Dear Linda,
I have only been playing golf for 4 years but I am totally hooked on the game and love receiving the emails in which you explain how the rules affect different situations which can arise during a game of golf.
I found that when I started to play the game many of the people I played with had their own "interpretations" of the rules. I have made a point of trying to increase my knowledge of the rules of the game and I believe that this has helped me in reducing my handicap. I find that your website has been a great help as I can relate to actual situations rather than simply reading the rules from the book.
My question to you is that I sometimes struggle to determine if an infringement should incur a one or two stroke penalty and was wondering if there is an easy way to determine the number.
Thanks for providing this service and this novice golfer appreciates all your hard work and effort.
Lulu
Dear Lulu,
Kudos to you, Lulu, for working hard to learn the Rules of Golf.
Yours is an excellent question. If you have a few spare hours, sit down with a rulebook and a pad and list all the infractions and their accompanying penalties. As you do this, you will start to get a feel for the appropriate number of penalty strokes. There is a certain logic to the penalties (believe it or not), and if you understand that logic you won’t have to memorize long lists of infractions.
Here are a few tips that might help:
Rules that add a one-stroke penalty to your score are typical occurrences during a round of golf. None of them involves a deliberate, planned action on your part. You make little mistakes in life as in golf – you clean up your spilled milk with a sponge, and you clean up your minor golf mishaps with a one-stroke adjustment. Here is a sampling of one-stroke-penalty Rules. See if you don’t agree that they are simple, common errors:
• Rules related to accidentally moving a ball (e.g., after address; deflected by you, your partner, or your equipment; during a practice swing; while removing a loose impediment). They escalate to a two-stroke penalty if you fail to replace the ball before you hit it.
• Rules involving relief from normal golf course conditions (e.g., water hazards; unplayable; lost; out of bounds). They escalate to a two-stroke penalty if your relief procedure is incorrect.
• Rules regarding marking, lifting, and replacing your ball entail a one-stroke penalty if you don’t follow the correct procedure.
• Small stuff that you shouldn’t do (e.g., cleaning a ball when not permitted; not marking a ball when you should; dropping a ball incorrectly; lifting your ball because you think it might interfere with someone’s else’s play when you haven’t been asked to do so).
Rules that tack on a two-stroke penalty are designed to stop you from taking a deliberate action that is against the Rules. These are serious violations that you can avoid simply by knowing that they are prohibited. Fortunately for all of us, they do not occur with great frequency. I am not going to list every infraction that will add a two-stroke penalty to your score, but read the following examples and see if you don’t agree that most of them are fairly uncommon and could easily be avoided if you take the time to learn the Rules:
• Exerting influence on a moving ball.
• Carrying more than 14 clubs.
• Substituting a ball during play of a hole when there is nothing wrong with the one you are using.
• Arriving late to the first tee.
• Undue delay; slow play.
• Taking a practice shot during play of a hole.
• Asking for or giving advice.
• Moving a tee marker.
• Hitting your tee shot from outside the tee markers.
• Improving your lie, the area of your intended stance or swing, or your line of play.
• In a hazard: testing the condition, touching the ground, or moving a loose impediment (no penalty if you move a loose impediment to find or identify your ball).
• Hitting a wrong ball.
• Touching your line of putt, repairing damage on the green other than a ball mark or an old hole plug, testing the surface of the green.
• Hitting the flagstick while attended, the person attending it, or an unattended flagstick if you putt from on the green.
• Accidentally moving your ball and failing to put it back before you hit it.
• Failing to put your ball back before you hit it when your ball at rest is moved by another ball in motion.
• Moving your ball back instead of playing it as it lies when your ball in motion is deflected.
• Making a mistake when you lift, drop, or place a ball and not correcting it before you hit the ball.
• Playing from the wrong place.
There is no substitute for knowing the Rules. While you can’t master them in one reading, even a rudimentary knowledge of the Rules will enhance your golf experience. There is a logic to the Rules that will become apparent as you study them. And, as you so astutely point out, knowing the Rules can help to lower your scores.
Linda
Copyright © 2012 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
