In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Golf Monthly's Rules Guru Jezz Ellwood to discuss the 6 Rules Most Golfers Don't Know. Even though the rules of golf were revised back in 2019 and most golfers were aware of the revisions that were made, it is still easy to miss some of the changes made, and therefore you could be proceeding under the wrong versions of the rules if you're not careful!
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club
00:03and this video on the six rules most golfers do not know.
00:07Now if you play golf long enough you will encounter pretty much all of these
00:11scenarios at some point and it pays to know exactly what to do.
00:14Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of Jez Elwood, he'll talk you
00:18through what you can and what you cannot do in all of these
00:20different positions around the golf course.
00:23And now of course if you have any questions or comments about any of the
00:26things that we're talking about please do leave them below and we'll get
00:29back to as many of you as possible. But let's get started now looking at the
00:32six rules most golfers don't know.
00:45Okay Jez, so I've missed a six-footer here for my par,
00:49bogey on the 13th hole here on the international course at the London Club.
00:52I'd quite like to have a little practice and have another go at that.
00:55Can I? Yes you can, as long as you're not
00:59unduly holding up play, there's no one in the fairway behind,
01:02so that wouldn't be a problem here, you wouldn't have the honour on the next tee,
01:05so you don't need to rush up there, so you can have another go at that putt. The
01:08rules of golf during a round allow you to practice
01:11in a very limited way. Right, so I can practice my putts, can I
01:15practice chips? You can practice, yep, sorry to interrupt. No if I'm just
01:19off the chip can I have another go at that? Yeah definitely, you can practice your
01:21putting or your chipping on or near the green
01:25you've just played or on or near the next tee you're about to play
01:28from. The one thing you can't do greenside is
01:30practice bunker shots. Right okay, and the key thing is don't delay play.
01:34I would say if you're doing it all the time it's probably going to start to
01:37slightly frustrate your playing partners because you'll be slowing
01:39play down, even if you aren't holding anybody up, is that fair? Probably yes, but
01:43as long as you're not holding play up there is no
01:47restriction on practicing putting and chipping,
01:50green you've just played or the tee you're just about to come play from.
01:53Yeah and in a scenario like this where you've just missed a makeable putt it's
01:56totally understandable and fine just have another
01:58go at that. As I say just make sure that you're not holding up play.
02:06Okay so the next one on our list relates to golf equipment and golf balls in
02:09particular and I think a lot of people think
02:11that they need to choose a golf ball, exact model, and then play
02:15all of the holes during a round with that model and that's true but only for
02:18certain golfers. Just explain more. It's really only professional and
02:22perhaps elite amateur level where something called the one ball condition
02:25is in force which does mean you have to play
02:27exactly the same brand and model throughout the entire round. Yeah so I've
02:30got a ProV1X and a ProV1 in my hands here you'd have to choose
02:33which one of those you were going to play with and use it for
02:35the whole way around but for your average amateur, myself and you included
02:39James, what are the rules for us? Well
02:42that rule does that condition doesn't exist for us at club level so
02:46we can actually switch between brands and models as much as we like
02:51between the playing of holes. During a hole the ball would have to be damaged
02:54for you to exchange it but between holes you could switch from
02:57a distance ball on one hole where you've been trying to get it down
03:00there as far as possible to a softer ball on the next hole where
03:04you know maybe the green's a bit tricky and you've got to have a bit more
03:06control coming into the green. Okay what if you lose a ball on a hole so
03:09halfway through the hole you haven't damaged it but you've lost it are you
03:12allowed to change the golf ball? Yeah you'd be able to use a different model then.
03:15Yeah and just make sure in that scenario that you are always using a golf ball
03:19that's on the conforming list. What's the rule number? 6.3a is the rule
03:22number and as Neil says the conforming list is quite important because there
03:25are some balls out there which are deliberately designed to go as
03:28far as possible or straight as possible and some of them don't conform. Yeah so
03:32there you have it some really handy advice on which golf balls you are
03:35and are not allowed to use.
03:42Okay so this one is all about moving your golf ball accidentally
03:46and there are some circumstances on the golf course Jez when actually you're
03:49penalized and some when you're not penalized.
03:51Let's start with the first one so let's say your golf ball's in here my
03:54golf ball is in here i can actually see it but
03:57but the rough is so bad here that in order to find it you're probably going
04:00to be swishing around with your feet and your golf club what happens if you
04:03accidentally move it in that scenario? Okay well in that scenario now from 2019
04:07there'd be no penalty for moving it there would have been before
04:10right and i think this is perhaps what's caused a bit of confusion this and
04:13another couple of things now if you move it
04:16when searching for it no penalty you must replace it where it
04:20was to the best of your ability and play on. Okay Jez so what happens if
04:24you accidentally move the golf ball on the green or on the tee?
04:27Okay well these are the two more instances where
04:30you wouldn't be penalized on the teeing area you wouldn't be penalized if you
04:33moved your ball on a practice swing because the ball isn't in play at that
04:36point. Right okay. So you just tee it back up and play on
04:40the putting green it's now the case that if you move your ball accidentally
04:43or your ball marker there's no penalty you replace
04:47whichever one of the two it was and play on without penalty.
04:50Right okay but yes those are the scenarios when you don't get penalized
04:55what are the scenarios where you do? Okay well the scenario where you do get
04:58penalized is if you're in the general area
05:00or a penalty area in the rough or the fairway and
05:04perhaps you move your ball on the practice swing or
05:07absentmindedly walk into it while you're going to get a club. I think a lot of
05:10people now think because they've got all these
05:12concepts of no penalty for accidental movement this is okay
05:16but it isn't. In those areas of the golf course if you move your ball
05:20accidentally there is still a penalty. Yes. And you must replace the ball that's
05:24covered under rule 9.4b. Yeah. Penalty shot replace the ball. So it's
05:28the putting green the tee and if you're searching for it
05:31other than that there will be a penalty. Right Jez I'm gonna have a go at this.
05:33Yeah good luck. It's not the most inviting of shots. There's water behind
05:37there. I don't know.
05:40Oh get down. Oh that could be.
05:48Okay so this one is about what happens if the golf ball
05:51accidentally hits you after you've hit it. So there are two scenarios I think
05:55where this is most likely to happen. In the bunker where you hit one thin it
05:59hits the face comes back and hits you or if you're taking on a risky recovery
06:02shot through the trees perhaps you hit a tree and it comes back and hits you.
06:05Jez there's been a bit of a change to this rule over the years and there
06:08I think we we think there's a bit of confusion as a result of that.
06:11Clear up for us. Well I think some people are living in different eras perhaps and
06:15they remember that back in 2003 when Jeff Maggott
06:18contending for the Masters hit a bunker face and it bounced back and hit him
06:21he got a two-shot penalty which effectively killed his chances.
06:25And that rule was then changed in 2008 to a one-shot penalty for the ball
06:29accidentally striking you after you've hit it. And then in 2019
06:33with the latest revisions it's now no penalty so
06:36the rule has evolved significantly over a quite a short period of time.
06:39Yeah there you go it's really important to know so there might be some people
06:42out there that think that there is a penalty.
06:44If somebody tries to add a penalty to your score in that scenario you can
06:49inform that actually in 2019 that rule changed and there is no penalty if the
06:53ball accidentally hits you after you hit it.
07:01Right okay so we have a scenario here that Jez I know a few people have
07:04written to you about and asked you what do you do in this in this specific
07:07instance. So my golf ball the approach to the green has sort of
07:11plugged here and it's on a slope and the greens are
07:14cut nice and tight they're really fast. Now I've
07:18mended the pitch mark put my marker down if I put the ball back on that spot
07:22yeah that ball is going to move. Now there's just
07:27that's just that's going to happen because it's such a steep slope.
07:30Do I play the ball from there? You don't and what you do
07:34is you have another go at placing it and if it then
07:37still won't stay at rest. Which it won't? Pretty unlikely.
07:44So now you have to place it at the nearest spot
07:47where it will stay at rest and I think the thing people perhaps don't realise
07:51imagine this was a really steep tier that spot could be quite a long way away.
07:55Yeah I mean even in this scenario this is a fairly steep tier
07:58the greens are so fast I think I would be quite a long way over there actually.
08:01Yeah if I just rolled a slightly different way that could have gone 25
08:04feet away. Yeah. And of course it may stay at rest
08:07here halfway down the slope because it wouldn't have the same momentum you just
08:10don't know you've got to find the nearest spot
08:12where it will stay at rest not nearer the hole. Yes. And when you're on the
08:15green that can be on the green or in the general area so
08:19it could be in the fringe and I think you know sometimes not in
08:22this particular instance but the angle might be that you end up
08:25being able to place it on the top tier and getting a bit of a lucky break. If the
08:28green was a bit further behind me. Small green over there and that was the
08:31nearest point where it would stay at rest rather than
08:3325 feet down there you could have a bit of a lucky break and end up with a
08:37single tier putt rather than a. Interesting so in this scenario I think
08:41my nearest spot would be about here because that's the fringe.
08:44Right if that's staying at rest then and that is your nearest point
08:48um then that ball would now be in play. And play on.
08:51And play on yeah.
08:56Okay so the last one on our list to look at is a rule that I had never heard
09:00before as the the title of the video would suggest. Jez you're gonna have to
09:03talk me through this one. Okay so you'll find this
09:05rule 21.1c one of the exceptions to this rule
09:08and it's about stableford scoring so you've got to imagine a scenario you're
09:12on the fifth hole of a stableford and you realize you've got 15 clubs in the
09:15bag. Oops. Yeah now you know most golfers know
09:18that's quite a serious penalty and you've got to imagine a situation where
09:21you're on the fifth hole of a stableford and you realise you've got 15 clubs in
09:24a serious penalty in fact it's two shots per hole up to a maximum of four
09:28shots in total so two holes where you could potentially lose two
09:32shots. Right so I would lose four shots in that scenario.
09:34But in a stableford let's say you've just started blob blob.
09:38Yeah. You would have had those four shots added to your first two holes. Yeah
09:42first two holes at which the breach occurred. Yes but in stableford that's
09:45not the case. Well it's not the case because
09:47as you say if you blob those two holes um you then get two more shots
09:51added to that score it's still a blob isn't it so you're effectively not being
09:54penalized so to keep things fairer the points are actually
09:59deducted from your overall stableford points total at the end
10:02two points at each hole at which a breach occurred. Yes so 35 points goes
10:07down to 31. Yeah. Regardless of the fact that you
10:09started blob blob. Yeah exactly so it's just to kind of keep things fair in a
10:13system where excess shots get ignored effectively
10:17in a stable today because once you've reached a certain level then
10:20you're not scoring. Yeah I mean this one fairly niche as Jez said but it's worth
10:24worth knowing there are penalties attached to carrying too many golf clubs
10:27even if in a stableford you start with two blobs.
10:30So there you have it that's our look at the six rules most golfers do not know.
10:34If you've enjoyed the video please do hit the like button
10:36and if you have any comments leave them in the box below we'll get back to as
10:39many people as we can. But that's it for now from the
10:42London Club we'll see you next time.