Golf Rules That Are Confusing

Hello everyone. Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to Princess Golf Club and this video on the six rules that golfers find confusing. Now, what you’re going to watch is a conversation between myself and Jess Elwood where we’ve picked out six scenarios out here on the golf course where certain rules will come into play that you will need to know, right? Let’s get started. That ball’s moving or no? Uh oh right. I thought it was fairly solidly placed there, but there’s obviously a critical blade of grass just disturbed you accidentally caused your ball to move. And in this video we are covering scenarios that golfers find confusing. Where do you think the confusion arises here? Well, I think the confusion arises because people want to believe they won’t be penalised for anything accidental on the golf course. But that’s not always the case. And in the general area where we are here, if you cause your ball to move, you are still penalised, right? So you do need to tread carefully. There are scenarios where you aren’t penalised on the putting green accidental movement is no longer a penalty, and when you’re searching for your ball, if you’re treading it by mistake, there’s no longer a penalty there. In all those circumstances, and even in this circumstance, you must replace the ball where it was before playing on. Yeah, but in this scenario, there’s a penalty shot. Sad. And then what? What about what I was going to ask you about what about on the tee? So let’s say you’re about to to hit your tee shot and you accidentally just think, you ball off the tee. Somebody in the group says one, everyone has to get laughs. Do you get a penalty shot in that scenario? You don’t, because at that point on that hole, the ball is not in play. So it’s only when your ball is in play, as it is here, you know, close to the green on this hole, on the general area, that is a penalty on the teeing area before you’ve played your tee shot, you can knock it off with the tow of your club and it’s not a problem. So I think the advice here is to be careful if your ball is perched on a tough like Jess was here, tread carefully around the ball because if you are deemed to have caused it to move, unfortunately you’ve broken the rules. Right Jess? So I’m confused. And the reason I’m confused is my board has come to rest. I hope you can see on the camera in the bunk, here in the temporary water, and I know that I’m allowed to take a drop here, but I can’t see anywhere I can drop. That means that I won’t still be stood in the water. So what am I allowed to do? What am I not allowed to do in this scenario? OK, well, I think golfers, a lot of golfers know that when you’re taking relief from something, you have to take complete relief. So typically elsewhere on the course, you can’t have your feet still in the in the water. Temporary water. However in bunkers and also on the putter green we’ll come on to in a minute, you can take what is called point of maximum available relief. So the point where you get as much relief as possible from there. But your feet might still be in the water or the ball might still be in a bit of shallower water, right. OK, so I have the option then to drop it just to the side there. I’ll still be still in the water or under penalty. Yeah, I’ve got the still got the options taken on. Playable here. And yeah, I mean that is the the, the shot you’re trying to save yourself is by still being able to play without taking the penalty that it would cost you to drop outside the bunker. So by being able to play that still you may get up and down and save par going outside to drop, you’re trying to get up and down for bogey. OK. So clarify for us what you were just referring to about the on the putting. It’s a similar thing on the putting green. And you have to remember that with an abnormal course condition, which typically on the on the putting green and in a bunker would be temporary water, you normally only get relief from it. On the putting green you get relief if it’s lying between you and the whole, if it’s on your line of play as well, right. OK. But again on a really flooded green there might be nowhere where you can get complete relief. But again on the putting green you can take point of maximum available relief where you might have to put through shallower water, they have it maximum available relief. Well worth knowing. OK, so the next one on our list of rules that golfers find confusing relates to practising on the golf course. Now, Jess, what do people need to know here? Well, I mean, basically there’s not a lot of practice you can do during a competition round, and that’s stroke play or match play, but it’s not completely restricted. You can putt and chip on or around the green that you’ve just played, or on or around the tee of the hole you’re just about to play. But chipping and putting only, no bunker shots, no other shots. But you can do that as long as you’re not delaying play by doing so. OK, that’s clear. So then that begs the question, is there anything else that you can’t do when it comes to practising on the course? Well, in a match play competition, ahead of a match play around. You can go and play the golf course beforehand if you want to. In a stroke play competition, you can’t go on the golf course at all. So if the 18th green is clear and you fancy just going out and having a quick putt to see what pace the greens are rolling out that day, you can’t do that. You’re going to have to restrict that to the practice putt in green, but not any of the greens you’re going to be playing during that round. So there you have it. Those are the keys that you need to know when it comes to practising on the golf course. Oh, that’s not very good. Now hold on before you go ahead there. What’s that 2 1/2, three feet? You’ve not been that good from that range there. We’re playing in a match and you don’t have the right in a match to go ahead and tap in and finish the hole. The order comes into play in match play more than in stroke play, where there’s the drive towards ready golf. In match play, there’s a different dynamic. If I now make mine because it’s my turn to play, your putt potentially becomes a lot harder, yes. So for that reason, the order is more important in match play. So let me ask you a question, Jess. What happens if I do golf and just tap it in from here and I make the putt? What happens next? Have I broken the rules? Well, you’ve broken a rule, but there’s no penalty. Only if I decide to make you take the ball back out, put it back where it was, and play the shot again in the correct order, right. So effectively that part gets cancelled. I get and I get another go. You would get another go if I decided that you’d effectively gained an advantage by getting to go at your shorter putt first. Yes, And it’s just one of those things that would be pretty awkward, wouldn’t it? I mean, you and I have played enough golf together over the years that I don’t think it would be awkward between us. But I think if you’re playing in a match against somebody, you don’t want to be left in that situation. So my advice would be in this particular just go up and mark the ball. If the player wants to give it to you, fine. But if not, just put the marker down and avoid any of this kind of awkwardness that can surround this particular scenario. OK, so in the scenario we’re faced with here, we’ve got the golf ball here on the fringe. We’ve got a compass, sand also on the fringe fringe and another bit of sand on the green. And there are certain things you can do and certain things you can’t do. I think a lot of golfers, myself included, will find this particular scenario slightly confusing. Jess, clear it up for us. What can you do? OK, well I think the the important thing to say is that under the definitions, sand and loose soil are not classed as loose impediments. Right? So here you can’t move this on the fringe. However, there is within the rules special dispensation. If you like to remove sand and loose soil on the putting green only, so you could brush that away there, but you can’t touch this slightly more prominent clump of sand here off the green. There you have it. If your instinct would be to brush away this sand here, as mine would probably be, then beware, don’t do it. Otherwise you’ll run into trouble with the rules. Hold on. Can I just stop you there, Tavis? You’re not about to play that, are you? Yeah, I was about to play that. Yeah, right. But this is not the putting green of the hole you’re playing, is it? No, but there’s, you know, it’s a links course. There’s not much thick grass between me and the the green. I reckon I can get this quite close by putting it, and you possibly could, but sadly you’re not allowed to even attempt to do so because you you cannot play from a wrong green. You must take relief. OK, right. So even if there was only three feet of fringe crafts between me and the right green, I still wouldn’t be able to put this. You wouldn’t know. The only time you could play from what appears to be the green of a wrong hole to the correct hole is when it’s a double green shared green, Right? OK, So what do I need to do? Where do I go? Well, here, your nearest point of relief is probably over that way, and it does make the shot a little bit tougher. But unfortunately the rules don’t allow you any leeway. You must take relief from the Ron Green and you cannot play the ball as it lies. Right. There we go. So there you have it. That’s our look at six rules golfers find confusing. I hope you found that helpful. If you have, please do hit the like button. Also, please do leave some comments below. Is there anything that we’ve missed? We’re always looking for ideas for future content, so we’d be interested to hear your thoughts. But that’s it for now. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you next time.