The post Rules Guy: Is it against the rules to use a weighted club? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Is it against the rules to use a weighted club? appeared first on Golf.

A playing partner carries a training aid — a weighted 7-iron — in his bag during rounds. He claims that it’s legal since he can hit the ball with it and counts it as one of his 14 clubs, though he has only ever used it for practice swings. I say otherwise. Who’s right? —Ray Chapman, Navarre, Fla.

Neither of you. No rule prohibits carrying a training aid, regardless of whether it’s a club or just some random device.

The problems happen when you use it. In this instance, because the training aid is a club, your playing partner was correct that it counts as one of his 14 sticks and that he may carry it. Since it is a training aid, however, he isn’t allowed to use it — even for practice swings. Doing so once during a round brings the general penalty; doing so another time with an intervening event in between would result in a DQ, under Rule 4.3a(6).

For more training aid guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Can you use a weight to warm up before each shot? Before the tee shot, and then again in the fairway? Does it matter if it’s a weighted club or just, say, a dumbbell? —Ambrose Rivera, via email

Ambrose, Rules Guy is here to (clap, clap) pump you up! Or at least pump up your Rules knowledge.

You cannot swing a weighted club under Rule 4.3(a)/6, as it gives you a potential advantage by helping you prepare to make a stroke. You’d get the general penalty of two strokes in stroke play and loss of hole in match play for the first offense and be disqualified for the second offense.

Likewise, you’d be running afoul by swinging a dumbbell as if it were a golf club. If instead you were using the dumbbell (or rubber tubing, or whatever) merely to stretch out/limber up, you’re probably in the clear.

Still, per Rule 20.2b, you should check with the Committee beforehand whenever you’re unsure of whether you can use a particular piece of equipment in a particular way. As Hans and Franz would say, “Hear me now and believe this later!”

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The post Rules Guy: My ball landed in a water hazard .. on an alligator. What now ?! appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: My ball landed in a water hazard .. on an alligator. What now ?! appeared first on Golf.

A player’s ball lands on the back of an alligator resting in the water with his tail partially out of the water but still in the hazard. My bro says free drop. I say not. You? – Christine Briceno, Naples, Fla.

Quite the interesting family life. Dare we say, “bro” is actually right, at least in part. If there is a place in the penalty area where you have relief from the dangerous animal (i.e., the nearest point where there is no longer danger of the animal causing you serious harm), then you would be allowed to take a free drop within one club length of that point, per Rule 16.2.

That said, here’s where your brother is a bit off (see what we did there?): The relief doesn’t guarantee you can actually play the ball from the spot, so you may just need to take the penalty relief anyway.

Rules

For more animal-related guidance from our guru, read on…

As my friend and I were approaching his tee shot in the fairway, a fox trotted out of the woods, sniffed the ball and then urinated on it. Is my friend allowed to clean or replace the ball? – David Cole, via e-mail

Well, presumably unlike the now “marked” golf ball, the rules here are cut and dried. In equity, the player is entitled to the lie present when the ball came to rest.

Thus, your friend may lift and clean the ball. If there is, um, “casual water” present, the player can take relief under Rule 25-1, which also allows the ball to be cleaned (and disinfected).

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The post Rules Guy: Is it a penalty if you give the wrong information about which stroke you’re on? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Is it a penalty if you give the wrong information about which stroke you’re on? appeared first on Golf.

In a four-ball match, a member of the other team was about to putt and asked what everyone was laying. My partner mis-spoke, causing the other team to conclude that the putt didn’t matter and pick up the ball. It was an honest mistake, almost immediately corrected, but too late to fix. Cue the controversy and unfair accusations of cheating. In any case, are players in match play obligated to answer questions such as “What is everyone laying?” And what if the answer is unintentionally wrong? —Eric Schurr, Scottsdale, Ariz.

The rules regarding match play are designed to reflect the fact that the opponents’ play influences the player’s strategy, and thus the player has the right to know how they stand during a hole.

If a player asks an opponent what they lay, the opponent must answer before the player makes their next stroke. If they make a mistake and give the wrong number, it must be corrected before the player makes their next stroke or “takes a similar action”; here, that includes picking up the ball sans marking.

Under Rule 3.2d(1), the penalty is loss of hole for the opponent who does not correct this mistake in time, and in four-ball it could lead to the whole side losing the hole if this breach hurt the other side’s play. So, as teachers like to tell their students, think carefully before answering.

Rules

For more match-play guidance from our guru, read on …

A four-ball match. Our opponents get to the tee ahead of us and hit. Inadvertently, I hit from the next box forward, which they duly noted. I rehit from the correct tees and played on, making a 5. Our opponents said my score was 7 for hitting from the wrong tees. Is that right? —Dennis Derby, via email

Your opponents weren’t obligated to tell you that you were about to play from the wrong tees, sportsmanship aside. Maybe they didn’t realize until too late … or not.

Still, they confused the relevant rule for match play, Rule 6.1b(1), with the one for stroke play, Rule 6.1b(2). In this case in match play, the opponents get the choice of whether they want to cancel your stroke and require you to play from the correct tees; if they don’t cancel, you just play out the hole, penalty-free, even from the wrong tees. In stroke play, you indeed get a two-stroke penalty and are required to correct your mistake.

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The post Rules Guy: When replacing your ball from off the green, can you intentionally line it up? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: When replacing your ball from off the green, can you intentionally line it up? appeared first on Golf.

Player A and player B are both near, but not on, the putting surface. B is farther from the hole, but A’s ball is in his preferred path. B asks A to mark his ball. I know A can’t then clean his ball, but can he replace it with the aiming line on it aligned the way he wants or must he put it down oriented the way it was before? —Scott Puklich, Eden Prairie, Minn

The Rules of Golf can be, well, disorienting.

You’re right, Scott, the ball can’t be cleaned. The Rules for replacing don’t require the ball to be replaced in the same orientation, so a realignment using the line would be fine.

As an aside, though, the “spot” includes the ball’s vertical location relative to the ground, which can be an issue if there’s mud on the ball — you can’t essentially tee up the ball on a clump of mud attached to it unless it was already that way when you marked it, per Clarification 14.2c/1.

Rules

For more ball-replacement guidance from our guru, read on …

A player hits his drive in the fairway. When he addresses his ball for his second shot, his foot is in a deep divot left by a previous group. He sees a clump of turf a few yards ahead, retrieves it and places it in the divot, then plays his shot. By improving his stance, has he broken the rules? —John Alario, Staten Island, N.Y.

Cruelly, he has. Replacing divots is proper etiquette but doing so in this instance is breaking one of golf’s most fundamental rules, namely, playing the course as you find it.

Rule 8.1a prohibits improving any condition affecting the stroke — here, the area of intended stance — by certain actions, one of which being altering the ground surface by replacing a divot in a divot hole.

He gets our sympathy as well as the general penalty of two strokes in stroke play and loss of hole in match play.

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The post Rules Guy: How long can you wait for a ball to drop in the hole in match play? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: How long can you wait for a ball to drop in the hole in match play? appeared first on Golf.

My birdie putt came to rest on the cup’s edge and my opponent quickly conceded a par. Do I still get a reasonable amount of time for the ball to drop in for birdie? —Philip Frazier, Montgomery, Texas

As Orson Welles might have advised, “accept no gimme before its time.”

You still get the reasonable time to reach the hole and the 10 seconds to see if the ball falls in.

While there is no penalty on your opponent for making the fast concession (and maybe trying to pull a fast one on you), if the opponent gets a little quick with their fingers and lifts the ball before that time, the Rules treat the ball as being holed by the stroke under Rule 13.3b.

Google “Madelene Sagstrom, 2021 Solheim Cup.”

Rules

For more match-play guidance from our guru, read on …

A four-ball match. Our opponents get to the tee ahead of us and hit. Inadvertently, I hit from the next box forward, which they duly noted. I rehit from the correct tees and played on, making a 5. Our opponents said my score was 7 for hitting from the wrong tees. Is that right? —Dennis Derby, via email

Your opponents weren’t obligated to tell you that you were about to play from the wrong tees, sportsmanship aside. Maybe they didn’t realize until too late … or not.

Still, they confused the relevant rule for match play, Rule 6.1b(1), with the one for stroke play, Rule 6.1b(2). In this case in match play, the opponents get the choice of whether they want to cancel your stroke and require you to play from the correct tees; if they don’t cancel, you just play out the hole, penalty-free, even from the wrong tees. In stroke play, you indeed get a two-stroke penalty and are required to correct your mistake.

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The post Rules Guy: Is it legal to play a round using a rubber driving-range tee? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Is it legal to play a round using a rubber driving-range tee? appeared first on Golf.

I play year-round here in Colorado. Come winter, it can be hard, and sometimes impossible, to get a tee in the ground, so I use a rubber tee like the ones at driving ranges. Is this permissible — and, if so, is it permissible year-round? I like that the ball is always the same height at address, and my drives are more consistent as a result. — Dean Marraccini, Niwot, Colo.

Dean, it sounds like you want to know where the rubber meets the road, Rules-wise.

As long as your rubber tee doesn’t exceed four inches in height, it’s perfectly acceptable to use, regardless of the ground conditions. Keep burning rubber on those tee shots and you might just turn into a trendsetter.

For more tee-related guidance from our guru, read on …

The other day, I picked up a tee someone had left on the tee box and proceeded to use it. My friend told me this was a penalty, for using someone else’s equipment. He said that if I wanted to use it, I needed to put it in my pocket first to claim that it was mine. What’s the ruling? — Wade Lindren, via email

This sounds like a demented magician’s trick: “I put someone else’s tee in my pocket … say the magic words — ‘It’s mine!’ — take the tee out of my pocket … and — presto! It’s legal!”

Rules

Suffice to say, your friend is a severely misguided stickler. The only restriction on sharing equipment relates to clubs. There is absolutely no issue with using someone else’s tee, towel, rangefinder or ball.

(If the one-ball Local Rule, Model Local Rule G-4, is in effect, you can still borrow a ball, so long as it’s the same make and model as the one you were using.)

Accidentally using someone else’s clubs is a general penalty of two strokes in stroke play or, in match play, adjusting the match with a one-hole deduction, with a maximum of two such penalties in either instance. The club must immediately be declared out of play once the player becomes aware of his or her error — otherwise, he or she is disqualified upon again using the club.

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The post Rules Guy: Can you practice from a different bunker than the one you’re in? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Can you practice from a different bunker than the one you’re in? appeared first on Golf.

I’ve heard that if your ball is in a bunker, you can go into another bunker to take practice swings that touch the sand. But I interpret Rule 12.2b as meaning that all bunkers are equally relevant. True? — Roy Shin, via email

Rules Guy is firmly of the opinion that “going bunker to bunker” should strictly refer to one’s terrible sand play rather than hopscotching between traps to test the surface. But neither of us make the rules, Roy, we just must play by them.

While there was a time when there was a clause specific to testing “similar hazards,” that restriction and terminology have gone the way of the hickory shaft.

Rule 12.2b applies to the bunker in which the ball lies, so nothing in the rules prevents one from taking practice swings in a nearby, similar bunker — except the annoyance of one’s fellow players and course maintenance workers.

For more bunker guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

My ball in a greenside bunker was held by a rake so that it didn’t roll down the slope into the bottom of the bunker. I suggested to my playing partners that I lift the rake, which would let the ball to roll down into the bottom of the bunker. After all, that’s what it would have done so if the rake had not been there. Thoughts? — Bruce Gardner, Springs, South Africa

Sounds reasonable, Bruce … only it’s not the proper procedure.

There’s no penalty for removing the rake and causing the ball to move in the process. Nonetheless, you are required to replace the ball on its original spot, per Rules 15.2 and 9.4. If the ball won’t stay at rest on the spot after trying twice, then under Rule 14.2e you would find the nearest spot where it would stay at rest, no nearer the hole and in the same bunker.

The rules of gravity and the Rules of Golf aren’t always one and the same.

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The post Rules Guy: Can you take free relief from newly planted but unstaked trees? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: Can you take free relief from newly planted but unstaked trees? appeared first on Golf.

A course I play planted several young trees recently but didn’t stake around them. Can I move my ball so as not to potentially damage a tree if it’s in my path to the hole? —Peter Bemis, La Crosse, Wis.

Model Local Rule E-10 treats young trees as no-play zones to protect them from damage, but it is the responsibility of the Committee to enact said rule and decide which trees are protected.

If the Committee hasn’t done so, nothing in the rules allows you to go rogue. That said, if you are unwilling to risk potential tree damage, you could always declare the ball unplayable and take penalty relief — and maybe win an award from the Sierra Club!

For more tree-related guidance from our guru, read on …

I was playing in our member-member tournament and hit a wayward shot. My ball came to rest behind a memorial tree, which was directly between my ball and the green. I asked for free relief, reasoning that, as a memorial, the tree wasn’t part of the course design. I was denied and told I could only have gotten free relief from the adjacent memorial stone. Was that right? —Tim Muldoon, Buffalo, N.Y.

It sounds right to Rules Guy.

Specific trees can be protected by Local Rule by making them no-play zones, but such treatment is typically reserved for young, growing trees. If the committee didn’t make the memorial tree a no-play zone, then under the Definition of Obstruction the memorial plaque itself is the only immovable obstruction and abnormal course condition that free relief would allow for.

Rules Guy also needn’t tell you never to, er, take relief on a memorial tree.

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The post Rules Guy: What happens when teammates hit the wrong ball in a four-ball match? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: What happens when teammates hit the wrong ball in a four-ball match? appeared first on Golf.

Rule 6.3c states that if two players hit each other’s ball, only the first gets a penalty and the second can place their correct ball at the original spot and continue. But it seems like four-ball matches could create strange scenarios. For example, what if two teammates hit each other’s ball — can the second one to hit really re-hit from the correct spot without penalty? What if two opponents do it? The first player is penalized, obviously, but what if the second guy hits the wrong ball a second time or even finishes out the hole without realizing? —Dave Baker, Vancouver, Canada

Let’s be clear: The concept of only the first player getting the penalty does not — repeat, does not — apply to all forms of play.

In singles match play, yes, only the first player loses the hole and then you move on. That’s because it’s just one-on-one, so both players can’t lose the hole.

In stroke play or four-ball match play, however, everyone who plays the wrong ball gets a penalty. If two partners play each other’s ball, they would both get a loss of hole penalty, resulting in their side losing the hole, since neither player can have a score that counts for that hole. If a single player from each side of a four-ball match plays each other’s ball, they would both get the general penalty, meaning neither player could have a score that counts for the side on that hole, and their partners would have to duke it out on their own.

In match play, there is never a correction required since the result is loss of hole (which means not being able to count a score for that hole in four-ball). Should you want to go directly to the source, check out Rules 6.3c and 23.9.

For more wrong-ball guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Club championship, second hole, I pulled my Titleist (with a black dot) into trees. We looked for three minutes but didn’t find the ball. As I was about to drop, a competitor said he saw a ball up ahead. Sure enough, Titleist with a black dot. I made birdie…but, upon closer inspection on the third tee, I realized it wasn’t my black dot Titleist. I assessed myself a two-shot penalty and played on but was later DQ’ed for playing wrong ball. What were my options, if any, when I first realized my mistake? —Steve Klapheke, Louisville, KY

Playing on: That was indeed the mistake.

Once you discovered you’d played the wrong ball in stroke play you received two penalty strokes and needed to fix the error by going back and proceeding with respect to your original ball.

This would either mean finding the original ball if you had any search time left (the search clock stopped when you identified the wrong ball) or proceeding under stroke and distance and going back to your previous spot.

Consider adding more dots, so that you’re sure next time.

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The post Rules Guy: The drop zone is full of divots. Can I drop behind it instead? appeared first on Golf.

The post Rules Guy: The drop zone is full of divots. Can I drop behind it instead? appeared first on Golf.

If an encircled drop area is all chewed up with divots, is a player allowed to make his drop behind the designated area? It seems like a fair accommodation to me. —Phil Riley, San Diego

Phil, if the dropping zone were posh and inviting, everyone would want to play from it!

No, you can’t back up from it — the DZ is the DZ (see Model Local Rule E-1), and the ball must be dropped into it and played from it when the Committee has put one into effect. (This is assuming you choose to use the dropping-zone option; doing so is typically optional.)

For what it’s worth, if a dropping zone gets badly chewed up, the Committee can paint a new one between rounds.

For more drop guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Playing with my friend in a stroke-play event, he came to the 17th hole four shots ahead of the field but with only one ball left. Not knowing if the rules allowed for borrowing a ball from another player and facing a long par 3 over water, he asked whether he could bypass hitting his tee shot and head directly to the drop zone across the water, lying 3, to prevent the possibility of losing his last ball. He would still have a two-shot lead, with a much safer shot to the green. Legal? Creative thinking in any case, no? —Dave Trent, Wilmington, N.C.

Creative, yes; legal, no. Think of the drop zone as an exclusive nightclub called, well, “The Drop Zone,” where you can’t just talk your way in — you must be on the guest list. (Yes, Rules Guy knows what a nightclub is, even if he prefers libraries.)

Under Rule 17.1b, access to the drop zone requires a ball to come to rest in the affiliated penalty area. The “1-ball rule,” Model Local Rule G-4, is rarely in effect other than for elite professional and amateur competitions. Assuming it wasn’t, your friend could indeed have borrowed a ball from another player if he ran out.

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