When faced with having to make a drop within two
club lengths, most people use their driver since it is
the longest club in their bag. However, since long
putters suddenly are becoming the latest craze, is it
legal to use one of them if it is actually longer than
your driver? - Andy - Banbury
There is nothing in the Rules of Golf that prohibits
a player from using a long putter or any other club
as long as it is conforming to measure one club
length.
Can I peek into my opponent’s bag to see which club
he used? - Simon - Bournemouth
You can look, just don’t touch. Decision 8-1/10
states that information obtained by observation
is not a breach of Rule 8-1, but Decision 8-1/11
prohibits a player from obtaining such information
by a physical act, such as removing a towel to see
a club.
THE TEE BOX
THE MARSHALL
When playing after a heavy rainfall my tee shot
landed just outside of a bunker, close enough that
I was going to have to take my stance from inside
the bunker to play my second shot. However, I was
going to stand in the middle of a large puddle in the
bunker. Can I take a drop even though the water was
in a hazard? - Karen - Manchester
You have the right by Rule 25 to take relief while
standing in casual water as long as your ball is not
in a water hazard. Since your ball lay “through the
green,” you should have found the nearest point of
relief through the green (whether your feet were in
or out of the bunker), and dropped the ball within
one club length of that point, no closer to the hole
and not in the hazard.
My partner recently crushed a drive off the fifth
tee. Problem was, we were playing the fourth
hole. He confidently declared that because he had
unintentionally played the wrong hole, he was
permitted to hit another tee shot off the correct tee
without penalty. Was he? - Terry - Crawley
Well, that’s one solution for slow play: Skip a hole!
A “stipulated round” is defined as playing all the
holes in their correct order, unless your local rules
authority tells you otherwise from the start. The
penalty for playing out of sequence is laid out in
Decision 11-5/5, which states that your friend
should be penalised two strokes for playing from
the wrong teeing ground. He must disregard the
first tee ball he hit and replay the shot.
12 | YOURCADDY MAG - ISSUE 04
In a match with my friend, his birdie putt rolled to the
edge of the cup. After I had conceded the next putt,
his ball dropped! He claimed it counted because he is
entitled to 10 seconds before picking up his ball. But
I disallowed it, because in match play, once a stroke
has been conceded, it can neither be retracted nor
refused. Was I right? - David - Portsmouth
Well, sort of. Rule 2-4 does say a conceded shot
can’t be “declined or withdrawn.” But you can only
concede a stroke after your opponent’s ball is at
rest. Even if it looked like his putt had stopped, by
rule, it hadn’t. Rule 16-2 states that when a ball
overhangs the hole, the player is allowed time to
reach the hole without “unreasonable delay,” and
then add an additional 10 seconds.
I was in a match play situation and my ball came
to rest a half-inch from the property line but was in
bounds. I stood out of bounds to strike the ball that
was in bounds? Was that ok? - Jenna - Crewe
The definition of “out of bounds” in the Rules of
Golf has the player standing out of bounds while
playing a ball that is in bounds.
I was playing in a competition and upon approaching
the green I noticed that one the team ahead of
us had left their pitching wedge on the side of the
green. My playing partner & I both had 14 clubs in
our bag, could we pick up the club? One of the older
golfers at the club advised that we could, as long as
we held the club outside of our bags, is that correct?
- Sarah - Northampton
If a player carrying 14 clubs finds another player’s
club on the golf course, she may carry it in her bag
until she drops it off at the pro shop or hands it
over to a ranger. There is no penalty unless you
use the club [Decision 4-4a/8].
When the greenkeeper makes a new hole on
the green and fills in the old hole with that plug,
sometimes the edges of the new plugged hole
become raised. A playing partner told me we’re not
allowed to pat down this new plugged hole (with our
putters, for example), and if I did pat the old plug
down would I get a 2-stroke penalty for improving
my line of putt, is that correct? - James - Brighton
Players are always entitled to repair old hole
plugs on the green [Rule 16-1c]. This Rule has
been around forever – I can’t imagine where your
partner got their information!