We had a lively discussion on Tuesday 8 September in the members’ lounge around the Rules of Golf, particularly looking at how they work on our course, and notable difficulties players might have.
In brief, we covered the following:
- Temporary greens, wrong greens, ground under repair (blue lines/stakes). At Winterfield you mustn’t play from these areas. You must find the nearest point to where your ball is, outside the area but not nearer to the hole, then drop, from the knee, within one club length of that point. No penalty applies.
- Man-made paths, including the John Muir Way around the coast – the same applies (nearest point, not nearer the hole, drop within one club length), but here relief is optional. You can play off a path if the drop option might put you in a worse place. This also applies with temporary water.
- Banking at the 1st hole – Blue staked area from the tee all around to the back of the green. If you find or can see your ball on the banking, you must take relief as above. Nearest point outside the area, not nearer the hole. If you lose your ball in the banking, in the long rough on the right for example, you must take a drop within one club length of the point where the ball last crossed the line of the blue stakes. In almost every case this will mean you drop at the bottom of the hill. Occasionally, if your ball comes to rest right at the top of the cart path up the slope, you may find your nearest point is at the top on the right, but that will be rare.
- If you are hampered by temporary water in a bunker, you can take free relief in the bunker (not nearer the hole), or for a penalty stroke take Back-On-The-Line relief outside and behind the bunker. If the bunker is completely full of water, as happens sometimes, you will have to take the penalty relief option – Unless the Committee has designated the bunker as Ground Under Repair. If they have, then you get free relief, nearest point to where the ball was, not nearer the hole.
- The beach by 1, 13, 14 and 15 is a Red Penalty Area. You can play your ball off the beach if you like, with no penalty. Difficult if the tide is in! Or you can play again from where you played your last shot. Or you can drop within 2 club lengths (not nearer the hole) of the point where the ball last crossed the red stake line. Add a penalty shot if you do either of these.
- If you know your ball is in the penalty area you cannot play a provisional ball. A Provisional can only be played when you think your ball might be Out of Bounds or it might be lost outside of a penalty area. Playing another ball off the tee on 14, for example, you are playing 3 and you must give up on your first ball. (If at any time you play a ball which you suspect might be OB or lost outside of a penalty area though, do play a provisional to help speed up play.)
- If after 3 minutes looking for your ball you conclude that it might be in the penalty area but you aren’t at least 95% sure, then your ball is lost and you must play again from where you played your previous shot, under penalty of one stroke. You cannot take penalty area relief on the grounds that it is ‘probably’ in there.
- You can move natural objects – stones, leaves, sticks etc – out of your way at any time. But be careful, if in doing so your ball moves you must add a penalty stroke and replace your ball where it was. You can also move man-made objects if you want to – rakes, litter etc. If your ball moves when you do this you must again put it back, but this time without penalty.
- At any time on the course you always have the option of playing again from where you played the previous stroke, under penalty of one stroke.
- At any time on the course, except in a penalty area, you always have the option of taking ‘unplayable ball’ relief, under penalty of one stroke. Drop within 2 club lengths of where the ball lies (not nearer the hole of course), or drop back-on-the-line from the flag as far as you like back. Or play again from where you played the previous stroke. If you take unplayable ball relief in a bunker, your new position must be in the bunker for the one stroke penalty – if you go outside the bunker there will be an extra penalty stroke added, so 2 strokes.
- You can check up on our Local Rules at any time by scanning the QR code on the scorecard. Useful for Out of Bounds definitions, for example.
Golf being golf, there an infinite number of scenarios which could happen, many of which will have you scratching your head around the rules. Knowing the rules will usually help you. We recommend reading a bit more on the R&A website, and in their excellent Rules App. And maybe testing your knowledge with their basic online exam in the R&A Rules Academy. It is free and takes very little time.