RULES By Logan Rasmussen

RULES OF GOLF

Five ways to better your score using the Rules of Golf to your advantage

WORDS BY LOGAN RASMUSSEN

Acommon initial misconception about the Rules of Golf is that they can only hurt your round through penalty strokes. But something not as wellknown is that PGA Tour players and strong amateur players have been using the Rules to their advantage for years – and you can to with these simple tips!

>> If you struggle to get your ball out of the sand when you are in a bunker, you don’t necessarily have to play from the bunker. In the 2019 modernization to the Rules of Golf, the USGA implemented an additional option to taking an unplayable ball and dropping your ball into play outside of a bunker. Although this option will cost you an additional penalty stroke, a player is entitled to taking ‘Back-online’ relief creating an imaginary line between the ball itself at rest in the bunker and the flagstick on the hole being played, then dropping a ball as far back on that line as you would like, including outside of the bunker.

>> Most golfers know that if their ball ends up on a sprinkler head, cart path, drain or other immovable obstruction they will be entitled to a free drop. But it is important to know that when dropping a ball back into play you don’t need to drop it in the same condition, just the same area of the course (General Area, Bunker). There is a special exception for the Putting Green relief. For example, if

your ball just comes to rest on a sprinkler head positioned just in the rough your drop just needs to be within one club-length of the nearest point of complete relief, no closer to the hole, but doesn’t have to be in the rough. It could be in the fairway if that is within the one club-length!

>> Have you ever been looking for your ball and just can’t seem to find it within the thick rough? You then start kicking around in the grass and accidentally hit the ball with your foot, causing it to fly forward a few feet. Devastated that you believe you have incurred a penalty, you are not sure what to do – do I play it from that new spot or put it back? Another relaxation to the Rules of Golf makes this scenario not a penalty. Since your intention was to simply find your ball and the movement was done accidentally, you will pick up your ball and place back where it was at rest before you kicked it.

>> You can play your ball from a penalty area (formerly known as a hazard) for no penalty. If you are able to find your ball anywhere on the course, you always have

RULES OF GOLF

the option to play the ball as it lies, and that means even in a penalty area. You can even ground your club, move loose impediments, and movable obstructions in that penalty area before you play!

>> Imagine this: You schedule a tee time at your favorite course, and are looking forward to this day for months. The day finally comes, and you open your window expecting it to be sunshine and rainbows and instead: rain and clouds scattered across the sky. Determined to enjoy yourself you head to the course and get a full warm up session in. You get to the first tee and pipe a drive right up the righthand side of the hole. You stroll up to your ball and see that it plugged deep into the soil just off the fairway in the rough. You think this is a bad break – but then you remember that a player is entitled to take embedded ball relief when their ball is embedded in its own pitch mark anywhere in the general area (except naturally sandy areas such as the desert)!

Take a moment to become more familiar with the Rules of Golf, especially after the 2019 modernization. You never know when a better knowledge of certain scenarios will help your score – or help you come out on top of the match you’re desperate to win!