Understanding Basic Golf Rules: How Knowing the Do’s and Don’ts Can Help You Shoot Lower Scores
Did you ever imagine that getting familiar with some of the basic rules in golf can actually help your golf game? In this article, Marc fills you in on how getting serious can help you get better.
Golf has a lot of rules.
And unlike every other sport, there are no referees or umpires to tell you if you’re doing something wrong. Instead, it’s up to you, the golfer, to police yourself.
But if you don’t know the basic golf rules, how can you do that?
And, if you don’t have a solid understanding of the rules of golf, how will you be able to take advantage of the rules that can actually benefit you more than penalize you? Believe it or not, knowing the rules can save you strokes and lower your scores.
Golf is most certainly a crazy game. And the rules of golf might be the craziest part. But it doesn’t have to be as intimidating as you may fear.
We’re not going to cover all of the golf rules in this post. Far from it. Heck, the official rule book is more than 250 pages long! So, no, we’re not going to get even close to tackling every last issue.
Instead, let’s focus on some of the most basic golf rules as well as some of the rules that can help you more than hurt you.
Golf Rules for Beginners
If I hit a ball out of bounds off the tee, how do I score that correctly?
Where can I drop after I hit a shot into the water? And how many penalty strokes do I add?
My ball is just off the green. Can I still mark and clean it?
Somebody told me I can’t take a practice swing in a bunker. Is that true?
Those kinds of scenarios are confusing for a lot of golfers, especially beginners. A lot of people start playing the game without any concern for the real rules. But as they improve, they become interested in playing “correctly.” Sometimes they don’t really know what that includes.
As you get more serious about the game, learning the rules becomes increasingly important. Maybe you’ll want to maintain a golf handicap. Or play in a tournament. Or gamble with your friends. Each of those scenarios will require you to have some understanding of the rules of golf.
The further along you go and the more competitive you become, the more you’ll need to know. Every golfer is expected to know the rules. There’s no such thing as a legitimate excuse for not knowing golf rules.
In fact, what are the rules of golf? Well, the first one is to know the rules of golf. It’s part of being a golfer. You assume the responsibility of knowing and following the rules.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the more basic golf rules.
10 Basic Golf Rules: How To Play by the Book
1. Play the ball as it lies. This is a biggie in golf. You’re not allowed to move your ball. Only on the tee box can you hand place your ball or prop it up on a tee. And on the green, you can mark your ball and align it as you wish. But you’ll still have to put it right back in the exact spot where it was.
Anywhere else on the hole, no matter how thick the rough or how big the tree in front of you is, you’re not allowed to move the ball. You’ll have to play the ball exactly as it lies.
Except, of course, in situations where another rule of golf supersedes the play it as it lies rule. An example would include if your ball was on a cart path or sprinkler head or some other non-natural immovable obstruction. Or even if you had to stand on that same kind of artificial immovable obstruction. In those cases, you’d identify the nearest point of relief and drop your ball within one club length of that point not nearer the hole. No need for a penalty stroke. It’s called “free relief”.
2. Out of bounds. Mostly found on the perimeter of a golf course, you’ll see white stakes or sometimes a fence or wall that denote “out of bounds.” You are not allowed to play a shot from out of bounds.
So, if you hit it into an area like that, you have to assess yourself a one shot penalty and then re-play your shot from the original location. That’s called “stroke and distance,” which means simply that you’re adding a stroke to your score while also having to replay from the spot where you originally hit.
It’s a harsh penalty that can be disastrous to your scorecard.
3. Penalty areas. This is something like a pond or river or drainage ditch. The area will be marked with either yellow or red stakes.
If you hit your ball into a penalty area, you can play it as it lies without taking a penalty stroke.
But often, like if the ball is at the bottom of a lake, that won’t be a realistic option. In that case, you’ll have to add one penalty stroke to your score and then take relief from the penalty area.
If the penalty area is marked with yellow stakes, you’ll have two relief options:
- Stroke and distance relief. Just like with an out-of-bounds penalty, you have the option to take your penalty stroke and replay the shot from as close as possible to where you hit from originally.
- Back on the line relief. Drop your ball anywhere along an imaginary line that runs between the flagstick and the point where your ball last crossed into the penalty area. You can drop as far back as you wish, but the penalty area must remain between you and the hole. You can use this option to your advantage as you’ll be able to choose the yardage for your next shot. But, sadly, you’ll still have to add a penalty stroke to your score.
If the penalty area is marked with red stakes, you’ll have three relief options:
- Stroke and distance relief.
- Back on the line relief.
- Lateral relief. Drop your ball within two club lengths of where it last crossed into the red penalty area. However, you can’t drop the ball closer to the hole than the point where it crossed the edge of the penalty area. And, yes, you’ll have to take a penalty stroke.
4. 14-club limit. You can carry and use a maximum of 14 golf clubs during a round. If you realize that you have one or more extra clubs, you must take a two-stroke penalty for each hole where the extra clubs were in your bag with a maximum penalty of four strokes.
You are allowed to play with any number of clubs less than 15.
5. Grounding your club in a bunker. In a bunker or sand trap, you are not allowed to test the conditions of the sand. And that includes setting your golf club down immediately behind the ball, otherwise known as grounding the club. Instead, you’ll have to hover the club over the sand until you’re ready to start your swing.
You also are not allowed to touch the sand with practice swings. So, while you absolutely can rehearse your swing in a bunker, you have to do it without allowing the club to touch the sand.
If you get it wrong, that’s a two-shot penalty. Ouch!
6. Teeing area. The teeing area is where each hole begins. You are never allowed to play from in front of your tee markers and your ball must be hit from in between the two markers. You also can’t move the tee markers.
However, you can play anywhere behind the tee markers within two club lengths. And you are allowed to stand outside of the teeing area so long as your ball remains inside of it.
If you tee off ahead of, outside of, or further than two club lengths behind the tee markers, you’re looking at a two-shot penalty in stroke play.
7. Lost ball. You know what to do if you hit your ball out of bounds or lose it in a penalty area. But sometimes, you just can’t find your golf ball, maybe in really thick rough or in a grove of trees.
When that happens, you are allowed to search for three full minutes. If you still can’t find it, you have to apply the procedures for stroke-and-distance relief, meaning a one shot penalty and having to replay your last shot from as close to the original spot as possible. Boo!
8. Holing out. In stroke play, the hole is not considered completed until your ball comes to rest in the hole.
In reality, friendly games may include gimmes for short putts on the green, where another player allows you to pick up the ball with the assumption that you would have made the next putt. In that case, you still have to apply the stroke to your score that it would have taken you to hole out. Also, in match play, opponents routinely concede putts.
9. Marking your ball. Once your ball has reached the green, you are allowed to mark it and pick it up. To mark the ball, you simply place something, usually a ball marker or coin, immediately behind it.
After you pick the ball up, you’re allowed to clean it and you can also line it up however you’d like once you place it back in front of the mark. After you remove the mark from behind the ball, the ball is considered to be in play and can’t be touched without re-marking it.
If your ball is not on the green, you are not allowed to mark it or pick it up unless it is for reasons of a specific rule like your ball is obstructing another player’s ability to play their shot in which case you’d be allowed to mark it and pick it up.
10. Unplayable lies. Sometimes you’re able to find your ball, it’s in bounds, and it’s not in a penalty area. But you deem it to be unplayable. Examples would include if it were stuck in a bush, or stuck against the base of a tree.
If you claim an unplayable lie, you can take relief with a one-stroke penalty. Your options for relief are stroke and distance, drop within two club lengths no closer to the hole, or take back on the line relief.
How the Rules of Golf Can Help You Shoot Lower Scores
In reviewing the above basic golf rules, you may have identified some scenarios where knowing the rules can work to your advantage.
For example, many golfers don’t understand the difference in penalties and relief options between out of bounds and penalty areas. They may hit the ball into the water off the tee and then take their penalty stroke and immediately re-tee the ball.
They may not understand that they have the option to go much further ahead on the hole to where their ball crossed into the water hazard and drop in that area. That can definitely save some strokes.
And sometimes your ball ends up in the right place at the right time, allowing you to apply a rule to get you out of a jam. Say you hit a wayward tee shot and you're blocked out by a group of trees up ahead. But upon addressing the ball, you realize that your heels are touching the cart path. If you know the rules, you’ll be able to drop the ball within a club length of where you found it no closer to the hole. That wiggle room might give you a wide open shot instead of the one that was stymied by the trees.
Or what about when you're on a Par 3 tee box and the distance from the tee markers to the hole leaves you stuck in between clubs? If you know that you have the option to tee off a full two club lengths behind the tee markers, you may be able to choose a yardage that more comfortably matches with a shot and club that you envision.
Another one is knowing that you’ve got three minutes to look for a golf ball. Rather than just giving up when you can’t immediately find it, you may be able to save yourself a shot by looking a little harder.
And still another opportunity to take advantage of the rules is the unplayable lie situation. Say your ball is stuck in the bushes. Rather than taking several swings at it, ruining your score, and still not getting free of the trouble, you can cut your losses by taking the one-shot unplayable lie penalty.
These are just a handful of examples of how knowing the basic rules of golf can help your score. The more you learn and the better you understand all of the rules, the more you can make correct decisions on the course rather than punishing yourself unnecessarily.
Be a More Complete Golfer by Understanding the Rules
Golf is incredibly difficult. And having to follow a huge list of rules can sometimes make it feel impossible.
But this is the game we’ve all agreed to play. And our collective cooperation with the rules makes for a better golf community overall. It allows all of us to play the same game the same way.
A major part of golf is honor and ethics. A golfer is expected to play fairly and to call penalties on themselves. This isn’t like other sports, where if you can get away with something without the official seeing it, you’re encouraged to do it. Golf isn’t like that. In golf, “cheater” is the worst label a person can have. And worst of all would be if you got labeled a cheater and you didn’t even realize you were cheating.
On the other hand, if you play by the rules, even if you’re not a very good golfer, you’re likely to be welcomed and respected by any other golfer. So start with these basic golf rules, and broaden your knowledge from there.
About PlayBetter Golf Reviewer Marc Sheforgen
Marc "Shef" Sheforgen is a golf writer whose passion for the game far exceeds his ability to play it well. Marc covers all things golf, from product reviews and equipment recommendations to event coverage and tournament analysis. When he's not playing, watching, or writing about golf, he enjoys traveling (often golf-related), youth sports coaching, volunteering, and record collecting.