Category
The Rules of Golf, handicaps, scoring formats and course etiquette in plain English.
In a competition, can you ask a playing partner what club they hit? Can your caddie help line you up? Can you tell an opponent how a putt breaks? The rules on advice and caddies catch out many…
Look at any scorecard and you'll see two numbers for each set of tees: the course rating and the slope rating. They're central to the handicap system, because they let golfers compare scores on…
Golf balls sometimes move when they shouldn't: you accidentally knock your ball with the club while addressing it, the wind blows it on the green, or a playing partner kicks it while searching. The…
It's easy to do: two balls finish close together in the rough, both the same brand, and you hit the wrong one. Playing a wrong ball is one of the most common rules breaches in golf, and in…
The Rules of Golf apply everywhere, but every course is different. Local rules let a course or committee adapt the rules to its own conditions: winter weather, damaged areas, environmentally…
Golf is a safe sport for the most part, but a golf ball travels at high speed, clubs are swung with force, and courses can involve slopes, water, carts and unpredictable weather. Most injuries on…
A golf scorecard can look confusing at first: rows of numbers, columns for different tees, stroke indexes and boxes for signatures. In a casual round, you can simply write down your scores. But in a…
Bunkers are one of the few places on the course where the rules restrict what you can do before your stroke, and they are a common source of penalty strokes. The rules were simplified in recent…
The putting green has its own set of rules, and they have become more golfer-friendly in recent years. You can now repair almost any damage on the green, leave the flagstick in, and move on without…
Many golfers take penalty strokes they don't need, or play awkward shots from cart paths and puddles when they could have taken free relief. The Rules of Golf give you relief without penalty from a…
Slow play is one of the most common complaints in golf. Long rounds put people off the game, frustrate groups behind and take up time many golfers don't have. The good news is that playing faster…
Water hazards, white stakes and lost balls cause more confusion, and more penalty strokes, than almost any other part of golf. Knowing your options can save you shots: sometimes the obvious drop…
