Rules, Rules, Rules

Well gentlemen, as the chair of the Rules and Handicaps Committee, I thought my job was going to be a breeze this summer.  Apparently not so.  For this past weekend, three situations arose that I had to make a ruling for.  Since some were unsure what the rules of golf allowed for in these cases, I thought I would share them with you.

First, there was a situation where a whole group teed off from the wrong tee box.  Unfortunately, they played on without correcting their error.  As a result, they were DQ'd from the tournament.  Nasty, since a few of them had great scores.  What's the ruling?  According to the RCGA Rules of Golf (Rule 11-5), if the ball is played from the wrong teeing ground, the player incurs a penalty of TWO STROKES, and must re-tee from the correct teeing ground.  This mistake must be corrected before the player tees off from the next hole.  If the player notices the error and corrects himself before teeing off on the next hole, then any strokes made at the ball after the error do not count in his score, but he assesses himself the two stroke penalty and replays from the correct tee.

If the player does not correct his error before teeing off the next teeing ground, then he is disqualified from the round.

Secondly, another mishap occurred when a player (from a different group) was playing a ball from a lateral hazard.  Keep in mind that not only can you NOT ground your club in the hazard, but you can also not disturb any foliage in the hazard when/if taking a practice swing.  The player in question started his backswing, hit some brush, then stopped his swing without following through with the stroke.  For this, he incurred a penalty of TWO STROKES, according to Rule 13-4.  Of course, this rule does not prevent you from contacting the grass, bush, tree or any other thing in the hazard on your address (not grounding the club, of course) or in your backswing, as long as you follow through with your stroke.  You may also contact items in the hazard to prevent yourself from falling, or in the act of taking your stance, or if you place your clubs in the hazard (without improving your lie, of course).

And finally, one other player made the mistake of picking up his ball from the fairway, and then placing it back down.  This was simply a lapse in concentration (he played it as a lift, clean, place).  As a result, he incurred a ONE STROKE penalty (Rule 18-2), had to replace the ball, and continue playing. 

This serves as a reminder to all of you to keep abreast of the rules, and keep an eye on your playing partners.  We're not trying to be watchdogs here, we're just trying to keep everything equitable and fair.

Yours Truly - Christian Guenette