Golf Monthly rules expert Jezz Ellwood explains what you can and can't do on the tee under the rules of golf.
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00:00Hello, I'm on the 14th tee on the international course at the London Club, it's a 179-yard
00:10par 3 playing in that direction and we're here to talk about the teeing area.
00:14The teeing area is one of the specifically defined parts of the golf course from which
00:18we start every hole, obviously, but it can be a variety of sizes because it depends how
00:24far the tee marks are set apart as to how wide or narrow an area you get to tee off
00:29from, but regardless of how wide it is, it always extends back two club lengths from
00:34the frontmost and outermost extremities of whatever tee markers are being used on the
00:39day.
00:40The ball has to be wholly outside the defined teeing area for you to be deemed to be playing
00:44from outside the teeing area, so if even just a tiny part of the ball is within that area
00:49I've specified, then you're okay.
00:51You can also stand outside the teeing area to play a ball that is within the teeing area.
00:56So what are the penalties if you tee off from outside the teeing area, either inadvertently
01:01or perhaps you play from the wrong set of tees, you wander over to the yellows by mistake
01:05when you're not concentrating?
01:07Well the penalties are the same and in match play there actually is no penalty.
01:12You are not penalised for playing from outside the teeing area, however, what can happen
01:17is that your opponent may ask for the stroke to be cancelled and for you to replay from
01:22within the teeing area, so it will probably depend how well you've struck that first ball
01:26as to whether you get asked to play again.
01:28In stroke play it's a very different story, it's a two-stroke penalty straight away and
01:33then you must take further action to remedy the situation before you tee off on the next
01:38hole, make a stroke at the next hole or before you return your scorecard if it's your last
01:42hole and you must go back and play the hole again from within the teeing area.
01:48So the bad news is it's a two-stroke penalty, the good news is that none of the strokes
01:52made with the ball played from outside the teeing area count and if you don't rectify
01:57the mistake in that time frame specified, then I'm afraid the penalty will escalate
02:02to disqualification.
02:03A couple of other things to mention on the teeing area, the first is because the ball
02:07is not in play you're allowed to do things here that you're not allowed to do elsewhere
02:11on the course, so you can make a dent with your club to put the ball on if you want to,
02:16you can stand down anything, you can remove dew, frost, water, you can break grass if
02:23you want to tee off in a certain place and there's a tuft of grass just behind your ball
02:27you can break that grass off before you tee off.
02:30And the other thing that's worth mentioning and I'm not sure how many people know this
02:33is that any time your ball is within the teeing area of the hole being played you can re-tee
02:38it.
02:39Now that might seem a bit notional because that's not going to happen very often but
02:43it does mean that if you're playing foursomes and your partner happens to whiff it or barely
02:47move it you can tee the ball back up and play it from any part of the teeing area you wish
02:53if it had remained within the teeing area.
02:55Just a handy little one to know to perhaps limit the damage when things are already going
02:59a little bit wrong.