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Golf Rules That Are Unclear
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Apr 1, 2025
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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0:00
Hello and welcome to the London Club and this video in which we're going to take a look at the five golf rules that are surprisingly vague
0:07
Now there are certain rules in the book that are very clearly black and white and there are a few others where there's a little bit of a grey area and it's there for a very good reason
0:15
And we're going to talk about exactly what those are in this video. I'm joined by golf rules expert Fergus Vissett. Right, let's get started
0:30
Now, Fergus, for this one, we're going to talk about advice. And advice is a term that you'll see within the rules of golf
0:38
But there is a little bit of, I think, something around it that would leave people feeling a little unsure at times
0:44
Tell me what constitutes advice. And more importantly, I think, what are the things that people need to watch out for
0:50
OK, good. This is rule 10.2A, which deals with advice. Now, a player is not allowed to give advice to other players in the competition, nor is a player allowed to ask advice from anybody other than their caddy
1:05
Now, advice is a comment or an action that would influence a player in the way that they either selected a club or chose to play a whole
1:13
So me telling you here, this is a 150 odd yard par three over water, it's difficult
1:19
Me telling you I've just hit an A time, I'm going to get a penalty for that. You would be receiving a general penalty
1:25
What if I subtly showed you the bottom of the golf club? I'm afraid you would also be in contravention of 10.2A there
1:31
You can't shame me. Now, I would not be allowed to ask you what club you've hit
1:36
I could, however, before we played the hole, say, oh, remember the fourth hole, roughly the same length
1:43
What club did you hit there? That would be okay. That seems a bit odd that you can do that
1:47
but you can't ask what club I've hit here. It does seem quite odd. I would be allowed to have a little look
1:52
in your bag and say, ah, the A-town's missing. He must have hit an A-town here
1:57
But I'm not allowed to move that out of the way. Don't be touching my equipment
2:02
You're in contravention of the rule if you touch a player's equipment or clubs
2:07
Yeah, interesting. And another thing about what I've said that you can ask your caddy
2:12
a spectator might give you some advice. Not me. I don't think they have very many spectators
2:16
If they did, you wouldn't receive a penalty in that instance. However, you would have to encourage them
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to not give you any further advice. If they continued to give you advice as you went round
2:26
and you hadn't discouraged them from doing that, you would breach 10.2a and receive the general penalty
2:31
Interesting. So there's some quite things you've got to watch out for. Subtle differences between what you can and can't do here
2:37
the sort of thing that could really catch you out. If you're playing in competition, just be very careful of that
2:42
Make sure you aren't going out of your way to ask the advice of any of your playing partners
2:47
Now, this one refers to wind direction. And Fergus, we're all used to throwing up a few blades of grass
2:53
to figure out what the wind's doing. There is some wind, it's just going over there. But there's some things here that you're not allowed to do
2:59
aren't there? Explain to us what you can and can do around wind direction and making that judgment call This is rule 4 which is to do with allowed and prohibited use of equipment You not allowed to use a piece of equipment that artificially eliminates the requirement
3:14
for essential skill or judgment within golf. Right, okay. Now, throwing up grass, that's fine
3:21
Grass isn't equipment, it's grass. That's good to know. However, there are, 4.3a part two deals with wind direction
3:28
and it says there are certain things that you can't do. If for some reason you had some powder with you, I don't know why you might, some talcum powder
3:35
I don't have any talcum powder with me today. That would be part of your equipment. And if you threw that in the air to assess which way the wind was going, there would be a penalty
3:43
Right, okay. And you are not, I mean, if you have a hanky in your pocket, you're not allowed to wave that
3:50
Use it like a flag and just figure out what that... Or if you happen to have a ribbon in your bag, which again, I don't know, you may be, you're not allowed to use that
3:58
Right, okay. So you've got to be quite careful with what you're doing. And you would receive the general penalty if you tested the wind in one of those ways with an artificial object
4:07
If you did it again, you'd be disqualified. Two shots or out
4:11
So quite harsh. Now, that leads me to asking the question. What about rangefinders
4:17
Because my rangefinder, as most do, has slope to it. So if I was zapping this hole, I know not to use slope in competition
4:23
The hole that we're playing here is a par three. It's definitely down. It's probably down 10 yards or so
4:28
Why is it that I can have the yardage through this, but I can't have the slope as well
4:36
The reason is because the yardages are publicly available information. The yardage is something that you will be given on
4:44
Yes, I can see. Absolutely. Down there, yeah. However, you have to use your judgment to decide how much the slope here would impact that yardage
4:53
And if you use a device to tell you that, that's in contravention of that rule of prohibited use of equipment
5:00
Good advice. And I'm going to throw in an extra piece of advice. When you're playing golf, just make sure that your slope is turned off before you start if you're playing in competition
5:08
because that could definitely catch you out. Oh, that's a bit dicey over there. I was over there the other week. That's not very good
5:21
I think I'm going to have to play another one. Okay. Now, Ferg, I know from experience, from having done this with you before
5:30
having spoken about this subject before, that when you have to hit a provisional ball, you need to be quite prescriptive, I'd say, about what you're about to do
5:38
Is that fair? That is fair. 18.3, which is a provisional ball
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18.3b says that you need to make it clear to your playing partners
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that you are playing a provisional ball. If you don't make it clear that you're playing a provisional ball
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Then this ball that you're about to hit Will automatically become the ball in play
5:56
Even if Lyman is sitting in the rough No problem So what I just said then
6:01
Which was, oh that's dicey over there I think I'm going to have to play another
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Is that good enough or is that not good enough? That's not good enough So I have to say I need to play a provisional You have to Technically the rules would like you to say that you going to play a provisional Right And here where the sort of uncertainty kicks in
6:18
Some uncertainty, because if you said, I'm going to play another one just in case
6:23
that suggests that you're playing a provisional ball. That's good enough. Because of the doubt
6:27
Because of the doubt. And if you said, I'm going to play another one under rule 18.3
6:32
if you're a real rules bot, then that would be okay. I like it
6:37
Another thing would be that, perhaps not on the tee, but say that you were down in the fairway and your playing partners were somewhere else
6:43
If you required to play a provisional ball at that point, you wouldn't be able to tell them before you hit the shot
6:48
Am I not shouting across the fairway? No, you wouldn't need to do that. You would play your provisional and then you would go to your partners and say, I have played a provisional ball
6:55
Okay. Now, okay, there's some uncertainty about the wording here. My advice and the rules advice is always just categorically state, I am playing a provisional ball
7:05
Right. Well, Fergus, I'm playing a provisional ball. Correct. And you might want to play a bit
7:21
OK, so I have hit my tee shot on the 14th hole here at the London Club into this position in here
7:27
Now, I know that, Fergus, this is an immovable obstruction. It is
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But the golf rules are slightly vague in this scenario. And I'll tell you why, because the green is over your left shoulder, just over there
7:40
The fairway is behind me, behind my back, the nearest point to the fairway
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And I would be doing everything I could, I think, to be getting a free drop from here
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by coming along and saying I was going to hit a four iron onto the green from this position
7:56
Now tell me, as my personal referee, that that's perfectly acceptable. I would seriously question you
8:07
16.1a part three says that you will not be entitled to relief
8:12
if it is clearly unreasonable. Right. So you think this shot with a four-iron is clearly unreasonable
8:17
Well, basically, you would get relief if you were taking a shot
8:23
that you were going to be taking anyway. And the immovable obstruction affected either the live ball
8:30
your stance as it does would do in this case yes or the swing path now you have to be honest about
8:38
the type of shot that you would realistically be taking on from here now i can see that if you aim
8:44
down that line you're gonna you're hitting over rough and trees for about 100 yards your ball is
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buried thick in the rough there is no way you would be taking on that shot so realistically i
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would be chipping it back out. Everyone would be chipping it back out, which means I'm now not standing on the path
9:03
Exactly. So you would not be entitled to free relief. And that would be the honest way
9:09
And a referee in competition would say that. So in amateur golf you just have to be honest Even if I pleaded I think even if you pleaded they would just say there no Please look Go on You have a go at that shot I want to see it I going to stand up here
9:24
I'm going to prove you wrong. I'm going to prove you wrong. Here we go. I can get a
9:28
four-iron out here. I mean, but are you just going to head it straight into the rough? I'm not. Oh my God
9:36
Well, that ball will never be seen again. I mean, there was no..
9:42
It was just unreasonable. It was an unreasonable situation. OK, so we have another scenario for you where the rules of golf are a little bit vague, purposefully vague, Fergus
9:53
Now, the scenario for you is that I've hit my shot from over here just to playing down the right hand side of the hole
10:00
The ball's gone over the crest of the hill. We've both seen it go over the crest of the hill and we know there's water and we know there's a penalty area down here
10:06
Now, I was hoping against hope that I might find my ball sitting on this grass here, but I haven't found it
10:13
it's gone in there, or at least we're virtually certain it's gone in there
10:19
Explain to me how we need to proceed in that study. Well, yeah, this is known or virtually certain
10:23
This is a term that's used in the modern rules quite a bit, and it is the standard for deciding what has happened to a player's ball
10:30
Has it gone in a penalty area? Has it been moved? How was it moved? Those sorts of situations
10:36
Now, here, I think we can be virtually certain, and in the definitions of the rules, that's being 95% sure
10:44
So 19 times out of 20, the ball will have come over the crest of the hill
10:49
The fact that it's not here means it's in there. Okay, one in a thousand times a seagull's picked up your ball
10:57
Unlikely, highly unlikely. Highly unlikely. We're virtually certain we are 95% at least sure
11:02
that the ball has gone in the penalty area and you would take relief accordingly from a red penalty area
11:07
In this scenario, it's fairly clear. It's very clear. However, if what we were standing on here was heavy, thick, fescue
11:18
the sort that you're struggling to find your golf ball in anyway, that's where virtually certain in the rules, the terminology really kicks in
11:24
Because can you be virtually certain that your ball's got in there
11:28
It may well have done, but you can't be sure, can you? Probably not. And in that case, I think you wouldn't be able to say that you were 95% sure
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that what has happened, you think has happened, has happened. You could well be in the thick grass
11:40
In that instance, you would have to search for your ball and have your three-minute search, and if you couldn't find it
11:45
I think you would have to go back and play again. Probably feeling a little bit hard done by
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but better feeling hard done by than potentially breaking the rules and causing any sorts of issues for yourself
11:56
Correct. So there you have it. If you are unsure about whether your ball might have gone in
11:59
if you're not virtually certain, then it's best just to go back and hit another
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so there you have it that's our look at the five golf rules that are surprisingly vague
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hopefully fergus's explanations there have helped you whenever you find yourself in any of those scenarios if you're unsure about anything please do leave some comments
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below we'll get back to as many of you as we can and of course don't forget to hit the like
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and subscribe buttons but thanks for watching we will see you next time
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