Club golfers, can we all at least try to play by the Rules of Golf, please asks Northern Golfer editor Dean Bailey
Competitive club golf is back in full swing, which means we all need to be playing by the Rules of Golf when we’re out there. We also need to follow the rules of handicapping, but that’s one for another day.
The Rules of Golf are far too complicated to learn in full for anyone who isn’t a referee. However, every competitive golfer has a responsibility to learn and understand the basics. With the tools available to us, every player should know enough to get through a full season without breaking the rules, and know how to find an answer if something obscure comes up.
The rules which come into play most often are simple enough, and most of the people I’ve met on the golf course understand things like how long they have to search for a ball, what to do when playing a provisional, what they can and can’t move before making a stroke, and that they can’t go wading through the bushes like a T-Rex in order to create enough room to play a shot.
Sadly, there are some who appear to not care less about the rules and prefer to make it up as they go along – even when playing in competitions alongside others.
Educating yourself is easy. The R&A has brilliant resources – at www.randa.org under the Rules tab – and The Rules of Golf app is a lot easier to navigate through than the physical book.
Once you’ve done a bit of general reading, you quickly pick up the terms used throughout the rules and the search function in the app is great, making it easy to check what is and isn’t an immovable obstruction, what to do when you inadvertently move your ball, or the difference between the nearest point of relief and the most convenient point of relief.
Given the number of resources out there – from the ones produced by The R&A to video content and tournament golf on TV – ignorance of the rules is not a defence if you break one.
Educate yourself before you play – the basics don’t take long to learn – and you may even be able to use the rules to your benefit as you’ll know when you get free relief, how to measure the full area to take a drop in, and all your options when your ball goes into a penalty area. A little bit of knowledge can be a powerful tool, and you could save some shots without having to practise.
