little bit wrong