Just Wait Until I Hit That 300 Yard Drive!

(Rules for the Game of Golf)

Just a few years ago, actually the year was 2013, the PGA and the USGA announced a new initiative that was designed to encourage golfers to “Tee It Forward”. The following chart is used as a suggested guideline for selecting the teeing area they should use when playing. The chart is based on your average driving distance and the recommended yardage of the course to play. 

A recent survey of TEE IT FORWARD participants found that:

56% played faster, 56% are likely to play golf more often, 83% hit more-lofted clubs into greens, 85% had more fun and 93% will TEE IT FORWARD again.

This article is not endorsing or negatively commenting on this initiative. It is up to each golfer to determine the value of their golfing experience and if this recommendation assists them in doing so, all the better. But the information is usable when discussing our next rule of golf.

Rule 6 – Playing a Hole

Common sense dictates that we need a starting point for everything we do. If you think about any type of sporting competition, there is a method or way to begin. Swimmers and runners wait until they hear a gunshot or horn blast, the kickoff in football comes after a whistle is blown, the tip off in basketball must wait until the referee throws up the ball and so on. Golf begins with the first stroke to begin a hole. Sounds easy until you realize there are restrictions to where and when you can start a hole.

The Teeing Area is one of five areas of the course and the only place where you can begin playing a hole, most of the time. If you are on the prepared turf for starting play but you are not in the designated “teeing area”, you have not proceeded correctly. The teeing ground is determined by a measurement of two club-lengths behind the most forward edge of the tee markers and the tee markers themselves. A ball can be overhanging that measurement and still be in the teeing area. You may also stand outside the teeing area and play a ball that is inside the teeing area.

Match play has a different set of requirements concerning the teeing area. A player that plays from outside may proceed without penalty only if their opponent allows the stroke to stand. The opponent has the option to cancel the stroke and require the player to play from within the teeing area instead. I doubt if your ball goes out of bounds that your opponent will be cancelling that stroke!

A little known fact that could be very advantageous sometimes is when you are required to play another ball from the teeing ground, you can play that ball from anywhere in the area and can use a tee to do so; even if you did not use a tee during the previous stroke.

When you select a ball for play, that ball must be used throughout the hole, unless a rule allows you to substitute another. The recent changes in rules have opened up the substitution option immensely. If you are proceeding under a rule that allows you relief from a situation, whether it is a penalty area, unusual course conditions, unplayable or you choose to proceed under stroke and distance you may always substitute a ball for the original ball in play. If you are placing or replacing a ball, it is most likely you are required to use the original ball. Oh, no putting ball allowed!

Rule 6.3c details what happens when you play a “Wrong Ball.” The best thing that ever happened to this rule is that you are now allowed to identify your ball no matter where it is located on the course. You can mark and lift for identification in penalty areas, temporary water, immovable obstructions, bunkers, putting green, etc. Unfortunately, we don’t always remember to do that and thus a wrong ball ends up in play. If you make a stroke at a wrong ball, you are penalized two strokes. No matter how many times you strike that wrong ball, the penalty is only a total of two strokes. You must correct the mistake prior to playing from the next teeing ground or returning your scorecard. In match play, if you and your opponent play a wrong ball, the first player to play is penalized and that becomes a loss of hole.

The honour is a noble term we sometimes use without boundaries. To be correctly stated, the honour is the right of a player to play first from the teeing area (Rule 6.4). The player with the lowest gross score at a hole has the honour at the next tee and so on and so on. You will not find the Committee upset at you if you play out of turn and the purpose is for “Ready Golf”. Just be sure when taking this privilege, it is not giving any player an advantage.

When the curtain goes up in the theatre, expect to see or hear an actor begin the play. If they do not, check your ticket for the date and time of the performance. When you play golf, begin your play (not the theatre kind) by making your first stroke in the teeing area. After an outstanding performance of your own, the audience will erupt with applause when your ball goes in the cup to finish the last hole!