In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by golf rules guru Jezz Ellwood. They go through the most confusing rules in the book and offer simple explanations about how to proceed. Jezz's advice here will help you avoid any penalty shots whenever you're competing.
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00:00As most golfers know the rules of golf can at times feel fairly confusing and that's what this
00:06video is going to try to tackle. So we're going to look at seven rules that golfers still find
00:10confusing even if they've played the game for quite a while. I'm going to be joined by Jez
00:15Elwood, Golf Monthly Rules Guru and he's going to talk through each of these scenarios and explain
00:19a why they're a little bit confusing and b exactly how you should proceed in each of these
00:24situations. We're here at the London Club, let's get started.
00:34One. Very funny. But this part of the video is about when you are and when you are not penalised for
00:42accidentally moving your ball which I've just done there. Thankfully on the tee no penalty. No penalty
00:48because at this point on the whole the ball is not in play you haven't made a stroke at it unless that
00:52was an abnormally short backswing. It was not. So the ball is not in play so if you move it off the tee
00:58fine. But there are plenty of scenarios on the golf course where you do get penalised for doing
01:02something like this. Jez let's talk about that. For the first one you're searching for your ball,
01:07you hit it in some deep rough and you're looking for it, you're swishing around, you accidentally
01:11move the ball, what happens then? Well this is one of the new exceptions that came in in 2019.
01:16Before if you'd trodden on your ball when you were searching for it you would have been penalised.
01:20Now you're not. You must replace the ball where it was or where you estimate it to have been before
01:26you kicked it or nudge it with a club to the best of your ability and then play on penalty free. So
01:31no penalty but you must replace the ball. Must replace the ball. What happens about let's say
01:35you're in the rough or you're on the fairway and you put the club down behind the ball as I've just
01:39done there and you nudge it off or you drop something on the ball like a head cover or a towel
01:45or I don't know you could be carrying anything a coin. Yeah well this is where some of the confusion
01:49has really come in and we've had quite a lot of letters golf monthly from people who think there
01:53is no longer any penalty for any accidental movement but that's not the case. The default
01:58position is still a penalty if you accidentally or deliberately but if you accidentally move your ball
02:05with the club by dropping something on it there is still a penalty. You've got to be careful around
02:10your ball once it's in play in the general area of the golf course. Yes but the same isn't true
02:16on the putting green. It isn't again in that previous scenario you do have to replace the ball before
02:20you play on. Very important. Putting green that was another exception that came in that any accidental
02:26movement so whether you nudge it with the putter on a practice stroke or drop a coin on it or catch it
02:32with your foot any accidental movement of the ball on the putting green is no longer a penalty you must
02:37replace the ball before you play your next stroke. All really useful to know because these scenarios
02:43they do happen I can guarantee you at some point in your golfing life you are going to accidentally
02:47move the ball while you are looking for it in deep rough knowing that it's not a penalty but you do
02:51have to replace it is key and it's worth just underlining that in all of these scenarios you always
02:56have to put the ball back there's never a scenario where you move it accidentally and then play it from
03:00wherever it's come to rest. That is true and if we were going to stress one thing it is that if you move
03:04your ball whether it's accidentally or not on the fairway in the rough there is still a penalty despite
03:09a lot of people believing that there isn't. Okay so this is one of the very few scenarios in the game
03:21of golf where players will need to make a judgment call and it's not easy this particular scenario
03:26and it all boils down to a phrase that is known or virtually certain. Jez explain to us what's going
03:32on in this scenario. Well you'll find that phrase in the definitions section of the book and in a
03:36circumstance like this you've hit your tee shot it's come round some trees that you can't see
03:41it's heading towards the penalty area. Yes. You think it's gone in there but when you get down here
03:47there's this area of very thick grass. Big area of thick rough. Right on line with where your ball was
03:51heading. Didn't see it go in. Didn't see it splash. No one saw a splash either in your group or in a group
03:56ahead calling back and saying it definitely went in so you haven't got certainty and then the rule
04:02say virtually certain means 95%. Yes. So that's a bit of an intangible how you work that out I don't
04:08know but for me in this scenario here because this grass is so long and thick and right in the spot
04:15where your ball was heading for I would find it quite hard to say that was 95% certain it went into the
04:21water. Yeah and the truth is different people are likely to interpret this rule in slightly different
04:25ways. I think you've got to be honest you've got to be honest with yourself as well. In this scenario
04:29am I sure my ball's gone in there? I think I'm probably maybe at best 60%. It could easily be
04:35in here. I'm obviously going to have a very good look for it and if you find yourself having a good
04:39look for it in the thick rough it means you're probably not certain it's gone in there are you?
04:43Indeed and of course the difference then is can you drop just here where the ball
04:48allegedly last crossed the edge of the penalty area or because you can't find it do you have to go
04:53back and play again under stroke and distance. So it's a big difference and I'm sure
04:58a lot of people would err on the side of it must have gone in mate but that's not quite well if
05:03we were playing a friendly game of golf I wouldn't I wouldn't mind whatsoever in that scenario. I'm
05:07sure you would say to me yeah just drop it somewhere near but if we were playing for handicap or you're
05:11playing in a competition you really need to think very carefully about this so a rule that is well worth
05:16knowing when you find yourself in this very tricky but not totally uncommon scenario.
05:27Okay so without question this is one of the most misunderstood rules of golf and Jez I'm not
05:32referring here to the um to the cart path this is an immovable obstruction and nobody is expecting you
05:38to play the ball from the cart path no the bit that I think is misunderstood and confused is often
05:45where you get your relief from yeah now we've chosen this specific spot very very specifically
05:51and it does happen so Jez talk us through what often happens in this scenario and how people should
05:57under the rules proceed. I think it's misinterpretation people think it's on the path
06:01and that's that's that so you can take relief wherever you get away from the path not nearer
06:07the hole but it's where the ball is lying on the path that's important the key point and you get
06:12your nearest point of complete relief from where it's lying and in this case much as you would want
06:17to come this way. I would definitely want to go over actually playing in this direction here so
06:21going around the corner there I definitely want to hit mine from over there in the fluffy semi-rough or
06:25thick foot-high grass over here and some people might even say well I can't drop there because I'm
06:31not really getting relief I'll go back over there but you have to remember what you're getting
06:36relief from you're getting relief from this abnormal course condition cart path and movable
06:40obstruction rules of golf don't give you relief from thick grass so if the thick grass is your
06:46nearest point of complete relief that is where you have to drop and there's only one nearest point
06:50of complete relief there's not a few different options it's one spot and in this scenario as you
06:54said Jez it's kind of in here isn't it yeah all of this bad lie the ball bit about here so that your club
07:00has no chance of hitting the path on the way through on the way through of course you don't
07:04have to take relief you can play it from as it lies that'll be down to the individuals to whether
07:09they want to kind of potentially endanger the bottom of their golf club by hitting a shot like
07:13this I think I'd probably have to I would probably take this relief here yeah and then try and just
07:19somehow well see how bad let's have a look see how bad it is and then get it back into play
07:23so that I would say was complete relief your club was sitting much better but I think I can hit this
07:32well I can
07:36yep so you're back in play and you've proceeded in accordance with the rules rather than
07:43going to where you would like to play from and then potentially breaking them hopefully that helps
07:47you when you're in a situation like this
07:58weak that's not very good I'd quite like to have another go at that Jez now yeah in order for me
08:03to do that I need to know whether I'm allowed to practice on the golf course or not during a
08:07competition around a golf do I have permission to have another go at this well you do if there's no
08:13one waiting to play in hands on hips waiting for you to get out of the way which there isn't anyone
08:17on the whole so I'm fine I can hit this again there is a limited amount of practice you can do in a
08:22round and it's confined to the putting green you've just played or the teeing area you're next about
08:30to play from so you can practice your putting and chipping on or near either of those two areas
08:35you can't practice any bunker shots so if you've fluffed a bunker shot you can't have another go
08:40I can't think of the time I've ever hit a practice bunker shot on the golf course I'm sure someone
08:43has but you're not allowed to and if you are holding up the groups behind they are going to be
08:48very angry about that anyway so you're likely to hear about it after the round of golf yeah anyway
08:52so this one is fine I can have another go it's fine yeah you'll find all the detail in rule 5.5
08:58what if I breach the rule if you breach rule by playing a practice shot you're not allowed to in
09:02a place you're not allowed to or you are unduly delaying play you'll get the general penalty so
09:08if it's between holes as it would be in this scenario that would apply to the next hole you're
09:13about to play good so in match play you would get to the next tee and you'd have already lost that
09:18hole before you play it so you might as well walk on to the next hole great okay well I get to have
09:23another go at this yeah I'm not going to hit such a bad puck this time I promise
09:29yeah a little bit more authority I only just went in though oh I mean there's no in is in yes I know
09:34I know it's always second time isn't it yeah yeah
09:42okay so this is a scenario within the rules of golf that many players find confusing even if
09:48they've played the game for many years and in order to for us to illustrate the point we've
09:52made two pitch marks one that is off the green just on the free and fringe here and one that is
09:57on the green but both of these are directly on the line of my shot I would definitely want to putt
10:01this Jez now one of these I can repair one of them I can't explain to me what's going on well
10:08there's a difference between the green and not the green the putting green as it's called in the
10:12rules you can repair a pitch mark on the putting green at any time okay whether your ball is lying
10:18on the green or off the green so that's no problem the one off the green you're not allowed to
10:23touch to repair that would be braking rule 8.1a which talks about conditions affecting the stroke
10:30yeah you're not allowed to improve the turf conditions the ground conditions that would be
10:34deemed to be doing that right and the penalty is pretty severe it's two shots in stroke play or loss
10:40of hole in match play so ouch the general penalty definitely want to avoid that so I'm going to repair
10:44this what about if how about if my ball came to rest yeah and then that pitch mark was made by my
10:52playing partner well it's uh it's a one in a million shot probably but in that scenario you would be
10:58allowed to repair it because you're entitled to the conditions that prevailed when your ball came to
11:03rest uh that pitch mark wasn't there at that point so in that rare rare rare scenario you would be able
11:09to then repair that pitch mark yeah that was created after your ball had come to rest that is unlikely it
11:14is much more likely that you're going to have a situation like this with a pitch mark yeah it does
11:17happen and I'm going to have to chip this and this is not my favorite shot no
11:21oh I didn't read it properly oh and that's three feet left okay so I have had a total nightmare here
11:36I have hit a tee shot from uh way over behind me and I've sprayed it mild right and I'm on the the green
11:44here and this is not the green no I'm playing I now need to hit a seven iron in this direction here yeah
11:49what do I need to avoid doing Jez well you need to avoid hitting a seven iron off this finely prepared
11:54surface I really don't want to make a difference the putting greens here are perfect as well
11:59this is a wrong green as far as the rules of golf are concerned and play from it is prohibited so you
12:04cannot play from it uh you cannot play if your feet are on the green and your ball isn't you've got
12:10to have complete um you've got to be completely away from the wrong green yes not in interfering with
12:16the stance or golf swing so my nearest point of complete relief somewhere well I'm not going to
12:20take a dither and it goes from there somewhere like that and then yeah down here somewhere so
12:25I'd be dropping just here and then I can continue to play that's it yep and uh that is what you would
12:34expect most people to do but somebody on the pga tour a few years ago did actually play from the wrong
12:39green with a full iron shot probably because they're very good at just nipping the ball off the top but
12:43that will be in place to stop you from damaging the damage in the green essentially I think it's
12:48important to remember as well even on a links course where you might be out and back and there are two
12:53greens very close together and it would be quite feasible to putt from one to the other you still
12:58can't do it you have to take relief that's good from the wrong green advice yes because I think I
13:02wouldn't even consider I think a lot of people would just think okay there's only a little bit of
13:05fringe or just putt back to my green but you can't do that yeah and if you do do it even in that
13:10scenario it's the general penalty which is two shots and it is and you'll find this all in rule
13:1413.1 f there you go so uh playing from the wrong green uh there's a rule to protect you from doing
13:20it because it will damage the golf course make sure you run through the process that I've just been
13:24through that you should be fine oh no ah
13:39okay so for this one we have over elaborated a little bit yeah and you might need to use your
13:44imagination a little bit because obviously I'd never hit a putt that bad no well actually I have done but
13:51um it's worth remembering your options when you hit a really awful shot like that one the one that
13:56I've just hit yes that one's gone over the crest of this hill it's gone down into a bunker it's gone
14:00right into the back of the bunker yeah which is an almost an unplayable position I'm now really
14:04scratching my head thinking what do I do now explain to me what my options might be you've putted it could
14:10have gone into the water it could have gone into a terrible lie as you say it's now at the back lip you've
14:14got no shot you're thinking you might have to take an unplayable but what you're probably not thinking is
14:19why don't I just putt it again under stroke and distance yes yes there's a shot to add
14:24so if if you two putt from there you know it's effectively three more shots but sometimes that
14:29just might be your best option best option in a scenario like this it's also worth remembering that
14:34if you've chipped so in that scenario if I was just off the green I'd thinned my chip
14:38not wholly unlikely again that option is open to me just remember that because I think when people
14:44get onto the green they sort of forget that that is a possibility don't they yeah definitely I mean
14:47it might be a case where you're very close to a ridge you're only four feet from the hole and
14:52you've just hit it a fraction too hard and suddenly it's off the front of the green well having seen
14:57the first part you might think okay my best chance here is to have another go at that four footer yes
15:02and you might be thinking okay well that means taking stroke and distance from it nearer the hole but
15:07you're allowed to do that on the putting green you can take stroke and distance uh just as you can
15:12anywhere else on the golf course and if that means you're nearer the hole and where your ball
15:16have come to rest you are allowed to do you're allowed to do that so it's worth remembering
15:20hopefully a situation like that doesn't arise for you but if it does try to keep that idea in mind
15:26so there you have it that's our look at the seven rules golfers still find confusing even if they've
15:31played the game for a long time there are reasons why some of these roles rules are a little bit
15:36confusing but hopefully Jez's explanations have helped to clear things up for you if you do have any
15:41questions please do leave some comments below we'd love to hear what you have to say but that's it for now from
15:45the london cub thanks for watching we'll see you next time