In this video Neil Tappin and Jezz Ellwood take a look at the rules of golf. They de-mystify 6 rules that can catch regular golfers out. The mistakes in this video are all easily avoidable - but you need to know what they are first. This should help you steer clear of any unwanted penalty shots.
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00:00Hello and welcome to The London Club and this video in which we're going to take a look at
00:03six avoidable golf rules mistakes. Now these are all things that golfers tend to do on the course
00:09that can end up costing them penalty shots. Now those players aren't necessarily trying to break
00:14the rules or gain an advantage but just by not knowing each of these rules in enough detail
00:18they can end up causing themselves a real problem. Now I'm going to be joined in this video by golf
00:24monthly rules guru that's Jez Elwood and he's going to talk you through exactly what you need
00:27to know in each of these scenarios to help you out on the golf course to help you avoid
00:32making any unwanted rules mistakes. Right let's get started.
00:41Okay so Jez I've hit quite a good shot in here. This is the 12th hole at The London Club. I've
00:45carried the water. It doesn't matter that I've only carried it by a few inches. Fair enough.
00:49But I do have this little sprinkler head on my line and the lie is very tight. I'm very keen to putt
00:55this. I'd be doing everything that I could I think to try and get relief in this scenario. Tell me what
01:01I can and cannot do. Well the only way you'll get relief in that scenario there is if there's a local
01:06rule. Okay. You might think this is puttable therefore I want to putt so I should be entitled
01:11to putt but the rules don't quite see it that way. They would say yes you get relief if you're standing on
01:18it or if your ball is on it but if it's just on your line between you and the flag there is no automatic
01:24relief unless it interferes with your error of intended swing. And unless I was sort of doing
01:28some sort of weird. You would have to yeah contort things a bit to try and claim that.
01:32So it's not that's not happening. Your first point of call now is the scorecard if you're
01:36desperate to putt it and if the scorecard doesn't have the local rule that allows additional relief
01:41for this scenario then you would you could putt it if you wanted to but you'd be going straight
01:46through the sprinkler head. And if the local rule does exist it will typically say
01:51sprinkler head within two club lengths of the green which that is and if your ball is within
01:57two club lengths of that sprinkler head which it is and the sprinkler head is directly on your line
02:01then you would be entitled to the nearest point of relief away from that. Now I actually haven't
02:06looked at the local rules here so I don't know whether I get relief here in which case I'm going
02:10to just play it because I don't want to die. Again if you've forgotten to check the local rules and none
02:13of you have access to them out on the course then best to play it as it is. Best to assume that the local rules
02:18doesn't exist. This is going to be a test. Yeah. This will be a test but um well we'll see.
02:29Well it's not brilliant but it's almost a gimme. It's almost a gimme. I think I'll take that. Yeah.
02:40Right so we have a situation here that can cause players
02:43some problems. So I've hit my ball uh down the right hand side of this hole and I've found
02:48as you can see a nasty little spot. Very nasty tuft. But we've found my ball or at least I think
02:53I've found my ball. I now need to identify it. Yeah. Um now the process is involves marking the position
03:00of the ball doesn't it? It does and the problem the avoidable mistake a lot of people make is not marking it
03:06position first. Right okay. Um and if they do that then unfortunately that attracts a penalty. This
03:12rule changed a few years ago so that you didn't have to call your your playing companions over to
03:18observe the process but you do still have to mark the ball before you lift it. Right so you don't have
03:22to be here to watch. I don't have to be here. But I do need to mark the position. I do need to put it back
03:26exactly where it was originally. So I put my tee in into this grass which I can just about see right
03:31underneath the ball. Lift up my ball and I can see from the markings that it's mine. Yeah. But
03:37there's also a bit of mud on my ball. Yeah. Can I clean that? Well you can clean that only if you
03:42need to to be able to identify the ball and looking at that. No. So you can clean it and see on that
03:46side. So uh that is another breach that will cost you a penalty if you were to clean that ball more
03:51than was necessary. Again that would be a penalty stroke and it's rule 7.3 penalty stroke for both
03:57breaches whether you fail to mark the position or whether you clean it more than is necessary to
04:02identify it. Yeah. So put this one back exactly where it was right in this tuft. Yeah. And um
04:09Good luck with that. And I'll have a go at this. And it's one of those rules that is easy to get
04:14to get wrong. Just make sure you always mark the position of the ball before you identify it.
04:19Find out that it's yours then put it back exactly where it was.
04:21Okay so for this one you're going to need to use a little bit of imagination. So imagine
04:31that this the yellow penalty area stake on the ground in front of us is not that. Instead it's
04:36a white line drawn on the ground to mark out of bounds. Yeah. The question that we're looking to
04:42answer in this part Jez is when is a golf ball in bounds and when is it out of bounds. And the reason
04:47that we've put the ball in this very very specific position here is that depending on the direction
04:51of play this ball is either in bounds or out of bounds. Yes. Demystify please. Okay well let's
04:57assume first that this here the side I'm on is the coarse side edge. So I'm out of bounds and you're
05:04in bounds. That's right. Now if any of the ball is overhanging the coarse side it's in bound. So if
05:10you look closely here you can see that some of the ball is over the edge of the coarse side edge of the
05:15boundary. So although that ball is on the line it is in bounds. Yeah and I would be able to play this
05:20in that direction. You could and you could stand out of bounds to do so and that wouldn't be a
05:24problem. Oh that's good to know. If we flip it round so this is now the coarse side over here.
05:29So yeah. If you look over the top of it none of the ball is overhanging that edge so although that
05:36ball is also on the line that would be out of bounds if we were playing that way. And oh the heart is
05:41broken in that scenario isn't it. By what half a centimetre maybe. As much as you might be standing
05:45there looking at it trying to figure out a way to call that as in in play it's not it's out of
05:51bounds. It is and your only option then is to go back and replay under stroke and distance if you
05:56haven't already played a provisional ball which you would then have to move across and play if you had.
06:01Yeah so it's actually it's pretty clear but all the thing you need to understand is is any of the golf
06:07ball overhanging the core side. If it is you're inbounds. If it's not you're out.
06:21Oh. Oh that was to win the hole. Yeah that was tough but um I hope you're not just going to go ahead
06:28and tap that in. I was. Match play I'm now the ball further from the hole the order of play in match
06:36plays the player further from the hole as it is in stroke play but in stroke play ready golf allows
06:42you to do whatever you you want almost. Yes. But in match play it's a different kettle of fish if you
06:47go ahead and tap that in you've played out of turn. Yes. I could in theory ask that you replay the shot in
06:56the correct order by which time it might be a little bit harder to hole possibly. Harder to hole.
07:01Which is the reason for the rule really. A frostier relationship. Yeah well undoubtedly yes. If
07:06I make this then your little insurance policy potential is gone. As you say it's an awkward
07:12scenario that you you want to avoid so um best just to remember that in match play you have no
07:19no right to hole out if your ball is closer to the hole than your opponents. Yeah this one is on me
07:25I needed to go straight up and mark this one to avoid any kind of awkward situation between us
07:30that's the best thing to do isn't it. Yeah it's definitely the best thing to do so just remember
07:34while in ready in stroke play ready golf would perhaps encourage you to walk up and tap that in
07:39it's not quite the same in match play. Okay go on then Jez knock yours in. Okay. Or miss it.
07:45Oh no. Oh no. So I've got that to win the hole. You can have that. Thank you.
08:04Tricky shot this. It's the wind. I have to lean on this a bit to get it there.
08:08Uh huh. Um. Ah. Okay. Right. Well. Okay. Now allow me to just stop you there before you hit that.
08:20Yeah. We have a scenario here and we get, I get a lot of emails about this. People who think that
08:28there is now no penalty for you accidentally moving your ball anywhere on the golf course and that's not
08:34the case. There are some exceptions now that weren't there before but if you move your ball like you
08:39did there when you put the club down behind it the ball moved an inch didn't it. Yep it's come off this
08:45tuft is now in a much worse line. It is. I'm quite looking forward to hitting it off there. Yeah well
08:48you will get to hit it off there in a minute. Okay that's good. Because what people often fail to do,
08:52A they don't realize it's still a penalty um for accidental movement but it is under rule 9.4 but
08:59you also have to now replace the ball before you play it. Right. So you've now got to try and
09:04replace it back on that that tuft that it was invitingly sitting on. It was.
09:09And then play it. So there's a penalty for causing the ball to move but if you had played it from the
09:14place it rolled to there's a worse penalty of the general penalty for playing from the wrong place.
09:19So that would be two strokes in stroke play or instant loss of hole in match play. It's an interesting
09:24one there. So I mean the general rule of thumb, Jess, would be if you've moved the ball anywhere on
09:28the golf course it's got to go back to where it originally was, right? That's the case, yes. Yeah. Yeah.
09:31If you've, if you've, if you're deemed to have caused it to move. But if you've, if it's happened on the
09:36putting green, no penalty. No, but you still have to replace it. You have to replace it. Yeah. But
09:40if it's happened here. Yeah. Ah. Yeah. That's the problem. The only other issue um that has changed
09:47since the rules um had the big makeover in 2019 is you're no longer penalized if you cause the ball to
09:52move when you're looking for it. Okay, yes. But again, you have to replace it in the spot it was in,
09:58estimating it to the best of your ability if you can't be 100% sure exactly where it was.
10:02And do you know, if you weren't stood here, I think in that scenario I would probably always
10:06call over my playing partner, at least one playing partner to say, look, this has just happened. Yeah.
10:10I'm now not improving my life by moving it. I'm putting it back to where it originally was. Yeah.
10:14Penalty shot. Yeah. And then get on with it. So now you've got to, you know, you'll know this time that
10:18it's best not to put the club down behind the ball before attempting to play. Yeah. I've now made,
10:22I've made a tricky shot. It's somewhat harder because I'm in a, now I'm in a bad mood as well.
10:28So let's give it a go. Oh no, it's gone left. This is going to end up quite a big score, I'm afraid.
10:38Just short of the gorse, but you're probably chipping for a bogey at best, I would think.
10:53Oh, it's down. Gone left. It's quite thick in the rough over there. It is at the moment, isn't it?
11:00I think I'm going to have to hit another one. Ah.
11:05Okay. So I see you've teed it up a bit more, but what you haven't done is something that's fairly
11:10important at this point, if you're playing in a competition and that is to make it obvious that
11:14this is a provisional ball and you only want to use it if you can't find the original. Right. So me just
11:20saying in that scenario, I'm going to hit another one. Yeah. That's not good enough. It's not enough.
11:25No, you've either got to say, I'm going to hit a provisional or you've got to indicate very clearly
11:29that the ball you're hitting is one that you only want to use if you can't find the original. And I
11:34think if you look into the decisions or the interpretations, whatever they're called these
11:38days, it says phrases like, I'm going to hit another one just in case are good enough. Right. Okay.
11:43But if you just say, I'm going to hit another one, that ball would automatically become the ball
11:47in play, even if you find your original ball in a perfect life. And when it comes to the rules of
11:51golf, clarity is everything. And so I would always advise people just to say, I'm going to hit a
11:56provisional. It just avoids any kind of doubt in a situation like this. Yes. And the other thing I
12:01would say is that we often get comments on our videos saying, oh, why are you taking, this is all
12:06a bit over the top. This is all a bit much. Who cares? Well, that's fine if you're just playing in a
12:10friendly. You do what you like in a friendly. Whatever. I mean, if you were playing in a friendly and I said,
12:13I'm going to hit another one here. Yeah. You're not going to suddenly invoke a penalty on me.
12:17Well, I might do. I'd hope you would. We wouldn't play much friendly golf together after that. No.
12:21But this is, this is not for people who are just bunting around with their mates. This is just trying
12:26to help people who might find themselves playing in a competition. Someone calls them up on something
12:31like this and they get a bit aggrieved, but it's really a matter of just knowing what you have to do.
12:36Yeah. Or they're playing for their handicap. Those things, that's where it's important that you know rules
12:40like this and you don't end up making avoidable mistakes. So there you have it. That's our look
12:46at avoidable golf rules mistakes. If you do have any questions, please feel free to leave some
12:50comments below. We understand that at times the rules of golf can feel quite complicated. They're
12:55there for a reason and it really does pay to know them in as much detail as you can. And that's it for
13:00now from The London Club. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.