In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Golf Monthly rules expert Fergus Bisset to talk through the 5 golf rules that are surprisingly vague or unclear. Whether it's determining if your ball is in a hazard, declaring a provisional or understanding what constitutes advice, there are actually quite a few grey areas in the rule book that you need to be careful of.
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00:00Hello and welcome to the London Club and this video in which we're going to take a look
00:03at the five golf rules that are surprisingly vague.
00:07Now there are certain rules in the book that are very clearly black and white and there
00:10are a few others where there's a little bit of a grey area and it's there for a very good
00:14reason.
00:15And we're going to talk about exactly what those are in this video.
00:18I'm joined by golf rules expert, Fergus Bissett.
00:21Right, let's get started.
00:25Now, Fergus, for this one, we're going to talk about advice.
00:35And advice is a term that you will see within the rules of golf.
00:38But there is a little bit of, I think, something around it that would leave people feeling
00:42a little unsure at times.
00:44Tell me what constitutes advice and more importantly, I think, what are the things that people need
00:49to watch out for?
00:50Okay, good.
00:52This is rule 10.2a, which deals with advice.
00:55Now, a player is not allowed to give advice to other players in the competition, nor is
01:01a player allowed to ask advice from anybody other than their caddie.
01:05Now, advice is a comment or an action that would influence a player in the way that they
01:10either selected a club or chose to play a hole.
01:13Play the shots.
01:14So me telling you here, this is a 150-odd yard path, three over water, it's difficult.
01:20Me telling you I've just hit an 8-iron, I'm going to get a penalty for that.
01:23You would be receiving a general penalty.
01:25What if I subtly showed you the bottom of the golf club?
01:27I'm afraid you would also be in contravention of 10.2a there, yeah, you can't shame me.
01:33Now, I would not be allowed to ask you what club you've hit.
01:36I could, however, before we played the hole, say, oh, remember the fourth hole, roughly
01:42the same length?
01:43What club did you hit there?
01:44Right, that seems a bit odd that you can do that, but you can't ask what club I've hit
01:48here.
01:50I would be allowed to have a little look in your bag and say, ah, the 8-iron's missing,
01:56you must have hit an 8-iron here, but I'm not allowed to move that out of the way.
02:01They'd be touching my equipment.
02:03You're in contravention of the rule if you touch a player's equipment or clubs.
02:07Yeah, interesting.
02:08And another thing about what I've said that you can ask your caddy, a spectator might
02:13give you some advice.
02:14Not me, I don't have very many spectators.
02:17If they did, you wouldn't receive a penalty in that instance, however, you would have
02:21to encourage them to not give you any further advice.
02:24If they continued to give you advice as you went round and you hadn't discouraged them
02:27from doing that, you would breach 10.2a and receive the general penalty there.
02:31Interesting.
02:32So, there's some quite, you know, things you've got to watch out for.
02:35Subtle differences between what you can and can't do here, the sort of thing that could
02:38really catch you out.
02:39If you're playing in competition, just be very careful of that.
02:42Make sure you aren't going out of your way to ask advice of any of your playing partners.
02:47Now, this one refers to wind direction and Fergus, we're all used to throwing up a few
02:52blades of grass to figure out what the wind's doing.
02:54There is some wind, it's just going over there.
02:57But there's some things here that you're not allowed to do, aren't there?
03:00Explain to us what you can and can't do around wind direction and making that judgment call.
03:04This is rule 4.3a, which is to do with allowed and prohibited use of equipment.
03:10You're not allowed to use a piece of equipment that artificially eliminates the requirement
03:14for essential skill or judgment within golf.
03:17Right, okay.
03:18Now, throwing up grass, that's fine.
03:21Grass isn't equipment.
03:22It's grass.
03:23It's good to know.
03:24However, there are 4.3a part two deals with wind direction and it says there are certain
03:30things that you can't do.
03:31If for some reason you had some powder with you, I don't know why you might, some talcum
03:35powder.
03:36I don't have any talcum powder with me today.
03:37That would be part of your equipment.
03:38And if you threw that in the air to assess which way the wind was going, there would
03:42be a penalty.
03:43Right, okay.
03:45I mean, if you have a hanky in your pocket, you're not allowed to wave that in the air.
03:50You use it like a flag and just figure it out with it.
03:52Or if you happen to have a ribbon in your bag, which again, I don't know, you may do,
03:56you're not allowed to use that.
03:58Right, okay.
03:59So you've got to be quite careful with what you're doing and you would receive the general
04:02penalty if you tested the wind in one of those ways with an artificial object.
04:07If you did it again, you'd be disqualified.
04:10Two shots or out.
04:11So quite harsh.
04:12Now, that leads me to asking the question, what about rangefinders?
04:17Because my rangefinder, as most do, has slope to it.
04:20So if I was zapping this hole, I know not to use slope in competition, that the hole
04:23that we're playing here is a par three.
04:26It's definitely down.
04:27It's probably down 10 yards or so.
04:30Why is it that I can have the yardage through this, but I can't have the slope as well?
04:37The reason is because the yardages are publicly available information.
04:41So the yardage is something that you will be given on the screen.
04:45Yes, I can see.
04:46Absolutely.
04:47Down there, yeah.
04:48However, you have to use your judgment to decide how much the slope here would impact
04:53that yardage.
04:54And if you use a device to tell you that, that's in contravention of that rule of prohibited
04:59use of equipment.
05:00Good advice.
05:01And I'll get thrown an extra piece of advice.
05:03When you're playing golf, just make sure that your slope is turned off before you start
05:07if you're playing in competition, because that could definitely catch you out.
05:11Oh, that's a bit dicey over there.
05:19I was over there the other week.
05:21That's not very good.
05:22I think I'm going to have to play another one.
05:25Okay.
05:26Now, I know from experience, from having done this with you before, having spoken about
05:30this subject before, that when you have to hit a provisional ball, you need to be quite
05:35prescriptive, I'd say, about what you're about to do.
05:39Is that fair?
05:40That is fair.
05:4118.3, which is a provisional ball, 18.3b says that you need to make it clear to your playing
05:48partners that you are playing a provisional ball.
05:50If you don't make it clear that you're playing a provisional ball, then this ball that you're
05:54about to hit will automatically become the ball in play.
05:57Even if Lime is sitting in the rough.
05:59No problem.
06:00Exactly.
06:01So what I just said then, which was, oh, that's dicey over there.
06:04I think I'm going to have to play another.
06:06Is that good enough or is that not good enough?
06:07That's not good enough.
06:08Do I have to say, I need to play a provisional?
06:10You have to.
06:11Technically, the rules would like you to say that you must play, that you're going
06:15to play a provisional.
06:16Right.
06:17And then here's where the sort of uncertainty kicks in.
06:19Some uncertainty, because if you said, I'm going to play another one just in case, that
06:24suggests that you're playing a provisional ball.
06:26That's good enough.
06:27Because of the doubt.
06:28Because of the doubt.
06:29And if you said, I'm going to play another one under rule 18.3, if you're a real rules
06:34bot, then that would be okay.
06:37I like it.
06:38Another thing would be that, perhaps not on the tee, but say that you were down in the
06:41fairway and your playing partners were somewhere else.
06:44If you required to play a provisional ball at that point, you wouldn't be able to tell
06:47them before you hit the shot.
06:48Right.
06:49And why not shouting across the fairway, I'm playing a provisional.
06:50No, you wouldn't need to do that.
06:51You would play your provisional and then you would go to your partners and say, I have
06:54played a provisional ball.
06:56Okay.
06:57Now, okay.
06:58There's some uncertainty about the wording here.
07:00My advice and the rules advice is always just categorically state, I am playing a provisional
07:05ball.
07:06Right.
07:07I'm playing a provisional ball.
07:09Correct.
07:16And you might want to play a bit.
07:21Okay.
07:22So I have hit my tee shot on the 14th hole here at the London club into this position
07:27in here.
07:28Now I know that Fergus, this is a, an immovable obstruction, but the golf rules are slightly
07:33vague in this scenario.
07:35And I'll tell you why, because, uh, the green is over your left shoulder, just over there.
07:41The fairway is behind me, behind my back, the nearest point to the fairway.
07:45And I would be doing everything I could, I think, to be getting a free drop from here
07:51by coming along and saying, I was going to hit a four iron onto the green from this position.
07:56And, uh, yeah, now tell me as my, as my personal referee, that's perfectly acceptable.
08:03I would seriously question you.
08:0716.1a part three says that you will not be entitled to relief if it is clearly unreasonable.
08:14Right.
08:15So you think this shot with a four iron is clearly unreasonable?
08:19Basically you would get a relief if you were taking a shot that you meant you were going
08:24to be taking anyway.
08:26And the immovable obstruction affected either the live ball, your stance as it does would
08:33do in this case, uh, or the swing path.
08:36Now you have to be honest about the type of shot that you would realistically be taking
08:41on from here.
08:42Now I can see that if you aim down that line, you're going to, you're hitting over rough
08:49and trees for about a hundred yards, your ball is buried thick in the rough.
08:54There is no way you would be taking on that shot.
08:56So realistically I would be chipping it back out, everyone would be chipping it back out,
09:01which means I'm now not standing on the path.
09:03Exactly.
09:04So you would not be entitled to free relief.
09:07And that would be the honest way.
09:09And a referee in competition would, would, uh, would say that.
09:13So in amateur golf, you just have to be honest.
09:15Even if I pleaded?
09:16I think even if you pleaded, they would just say, please look, go on, you have a go at
09:22that shot.
09:23I want to, I want to see it.
09:24I'm going to stand up here.
09:25I'm going to prove you wrong.
09:26Right.
09:27I'm going to prove you wrong.
09:28Here we go.
09:29I can get a four iron out of you.
09:30I'm just going to head it straight into the rough.
09:31I'm not.
09:32Oh my God.
09:33Well, that ball will never be seen again.
09:34I mean, there was no, it was just unreasonable.
09:35It was an unreasonable situation.
09:36Okay.
09:37So we have another scenario for you where the rules of golf are a little bit vague,
09:51purposefully vague, Fergus.
09:53Now the scenario for you is that I've hit my shot from over here just to playing down
09:58the right-hand side of the hole.
10:00The ball's gone over the crest of the hill.
10:01We've both seen it go over the crest of the hill and we know there's water and we know
10:05there's a penalty area down here.
10:07Now I was hoping against hope that I might find my ball sitting on this grass here, but
10:11I haven't found it.
10:15It's gone in there or at least we're virtually certain it's gone in there.
10:19Explain to me how we need to proceed in that scenario.
10:21Well, yeah, this is known or virtually certain.
10:24This is a term that's used in the modern rules quite a bit and that is the standard for a
10:28deciding what has happened to a player's ball.
10:31Has it gone in a penalty area?
10:32Has it been moved?
10:33How was it moved?
10:34Those sorts of situations.
10:36Now here, I think we can be virtually certain and in the definitions of the rules, that's
10:42being 95% sure.
10:44So 19 times out of 20, the ball will have come over the crest of the hill.
10:50The fact that it's not here means it's in there.
10:53Okay.
10:54One in a thousand times a seagull's picked up your ball.
10:56Unlikely.
10:57Highly unlikely.
10:58Highly unlikely.
10:59Yeah.
11:00We're virtually certain.
11:01We are 95% at least sure that the ball has gone in the penalty area and you would take
11:05relief accordingly from a red penalty area.
11:08In this scenario, it's fairly clear.
11:11However, if what we were standing on here was heavy, thick, fescue, the sort that you're
11:19struggling to find your golf ball in anyway, that's where virtually certain in the rules,
11:23the terminology really kicks in because can you be virtually certain that your ball's
11:28got in there?
11:29It may well have done, but you can't be sure, can you?
11:30Probably not.
11:31And in that case, I think you wouldn't be able to say that you were 95% sure that what
11:36has happened, you think has happened, has happened.
11:39You could well be in the thick grass.
11:40In that instance, you would have to search for your ball and have your three-minute search
11:44and if you couldn't find it, I think you would have to go back and play again.
11:48Probably feeling a little bit hard done by, but better feeling hard done by than potentially
11:53breaking the rules and causing any sorts of issues for yourself.
11:56Correct.
11:57So there you have it.
11:58If you are unsure about whether your ball might have gone in, if you're not virtually
12:01certain, then it's best just to go back and hit another.
12:04So there you have it.
12:06That's our look at the five golf rules that are surprisingly vague.
12:09Hopefully, Fergus's explanations there have helped you whenever you find yourself in any
12:13of those scenarios.
12:14If you're unsure about anything, please do leave some comments below.
12:17We'll get back to as many of you as we can and of course, don't forget to hit the like
12:21and subscribe buttons.
12:23But thanks for watching.
12:24We will see you next time.