Common Rules Violations

General Discussion
#1

More rules talk!! I am officially in the rabbit hole!!

Since diving in, I have been thinking about what rules I see broken the most frequently. Specifically, I mean unintentional violations by fairly knowledgeable players (agreeing to play casual rules does not qualify).

So here are the two that I see / have done myself:

  • building a stance in a bush/young sapling… this is pretty darn subjective but once you read the rule it becomes pretty clear that the bar is pretty high. If you are backing into a bush to play a shot you have a pretty strict requirement to not take any additional actions to free up your club path or body movement. For me, the most common would be tucking young flexible branches behind a leg to clear the club path on the backswing…been playing for years and just found out this is a penalty. I was probably doing this once a month

  • Nearest point of relief from immovable obstruction (cart path). I think the majority of casual golfers flip the ball onto whatever side of the path provides the best lie or line back into play. This is a situation where you can save yourself 1 or 2 strokes and really give yourself advantage by breaking the rule.

What else? What do you see your buddies doing and then claiming ignorance when you call them out?

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#2

I’m definitely guilty of building myself a stance on occasion. I’ll have to pay attention and stop doing it, I was unaware it was against the rules.

As a positive side of knowing the rules… I was told this story by Brandon, an Assistant Pro at my club, who’s brother was a top 100 amateur… Brandon was caddying for his brother at Pinehurst #2, and they were playing with another top amateur… The other amateur had a 3 foot putt that he wasn’t paying attention on, hit, missed and it promptly rolled 50+ feet off the green. The player marked his spot, declared the original ball unplayable and re-hit his putt (and made the 3 footer)… He used the rules to create an easier up and down for himself.

Not sure that’s ethical, but that’s the story I was told!

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#3

When I saw the topic, this was the first thing that came to mind. Dropping in the “Nicest” point of relief instead of the nearest. A related one would be not taking complete relief. I’ve seen guys move the ball off the path and hit it while standing on the path. The other common one is talking about club selection, the wind, or some of the other things that are part of “advice”.

In my personal opinion, playing in accordance with the rules is always ethical. And actually knowing the rules well enough to do it is a great reason for following rules threads on internet golf forums.

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#4

Rule 19.1 says you the player are the only one who determines a ball unplayable!

@Craigers doesn’t seem that sketchy to me in principle. If you don’t like a shot, you can take a stroke and distance penalty.

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