Golf Rules Refresher 2016

We encourage our members to become familiar with the basic rules of golf and adhere to them in the spirit of sportsmanship unique to the game of golf.  Listed below are a few important rules, including a couple of exceptions we allow in order to keep up the pace of play on a public course:

(1)    Play the ball where it lies on the fairway and in the rough.  There is no such thing as “winter rules.”  Do not move the ball to improve your lie.  Penalty for infractions is two strokes.

(2)    The unplayable lie rules are sometimes impractical on a busy public course.  They are:

(a)  playing the next shot from as near as possible to the spot from which the last shot was played

(b)  drop behind the point where the ball lay, keeping that point directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped

(c)  drop a ball within two club lengths of the spot where the ball lay, but not nearer the hole

If you can carry out any of the above reliefs without delaying the following group you can do so with a one stroke penalty.  Most times (a) and (b) will be impractical or would cause undue delay, keeping in mind the desired pace of play.  Option (c) will often not be of any use, especially if your ball is 15 feet into the bush.  So if none of these options work we allow you to drop a ball two club lengths on to the fairway from the edge of the rough.  The penalty then is two strokes (equivalent to stroke and distance).

(3)    Our approach to the lost ball rule is similar to that for an unplayable lie.  The official rules provide for (under penalty of one stroke) playing a ball either from where the last shot was played or going back to the tee.  These both incur a penalty of one stroke, but since you have gone back up the fairway to make your shot the penalty is really stroke and distance.   If you can use one of these options without incurring the wrath of the following group you can do so, but we also allow you to drop near the edge of the fairway, as in (2) above, and add two strokes (stroke and distance) to your score.

(4)    Your allowable number of strokes on a hole for handicap purposes is not applicable until after the game, when you convert your gross score to your net score on each hole.  If your equitable stroke based on your handicap is 2, and you shoot 11 on a par 5 hole, you cannot stop counting at 7 strokes and declare your score to be 7 “because I can’t take more than 2 strokes over par per hole.”  The score that you report to the scorekeeper is 11.  The adjustment for your handicap is made at the end of the game.

(5)  And finally, GIMMIES are NOT allowed when we are playing Victoria Senior Men’s Golf. If anyone breaks the NO Gimmie Rule and I hear about it and other members of the group verify this has happened I will Disqualify the offending player (so no score recorded no prizes for him )

We play A Scottish game there are no gimmies in Curling or Golf. 

If you can’t play by our rules maybe you should find another league to play in.