In this video Neil Tappin is joined by rules expert Jeremy Ellwood to look at the 6 rules golfers find confusing. They cover everything from when to practice on the course to your dropping options when faced with a bunker filled with water. Jeremy's clear explanations should help you avoid any unwanted penalty shots in these scenarios.
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00:00 Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to Prince's Golf Club
00:03 and this video on the six rules that golfers find confusing. Now what you're going to watch
00:07 is a conversation between myself and Jez Elwood where we've picked out six scenarios out here on
00:12 the golf course where certain rules will come into play that you will need to know. Right,
00:17 let's get started. [music]
00:25 That ball's moved, oh no! Uh-oh. Right, I thought it was fairly solidly placed there but it was
00:32 obviously a critical blade of grass that I've just disturbed. You've accidentally caused your ball to
00:36 move. Yes, indeed. Jez, in this video we are covering scenarios that golfers find confusing.
00:41 Where do you think the confusion arises here? Well, I think the confusion arises because people
00:45 want to believe they won't be penalised for anything accidental on the golf course but that's
00:50 not always the case and in the general area where we are here, if you cause your ball to move you
00:55 are still penalised. Right. So you do need to tread carefully. There are scenarios where you
01:00 aren't penalised on the putting green, accidental movement is no longer a penalty and when you're
01:05 searching for your ball, if you tread on it by mistake there's no longer a penalty there. In
01:10 all those circumstances and even in this circumstance you must replace the ball where
01:14 it was before playing on. Yeah, but in this scenario there's a penalty shot to add. There is.
01:19 And then what about, what I was going to ask you about, what about on the tee? So let's say you're
01:22 about to hit your tee shot and you accidentally just dink your ball off the tee. Yeah. Somebody
01:27 in the group says one. Yes. Everyone has a good laugh. Amusingly. Do you get a penalty shot in
01:30 that scenario? You don't because at that point on that hole the ball is not in play so it's only
01:34 when your ball is in play as it is here, you know, close to the green on this hole on the general
01:39 area that is a penalty. On the teeing area before you've played your tee shot you can knock it off
01:45 with the toe of your club and it's not a problem. So I think the advice here is to be careful. If
01:48 your ball is perched on a tuft like Jez was here, tread carefully around the ball because
01:53 if you are deemed to have caused it to move, unfortunately you've broken the rules.
01:57 Right Jez, so I'm confused and the reason I'm confused is my ball has come to rest,
02:06 I hope you can see on the camera, in the bunker here in the temporary water. Yeah. And I know
02:11 that I'm allowed to take a drop here but I can't see anywhere I can drop that means that I won't
02:16 still be stood in the water. So what am I allowed to do, what am I not allowed to do in this scenario?
02:21 Okay well I think golfers, a lot of golfers know that when you're taking relief from something you
02:25 have to take complete relief so typically elsewhere on the course you can't have your
02:30 feet still in the in the water, temporary water. However in bunkers and also on the putter green,
02:35 we'll come on to in a minute, you can take what is called point of maximum available relief so
02:40 the point where you get as much relief as possible from there but your feet might still be in the
02:46 water or the ball might still be in a bit of shallow water. Right okay so I have the option
02:49 then to drop it just to the side there, I'll still be stood in the water or under penalty.
02:55 Yeah. I've still got the option to take an unplayable here. Yeah I mean that is the
03:00 shot you're trying to save yourself is by still being able to play without taking the penalty
03:05 that it would cost you to drop outside the bunker. Yes. So by being able to play that still
03:11 you may get up and down a safe par, going outside to drop you're trying to get up and down for bogey.
03:17 Okay so clarify for us what you were just referring to about the green. On the putting
03:21 it's a similar thing on the putting green and you have to remember that with an abnormal course
03:25 condition which typically on the on the putting green and in a bunker would be temporary water,
03:31 you normally only get relief from it. On the putting green you get relief if it's lying
03:37 between you and the hole, if it's on your line of play as well. Right okay. But again on a really
03:42 flooded green there might be nowhere where you can get complete relief but again on the putting
03:46 green you can take point of maximum available relief where you might have to putt through
03:50 shallower water. So there you have it, maximum available relief, well worth knowing.
03:54 Okay so the next one on our list of rules that golfers find confusing relates to practicing
04:04 on the golf course. Now Jez what do people need to know here? Well I mean basically there's not
04:09 a lot of practice you can do during a competition round and that's stroke play or match play but
04:14 it's not completely restricted. You can putt and chip on or around the green that you've just played
04:21 or on or around the tee of the hole you're just about to play but chipping and putting only,
04:26 no bunker shots, no other shots but you can do that as long as you're not delaying play by doing
04:31 so. Okay that's clear, so then that begs the question is there anything else that you can't
04:35 do when it comes to practicing on course? Well in a match play competition ahead of a match play
04:39 round you can go and play the golf course beforehand if you want to. In a stroke play
04:43 competition you can't go on the golf course at all so if the 18th green is clear and you fancy
04:48 just going out and having a quick putt to see what pace the greens are rolling out that day
04:52 you can't do that, you're going to have to restrict that to the practice putting green
04:55 but not any of the greens you're going to be playing during that round. So there you have
04:58 it, those are the keys that you need to know when it comes to practicing on the golf course.
05:01 Oh that's not very good.
05:12 Now hold on before you go ahead there, what's that two and a half three feet,
05:19 you've not been that good from that range there, we're playing in a match
05:22 and you don't have the right in a match to go ahead and tap in and finish the hole.
05:27 Right. The order comes into play in match play more than in stroke play where there's the drive
05:32 towards ready golf. In match play there's a different dynamic if I now make mine because
05:37 it's my turn to play your putt potentially becomes a lot harder. Yes. So for that reason
05:42 the order is more important in match play. So let me ask you a question James, what happens if I do
05:46 golf and just tap it in from here and I make the putt, what happens next, have I broken the rules?
05:51 Well you've broken a rule but there's no penalty only if I decide to make you take the ball back
05:57 out put it back where it was and play the shot again in the correct order. Right so effectively
06:01 that putt gets cancelled and I get another go. You would get another go if I decided that you
06:06 effectively gained an advantage by getting to go at your shorter putt first. Yes and it's just one
06:11 of those things that would be pretty awkward wouldn't it? I mean you and I played enough golf
06:14 together over the years that I don't think it would be awkward between us but I think
06:18 if you're playing in a match against somebody you don't want to be left in that situation so
06:22 my advice would be in this particular scenario just go off and mark the ball. If the player
06:26 wants to give it to you fine but if not just put the marker down and avoid any of this kind
06:31 of awkwardness that can surround this particular scenario. Okay so in the scenario we're faced with
06:41 here we've got a golf ball here on the fringe, we've got a clump of sand also on the fringe
06:46 and another bit of sand on the green and there are certain things you can do and certain things
06:51 you can't do. I think a lot of golfers, myself included, would find this particular
06:54 scenario slightly confusing. Jez clear it up for us what can you do? Okay well I think the
06:59 important thing to say is that under the definitions sand and loose soil are not
07:04 classed as loose impediments. Right. So here you can't move this on the fringe however there is
07:10 within the rules special dispensation if you like to remove sand and loose soil on the putting green
07:15 only so you could brush that away there but you can't touch this slightly more prominent
07:21 clump of sand here off the green. So there you have it if your instinct would be to brush away
07:25 this sand here as mine would probably be then beware don't do it otherwise you'll run into
07:30 trouble with the rules. Hold on can I just stop you there Tavis you're not about to play that are
07:41 you? Uh yeah I was about to play that yeah. Right but this is not the putting green of the hole
07:46 you're playing is it? No but there's you know it's a links course there's not much thick grass between
07:51 me and the green I reckon I can get this quite close by putting it. And you possibly could but
07:55 sadly you're not allowed to even attempt to do so because you cannot play from a wrong green you
08:01 must take relief. Okay right so even if there was only three feet of fringe grass between me and the
08:08 right green I still wouldn't be able to put this? You wouldn't no the only time you could play from
08:13 what appears to be the green of a wrong hole to the correct hole is when it's a double green
08:16 and shared green. Right okay so what do I need to do where do I go? Well here your nearest point of
08:21 relief is probably over that way and it does make the shot a little bit tougher but unfortunately
08:25 the rules don't allow you any leeway you must take relief from the wrong green and you cannot
08:31 play the ball as it lies. Right there we go. So there you have it that's our look at six rules
08:37 golfers find confusing I hope you found that helpful if you have please do hit the like button
08:42 also please do leave some comments below is there anything that we've missed we're always looking
08:45 for ideas for future content so we'd be interested to hear your thoughts but that's it for now thanks
08:50 for watching we'll see you next time.
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