Neil Tappin is joined by rules guru Jeremy Ellwood to look at some of the simple rules related mistakes golfers are making. They offer 5 rules penalties every golfer needs to avoid covering what happens in some crucial scenarios on the course.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the London Club.
00:01 In this video, looking at the five rules penalties
00:05 that every golfer really needs to avoid.
00:07 And these are all things that are careless mistakes
00:10 that golfers might make.
00:11 And I think if you play the game for long enough,
00:13 over enough years, you'll probably end up making
00:15 a few of these mistakes at some point,
00:17 and they can cost you penalty shots.
00:19 But hopefully, after watching this video,
00:21 you'll be able to avoid them.
00:22 Right, let's head out now onto the heritage course
00:25 here at the London Club,
00:26 look at our first golf rules mistake.
00:29 (upbeat music)
00:31 Okay, so the first one on our list relates to equipment,
00:36 and in particular, these things, your laser range finders.
00:38 Now, I've already zapped the flag here,
00:41 and I found out that it's 199 yards.
00:43 We're on the 17th hole of the heritage course
00:44 at the London Club.
00:45 It's 199, but it's downhill.
00:47 And this tells me it's playing 192.
00:50 Very handy in practice.
00:51 - Yes. - But.
00:53 - But if you're at this stage of a round in a competition,
00:56 and you'd had that slope function on for the whole round,
00:58 I'm afraid you would be disqualified.
01:00 - Oh no, I'm out. - Yeah.
01:01 Rule 4.3a gives you one strike and you're out, almost.
01:05 The first offense, first breach,
01:06 whatever you want to call it,
01:07 of leaving the slope function on is a two-shot penalty
01:11 or a loss of hole in match play.
01:12 But if you then zap another yardage on the next hole,
01:16 that second offense and any ones beyond that
01:19 mean you are no longer-- - You're a goner.
01:20 - You are no longer playing in this competition.
01:22 - Oh, no.
01:23 And so you've got to be careful,
01:24 because on the side of the range finders
01:26 is often a little switch that you can toggle on and off.
01:29 Here it says slope addition when it's in slope.
01:31 I'd need to just push that down,
01:33 now I'm out of slope, and I can use this in competition.
01:36 It's the sort of thing that you can't accidentally leave on.
01:39 - You can, and if you realize too late,
01:41 then it is, as you say, bad news.
01:43 - Yes, beware.
01:44 Okay, so this one, Jez, is really carelessness, isn't it?
01:53 - Carelessness, lack of patience,
01:55 lack of ability to control the putter,
01:57 I suppose, really, as well.
01:58 - Which is one of my problems.
01:59 Talk me through what's going on here.
02:00 - Well, we're talking about a scenario on the putting green.
02:02 Both balls are on the putting green in stroke play.
02:05 You putt and you hit another ball at rest
02:07 because someone's raking a bunker
02:09 and faffing around somewhere and you think--
02:10 - Right, you haven't asked them to mark it.
02:12 - You haven't asked them to mark it.
02:13 You're pretty sure you're not going to hit it.
02:15 And then the thing goes off in your hands and you do hit it.
02:17 - Yeah, so it's just an avoidable mistake,
02:19 but it can cost you, can't it?
02:20 - Cost you, it costs you two shots in stroke play.
02:23 You have to then replace the ball that was struck
02:25 where it was, your ball stays where it is.
02:28 So I guess that may help you, perhaps, in a way,
02:31 in that it would have stopped it
02:32 going further past the hole, but you've cost yourself.
02:35 - And in match play?
02:35 - In match play, no penalty.
02:37 Again, the ball is replaced and everyone just carries on
02:40 with their business as if nothing happened.
02:42 - A lot of these, just be wary of what could
02:44 potentially happen in a situation like this.
02:46 If there is another ball somewhere near the hole,
02:48 then ask that player to mark it.
02:49 - Definitely, because it's a needless shot
02:52 given away just like that.
02:54 - Okay, so for this one, I'm going to talk you through
02:59 the following scenario, which I think
03:01 is probably fairly common, actually.
03:02 - Definitely, yeah.
03:03 - This is just to the right of the 17th green,
03:05 quite heavy rough around here.
03:07 Let's imagine I've blazed my tee shot out to the right
03:09 and I'm in here somewhere, and I come down
03:12 and I see a golf ball in the rough.
03:14 I can see it's a tight list, fantastic, mine's a tight list.
03:17 Brilliant, it's exactly where I think it is,
03:19 so I'm going to play it.
03:20 What am I in danger of doing here, Jez?
03:21 - Well, I think people do this quite a lot, don't they?
03:23 You're in danger of playing a wrong ball.
03:25 I think maybe people are so relieved they've found a ball
03:28 where they think theirs was going to be
03:29 that they don't perhaps follow the checking procedures
03:32 carefully enough before then playing it.
03:34 - Okay, so that begs the question then,
03:36 what is the checking procedure?
03:37 So, I come down, instead of just going off to my golf bag
03:41 to grab a club, I'm going to actually have a look at this,
03:43 but how do I do it?
03:43 - Okay, so you can't see that it's yours
03:45 from where it's lying, you can't see the marking,
03:47 so you're allowed to lift it to identify it,
03:50 but you must mark the position of the ball first.
03:52 - With T-peg?
03:52 - T-peg, ideal, lift it up, check it's yours.
03:56 You can't clean it other than the extent necessary
03:59 to be able to identify it as yours.
04:01 There's nothing on that one anyway.
04:02 - Pop it back. - Pop it back down,
04:03 and then play on if it is indeed yours,
04:05 but if it isn't yours, that's when we run into trouble,
04:08 so if you haven't gone through that checking procedure,
04:10 just go on ahead and play it.
04:11 - Yeah, and so, quickly, Jez,
04:12 what's the penalty for playing a wrong ball?
04:14 - Okay, well, the penalty is the general penalty,
04:16 so in match play it would be loss of hole.
04:18 In stroke play it would be two shots,
04:20 so it's quite severe, but you also have to then
04:22 correct the error in a timely fashion in stroke play,
04:25 and that means before you hit your tee shot on the next hole
04:28 or if it's the last hole,
04:30 before you return your scorecard.
04:31 - Okay.
04:32 - And if you don't correct your error in time,
04:34 I'm afraid it's the old DQ.
04:36 - Oh dear, so, I mean, beware.
04:38 In scenarios like this, it is possible
04:42 that you could play a wrong ball,
04:43 and it would be incredibly frustrating
04:45 to get peen lights for that, so watch out.
04:47 (upbeat music)
04:50 - Okay, so, we've manufactured a situation here,
04:53 so you're going to have to go with us a bit on this,
04:55 but it's not uncommon, and it's well worth knowing.
04:57 So my golf ball is on the edge of the collar
05:00 and the fairway, there's a loose impediment,
05:02 a twig, next to it.
05:04 So I'm going to move that twig.
05:05 - Yes.
05:06 - Because I know that I can, under the rules,
05:07 I can move loose impediments.
05:08 - You can, but in this case it was perhaps
05:12 an unwise thing to do,
05:13 because your ball has now moved.
05:15 - It's moved an inch.
05:16 - It has, now I think a lot of people now,
05:19 for various reasons, think there's no penalty
05:21 for accidental movement of your ball
05:23 in the general area of the golf course,
05:24 which is where we are, fairway, rough, fringe, whatever,
05:27 but there is still a penalty if you cause your ball to move,
05:30 and in that scenario there,
05:31 it was clearly your movement of the twig
05:34 that made the ball move,
05:35 therefore you are penalised one stroke,
05:38 and you must put the ball back where it was.
05:40 - Why the confusion, do you think?
05:41 - Well, I think because you're no longer penalised
05:43 for accidental movement of the ball on the putting green,
05:46 you're no longer penalised for accidental movement
05:48 of the ball when you're searching for it,
05:51 I think people have maybe read too much into that
05:53 and think that you can actually just
05:55 accidentally move your ball anywhere and it's fine,
05:57 just replace it, carry on.
05:59 Well, you do replace it and carry on,
06:00 but there is a one stroke penalty accompanying it.
06:02 - Yes, so be careful, again, like all of these,
06:04 just be careful of what you're doing,
06:06 make sure that that loose impediment
06:08 that you're about to move is not gonna cause
06:09 the ball to move, then you should be fine.
06:11 (upbeat music)
06:15 - So this one is all about something you have to do
06:18 on your scorecard after your round.
06:20 Jez, what are we talking about here?
06:22 - Well, I mean, the critical thing we were looking at here
06:24 is that you must sign the scorecard to attest
06:28 the score that you've just compiled.
06:29 I guess sometimes you come off the course,
06:31 you're a bit flustered, you've made a mess of the last,
06:34 someone distracts you when you're on the ice--
06:35 - Yeah, it's hot, you wanna drink.
06:37 - Your mind's not quite there,
06:38 and suddenly the card's in the box
06:40 without your signature on it,
06:42 and then you could have played your heart out for four hours
06:44 and it will all be to no avail
06:46 because you will be disqualified.
06:48 - Yeah, and it's interesting,
06:48 'cause I think the more we head down this route
06:50 of a lot of us using apps for scoring,
06:54 maybe people get out of the kind of mindset
06:56 of filling out an old-fashioned scorecard, as it were,
06:59 but there are gonna be tournaments when you need to do it,
07:01 and if you do do it,
07:02 then you need to put your signature on it.
07:03 - You do.
07:04 - And the other thing, Jez, is with the individual scores,
07:07 like the main thing, what else do you need to do?
07:08 - Well, I mean, you've also gotta make sure
07:10 your marker's signed and that your handicap is correct,
07:13 so you're signing to say you played off the correct handicap
07:15 and then beyond that, the gross scores,
07:17 you've gotta make sure they're correct
07:19 for each individual hole.
07:20 You don't have to do any of the maths.
07:22 That's not your responsibility,
07:24 and the one to be really wary of here
07:26 is you signing for a score on an individual hole
07:29 that is lower than that which you actually achieved.
07:32 - Because if you do that--
07:33 - If you do that, again, I'm afraid it's four fruitless hours
07:36 and the big DQ against your name.
07:38 - Yeah, so as with a lot of these,
07:40 just make sure you take that care and attention.
07:43 Your scorecard is a very valuable thing.
07:45 If you get it wrong, it could be really costly.
07:47 - So there you have it.
07:48 That's a look at our five rules penalties
07:50 golfers really need to avoid.
07:52 If you think there's anything probably more important,
07:54 actually, in there that people miss out
07:56 and the sort of careless mistakes, rules-related,
07:59 that they might make on the golf course,
08:00 leave some comments below.
08:02 If you've liked the video,
08:02 please do hit the Like button as well.
08:04 But that's it for now from the London Club.
08:06 We'll see you next time.
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