Forum: Rules Of Golf

Can anyone chime in here as far as OVGA or other sanctioned tournements what the rules are regarding range finders or other equippement ex. Golfbuddy etc.... I'm not talking pro's on tour just the regular guys and galls of the Ottawa-Gatineau area. Just curious as when you can or can not use them...

1. can I go to the course website and check out the layout of the course?? 2. If your phone is able to, can you use google earth on your phone in real time? 3. can you check live weather reports in your area for temperature, humidity, wind IF the answer to #3 is no, why are you allowed...

my friend was looking at adding weight to his ping blade but could add the 30g he needed to the head. one option was lead tape but it was to thick and when applied to the bottom it would make contact with the ground during putts when trying to hit the ball in the centre of the face. the other...

Dunno if this is the right place to post this question, but.... What does a Slope rating sheet look like. I'm curious to know what is rated and how it's rated in coming up with a slope for a course. I guess my ulterior motive is to second-guess the slopes of various courses, but it just seems...

Me again. As stated in previous thread, I was playing match play this weekend and got called on a breach of rule. I hit a four iron on hole #8 at Mountain Creek and the ball plugged in the middle of the fairway. One of my partners told me I was allowed to pull it out of there and drop it. ...

Dan, Mike and Lyle walk down the fairway of a par 4 in search of their golf balls. Dan and Lyle find theirs but Mike cannot find his. After a 5 minute search, Mike walks back to the tee and hits a ball. When he walks up to the ball, he finds that it is his ORIGINAL ball. What is the ruling?:)

Gary: Perhaps you can clarify exactly what happened on Saturday with Rich Beem using his hat to remove sand from the green? The commentators suggested that since his ball was not on the green that using the hat was allowed. That is fine and good, however I was always under the impression...

Pretend that you are playing #17 or #18 at Mountain Creek where there are water hazards to the right of the holes, but not visible from the tee. You hit drives towards those areas but you cannot find your ball. Is the ball LOST, or is it in the hazard(s)? What reasonable evidence does one need...

Gary if you are on the green and someone else is chipping up and you go to mark your ball and he says to leave it there what is the ruling on that?? For example if he wants to use your ball to possibly stop his from rolling by the hole? I know I would mark and not leave it and I would not want...

Saw this on another site - during a four ball event , player A borrowed a club from his partner, player B, and made a hole in one with the borrowed club. Player A had 13 clubs in his bag, player B had 12. Is player A penalized? Did player A score a hole in one? (It was not indicated whether this...

http://forum.ottawagolf.com/showthread.php?t=9341 Gary, isn't that ilegally altering the playing characteristics of the ball?

We know from scientific studies that pot is a dangerous illegal drug that ruins lives. But a friend of mine is thinking of smoking pot to relieve pain while playing golf, can he be DQ'd in a tournament or matchplay for playing golf stoned? Thanks.

Tyorke0 passed level three with 89% , he happens to be my son and he happens to be 13 , great accomplishment , proud dad

A friend played a match play last week. His opponent hit his second shot in the woods on the right side of the green. He dropped a provisional and chunked it 20 yards. He then walked up to his provisional 20 yards farther and hit it on the green without looking for his original ball because he was...

in match play... my ball comes to rest on a rather large rock. if my playing partner allows it, am i allowed to move my ball to the nearest point of relief? no closer to the hole?

As some may know, the R&A and the USGA meet every four years to discuss and to make rule changes. The next updated version of the rules will be out next year and I gather something like 100 items are up for discussion. Of particular interest are these two possible rules changes. Currently,...

File this one under "Taking My Own Medicine". No excuses, I just missed it. Someone brought up Rule 25-2 Embedded Ball in another thread, and I immediately realized that I had violated this rule at the NCGT event this past Saturday. I took relief from an embedded lie, but it was not in...

Question about getting an official handicap. I have been tracking my cap on here for the last 3 years but am thinking about getting an official one to enter some tournaments. I am wondering if I sign up for a public players membership to get the ability to track it officially do I have to start...

Beside a 100 yd stake. ( a 4 by 4) I removed the stake but the grass around it was 6 inches long. My ball was in light rough but my backswing had to be much stepper because of the long grass. I played it where it was but had to alter my swing. A friend wondered why I hadn't left the red stake in...

A player plays a ball from the teeing ground which may be lost or out of bounds. (Ball #1) He properly announces and plays a provisional ball which also may be lost or out of bounds. (Ball #2) He properly announces and plays another provisional ball which may be lost or out of bounds. (Ball...

From a Rules website. Dave hits his ball into a large flower bed (Local Rule play prohibited) and asked his two FC's, to agree on the location of the free drop for a ball lost in the Flower bed. The two FC's agreed that it was known or virtually certain that the ball went into the Flower bed and...

Scenario, shortish par 4 (320 yds or so), OB fence line down the left side, but about two feet of sparse bushes before you get to the OB line. A drive comes to rest in the bushes but not OB. Ball is deemed unplayable, players measures two club lengths from the spot of his ball (no nearer the hole),...

In a match a player doesn't discover he has 15 clubs until the 16th hole. I heard a situation like this recently happened and that the player was DQ'd but I feel he should have only lost the first two holes. Any comments on this?????

When taking relief from a lateral water hazard, a ball can roll up to 2 clublengths beyond the original two clublengths measured for relief and still be in play? True or False? :-)

A player whiffs his tee shot and then lifts his ball, removes the tee and drops the ball where the tee had been. The player then plays a stroke onto the fairway. The player lies ???. Why?

I put my tee shot in the bush and then I hit a provisional on the fairway. I walk into the bush to look for the original ball and find it but it's unplayable. Can I get a drop say from point of entry and take a penalty stroke?

Say your playing a links style course and you ball is plugged in the face of a bunker (steep grass wall).. Do you get relief? and if so where? You wouldn't be able to drop on the wall as its straight down and say 5 feet high.. I wouldn't think you would drop into the bunker? Is the wall part of the...

I slice my tee shot into a lateral water hazard and decide to play the shot from there. I hit the ball and it disappears into the water, inside the hazard. May I go to the point where the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard and drop a ball within the allowed 2 club lengths, add 1...

Will be playing in this event this year but my game lately is in real bad shape. My question is when I address my ball and I am about to start my swing can my playing partner stand behind me and tell me my aim is off and witch way to change it. Really helped me on the weekend but we do not know if...

I was watching a little of the US Senior Open from Sahalee, just outside Seattle, Washington. Now, I am not a huge fan of the Champions Tour. They operate like a good-old boys club, where if you're an "outsider" - meaning, if you weren't a regular on the PGA Tour - then it's next to impossible...

An FC tried to claim a 2 stroke penalty because I was interfering with his putt by standing on his line. I responded, correctly I'm sure, that there is no such rule, although there is a point of etiquette and if he mentioned that he was bothered I would have moved. I don't think I was even...

Has this ever happened to anyone? Ground was a bit soggy at our early game yesterday, I hit a nice drive down the fairway, when we drove up to the general location, we just couldn't find it. I know it landed between the two white stake markers. It must have plugged deep into the ground. What...

Which Rule or Rules do you have the most trouble understanding/applying?

QUOTE All lakes and ditches are defined as water hazards (red and yellow stakes) PENALTY - 1 stroke , drop two club length from point of entry. UNQUOTE The above quote is printed on the back of score card at a local golf course. However there is no stakes at the golf course around the dithches...

there was a putter at golftown that you could line up, walk away, check your line with the putter sitting square to the line of your putt, walk back adjust it and keep doing this. Is this illegal? The putter, when you have it at adress (grounded), if you let go it doesn't move... legal?

I find it much easier, and enjoyable, to follow rules if I can understand the rationale for the rule. One that I don't understand is the prohibition of grounding your club in a hazard. It wasn't always that way. The 1829 rules of the Society of Saint Andrews Golfers simply said "no obstruction...

I was thinking on using my iphone for tournament play and I was told it was illegal because it had a compass?

so I go up to tap in an 8 incher, having told my playing partner I want to sink it, he was going to send it back to me. I take a stance, I forget if I had grounded the putter, I don't think so, but am not sure, tha ball moves half an inch. it's not a windy day, but there is some wind, and...

Hello, I'm new to this forum but I thought this would be a good story. Today while playing in a competative round I hit a thin 5 wood shot to a 209 yard par 3, It stuck under the lip of the front sand trap and burrowed into the sand about 2 inches. While my playing partner was trying to figure...

Arnold Palmer wrote a piece for Golf Channel that included the following description of a rules incident that happened involving Ken Venturi and himself in the 1958 Masters. It was also referred to on Sirius radio this morning. Ken and I will likely forever be linked by a rules decision invoked...

During yesterday’s Intersectional matches a number of situations arose that caused grief for some of the players, mainly because of lack of a basic understanding of the rules of golf. 1. Player A hits a ball and it comes to rest between the flag and the hole liner and is visible above the top...

Someone told me that they were watching an LPGA event on TV, when a golfer was allowed to remove her ball from a bunker, with free relief, on the basis that the bunker was part of a different hole than the one she was playing. Is this true, and if so, is there some rule or decision that can be...

The 2009 Handicap Season starts today, so start entering those scores! :)

when two puts fall in simiar locations, is the player not playing first able to stand directly behind the other player in order to read their line? If they can not stand there when are the able to move in to view the line of put? What penaltys would apply? as I have only found this under...

hi, So friend and I are wondering on what he should have done. #18 Stonebridge. In the greenside bunker in front of green (side farthest from water/clubhouse). Hits ball out of bunker, over green, over the water and lands on the grass on the otherside (to the left). We don't recall if that...

I was watching golf on the weekend and saw something i didn't understand. One of the players (at the time he was leading) went OVER the water hazard but landed short of the hazard stake. Where should he have dropped? He wasn't sure of the ball cleared the stakes and then kicked back towards...

I played the Marshes this week and hit my drive left (as was suggested to me but I cut it too much) on the second hole 615 yd par 5 over a knoll and saw it bounce very high (cart path) and disappear behind the small hill. I was going to hit a provisional but the member I was playing with told me I...