Golf Resource

• The rules and regulations of golf have an international standard governed under the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) and the United States Golf Association (USGA). By agreement with the R&A, USGA authority on the enforcement of the rules is limited to the United States and Mexico. The national golf associations of other countries use the rules laid down by the R&A and there is a formal procedure for referring any points of doubt to the R&A. The fundamental principle of the rules is fairness, on the back cover of the official rule book it states that “play the ball as it lies”, “play the course as you find it” and “if you can’t do either, do what is fair”. Here are some of the important rules and regulation;

• Every player is entitled and obliged to play the ball from the position where it has come to rest after a stroke, unless a rule allows or demands otherwise (Rule 13-1)

• A player must not accept assistance in making a stroke (Rule 14-2)

• The condition of the ground or other parts of the course may not be altered to gain an advantage, except in some cases defined in the rules

• A ball may only be replaced by another during play of a hole if it is destroyed (Rule 5-3), lost (Rule 27-1), or unplayable (Rule 28), or at some other time permitted by the Rules. The player may always substitute balls between the play of two holes.

Winter Rules

The weather is a very important aspect of whether or not a round of golf would be more difficult than it should. The ideal weather for most golfers is a warm day in spring or summer where it is easier to hit shots off the fairway and would not have to put up with a wet, soggy terrain where it is likely that things can go wrong without you realizing it. Though the weather is something that humans cannot control so sometimes playing in less ideal conditions becomes necessary. If you are playing just for leisure purposes the rules are sometimes relaxed to suit a more difficult task of playing in winter conditions, this is commonly known as Winter Rules, these rules have to be agreed upon by other golfers in your group in order for them to be applied.

A leaf ball: if one loses their ball, they lose a stroke and distance as one has to return to the tee and play another. If it seems like the ball is definitely lost them it is best to declare it as lost and play a provisional ball, if that is the case then you can play the provisional ball with more strokes as long as you don’t go further than where you think the ball is lost. If the lost ball is found, you can play it, if not you can still play the provisional ball. Although there are cases where golfers think that they are able to find the first ball, they go searching but don’t find it as well as not having hit a provisional ball, this creates slow play if they have to go back to the tee. The solution is this, drop another where you think the first was lost and play that. This is where winter rules come into play, suppose you cannot find your ball because all the leaves have been cleared of the fairway into an area where it is normally clear of leaves and would have been a whole lot easier to find your ball. You declare your ball as a leaf ball as it is somewhere in the leaves that normally would not be there. You drop another where you think the leaf ball would be and play form there. You lie one with the dropped ball so you are not charged a stroke because you are playing winter rules and have a leaf ball. There us another case similar to the leaf ball, same principles but instead of leaves it is a called a snow ball. Just like leaves, if your ball is lost in a patch of snow, you can apply the same rules as a leaf ball.