Forum: Rules Of Golf

Link to Old Rules Forum (read only)

For anyone watching the Skins Game, please disregard the players fast and loose use of the advice rule regarding club selection and break on the greens. This is a charity event. Charity is also the only way to describe the rules official allowing Sergio Garcia an incorrect drop on the 13th...

I noticed Gary responded on another thread that the only difference between the USGA and RCGA Rule Book is some revenues support their respective amateur golf. Well when my wife shopped for a rules book this past Christmas, the only one for sale in the local golf stores (if they even had one)...

Golf Tips magazine has a "RULE SCHOOL" article about cheating ... They say "Rule 27-2 makes it clear that as soon as a player hits his second shot with a provisional ball that provisional ball is considered in play" WRONG! <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="98%"...

The greens staff is digging a trench to drain an area habitually filled with water when it rains. The trench runs from the low area to a water hazard adjacent to the green. While the greens staff break for lunch, Dan plays a shot that lands IN the trench that is IN the water hazard. What is the...

Jim bombs a huge drive , just off the right side of the fairway , slamming it into a tree ...Bob is standing under the tree , and sees it hit , deflect sideways and drop halfway to the ground ....stopping when it wedges between 3 small branches Jim walks up and is informed by Bob that the ball...

Rules of Golf Memorization Trick The key to memorizing the 28 basic rules of golf starts by associating the rules with a golf course that you know like the “back of your hand.” I use the National Golf Club, in Woodbridge, near Toronto. You will visualize each hole on your favorite course and the...

A Level 3, RCGA rules seminar will be held in Ottawa on April 30, May 1 and 2, at the Carleton Golf and Yacht Club. Registration and information may be found on the Golf Quebec website, here: http://www.golfquebec.org/carte/DetailTournois.asp?code=158

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The Royal & Ancient (R&A) is taking a fresh look at its golfing rulebook after recent high-profile incidents involving Padraig Harrington, Camilo Villegas and Ian Poulter, a leading official said on Monday. More...

If there is anyone out there that has gone on line and done their Golf Canada Level 2 rules just to let you know that the GAO will be putting on a Level 3 course in Ottawa at the Canadian Golf Course from April 3rd to 6th. There will be three days of learning with some outdoor practical work...

http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/10554953/usga-denies-request-amateur-golfers-using-anchored-putters-grandfathered-in

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2015/10/09/presidents-cup-phil-mickelson-south-korea-usa-jason-day/73636020/

While revising our conditions of competition for 2016 the question arose whether or not to permit play on the competition course between the 2 rounds of our senior club championship strokeplay. Why would we do that, well, it seems that some of the men still have the energy after 18 holes, to play...

Or more appropriately, nice to have you back

So, when that happened on Sunday, I know the rules state you can replace the ball, but seriously, how does anyone know where the ball was originally sitting before it was hit? I can't imagine that happening in a regular round and then trying to figure out where the ball. I can barely see my...

ok - i hit a ball and it goes somewhere close to either an O.B. area or close to a red staked area...............i then declare i am going to hit a provisional ball because i really dont know. I then get up to hit the second ball (prov. ball) and continue walking up the fairway.... then i see...

Gary... Andy is a guy who has a temper. He breaks at least one club during each round. Sometimes it's broken during an aggressive swing in the trees. Can Andy carry an extra 5 iron in his bag (the club he usually breaks in the trees) and declare it out of play; but when he breaks his regular 5...

This happens to me often. I'm standing over my putt, ready to hit. Another player - fellow competitor, I guess - walks behind me looking straight down the line of my putt. First of all, I'm not used to having someone stand there while I putt, so it's distracting (although it's becoming common)....

Gary, My opponent and I walk up to our drives and discover that we are both playing the exact same ball. We can easily tell which is which because we are on different sides of the fairway. Mine is embedded through the green, and I mark, lift, clean and prepare to place it. May I put a mark on it...

On Manderley's 4th hole there is a very small retaining wall behind the green, about 1 - 2 feet high. The wall is made from stones, which could be debated as natural, but in my opinion, not when built into a wall configuration. If my ball lies close enough for the wall to inhibit my swing, I...

Gary.... When I see a pro tee his/her ball, many times I will see them step down on the grass behind the ball. This is presumably to press down the grass behind the ball so it doesn't accidentally get caught between the ball and clubface. I was just at the rules site for the USGA, and I saw a...

On Father's Day, Mark Johnson came to the last nine holes of the Arizona Mid-Amateur with an 11-shot lead. His caddie, son Seth, was celebrating his 14th birthday. Walking with the group was Seth's buddy, 12 year old Derek, who mistakenly took the putter out of Johnson's bag and carried it. ...

From Sunday's intersectionals at Mont Cascades... New ob markers were put up inside a fence line which used to define out of bounds. The fence posts were painted white to identify them as OB markers. The fence was not repainted when the new OB stakes were added, and a ball came to rest in...

It happened today... The fellow I golf with and I were playing the nineth at Cloverdale this morning and the funniest thing happened. Both our second shots (from the fairway) landed just off the green and in the thick rough about an inch apart. 2 questions 1. If it was seen that the...

Hi Gary: I was wondering about something that I had seen a few weeks ago (I think it was Sergio who did it) one Sunday afternoon. Whoever it was had embedded the ball in the woods to the left of the fairway and it had come to rest up against a tree root, the tree being closer to the gallery...

Pete Rose wanabees

It's happened to everybody You're setting up, doing your pre-shot routine, whether it be the Sergio waggle or the Mike Weir three stop, and you accidently wobble your teed up ball off its tee. I'm 99% sure that after you place the ball back on the tee you are now hitting your second (or is it...

I was discussing rules with a self-professed golf pig at work this morning (70+), And I was wondering if the Gary the golf guru guy could put to bed some urban legends (you know the ones-if everyone in your group agrees, a mulligan in a tourney is perfectly legal etc. etc. ) Tour pros are only...

I was reading one of those little golf trivia books you find in libraries and bookstores and I was wondering if you could clear something up for me. Gary Player, final round, needing to par the final 4 holes at a course with a name that escapes me now. Drive off the 15th par 4 lands near a stone...

Gary, Does the committe have the resources to determine whether a club is conforming? Suppose a competitor is playing with a non-conforming club (which was non-conforming when manufactured), say the grooves are illegal. Or maybe the hosel is not connected to the clubhead correctly. Is there a...

Question: Due to soft greens, or the time of year (now), what happens if you hit your shot to the green with a high trejectory, and the ball ends up three quarters of the way burried? I guess if you really wanted to, and you were playing with a real stickler, you would have to chip out of...

Gary... a follow-up question. Note: This post has been moved here from the "standing water" thread for clarity Assume the water nearly fills the bunker. I want to take relief inside the bunker, but the areas of free relief are so sloped that the ball keeps rolling into the casual water....

Hi Gary, I have a funny one for you today. On the 18th hole at Predator, I hit my 2nd shot with a 3-wood to reach the green in two on this par 5. My ball landed on the left of the green, in the rough, bounced a couple of times and finished in the ball pocket of a golf bag which was...

Just curious as this situation happened to me a few years back. Tee'd off on a downhill par 4 with a blind landing area, hit my shot nice and down the middle so had no reason to play a provisional. I could not locate my ball and had to declare it lost and rehit. Once we reached the green my ball...

When putting, if there is sand (from a bunker shot) between your ball and the hole, are you allowed to brush it aside; or do you have to play through it? In saying that, what can you clear off the green to allow for a clearer path to the hole?

On a recent round we were playing the white tees at the course in questions when we approached the teeing area of one of the holes and there were no tee markers in place (I guess someone forgot to replace them following maintenance work). Is there any rules or guidelines as to where you...

Gary: Last weekend my playing companion hit his tee shot into the middle of an old tree stump that had the middle rotted out. How is this ruled? The stump was about 3 inches high and he had no way of hitting the shot without damaging his club & himself. The stump was just slightly off the...

At Tuesday's Senior Intersectional matches, one of my team mates teed off from slightly ahead of the markers. One of his opponents immediately told him to NOT pick up his tee, called him for playing ahead of the markers and told him his next shot from the fairway would be his third. We ALL know...

Hi Gary. I just picked up a really old golf book (1911) & the 1st chapter lists the orginal rules of golf from 1812. "As adopted by the St. Andrew's Society of Golfers". I'd dearly love a clarification of Rule XV.... "When a Ball is completely covered with fog, bent, whins, etc, so much...

I am a right handed palyer and have problem with my left (Lead) wrist breaking. When practicing, I often stick a pocket comb in the back of my grove as a reminder not to flip my wrist. Can I do so when playing a round?