The rules of golf are very specific. Many people say that you can interpret the rules different ways but that is not true. It states what you “shall do” or can do under different circumstances. I will cover a few of them here.

First you are only allowed to carry 14 clubs. You are not allowed to borrow clubs off of another player unless the total of both your clubs is 14 or less. When you tee up the ball on the teeing ground you must be behind the markers and between them. You can not go more than two club lengths behind them.

There are two types of water hazards and they are defined by different colors (usually stakes). Yellow is a water hazard and red is a lateral water hazard and you have different options under each. If you ball goes into a yellow marked area you have three options. You can always play it out of the water or the area defined by the yellow stakes, you can go back as far as you want, but you must keep where the ball entered the hazard directly between you and the hole and drop the ball and you can always go back to the original spot where you hit the ball from. If it was from the tee you may re-tee the ball. Red staked areas you have five options. The same three just mentioned plus you can take two club lengths for the last point the ball went into the hazard no nearer the hole or go to the other side of the water if you can equal distance to the hole. Quite a bit of making rulings are in regards to water hazards.

You get free relief from anything man made or you can move something that is man made such as a light garbage can. In the case of this situation you get total relief from stance or swing plus one club length. You get this relief if the object is interfering with your stance or swing, not if it is in the way of your shot.

This is just a brief outline of a few rules, but learn them as you go. We want to play by the rules and they can help you in many situations. Good golfing!

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I had the pleasure of teaching a group of higher handicaps the other day and we discussed the rules during the course of the day. It is amazing how many people that play this game don;t know the rules, however there are many rules so one is not expected to know them all. This will take time and constantly reviewing them. I need the rule book to check specific situations all the time.

We should make every attempt to play by the rules just like we do when we play other games. What is we decided that we do not want to follow suit in a card game like bridge or euchre. The whole game would be meaningless although in those games we are playing against other players and our play affects theirs. In golf, unless you are playing a competition you are playing against the course and it doesn’t know you broke the rules.

The rule book and decisions of golf rules are many so knowing the basic ones would be a start. I will describe a few of the basic ones.

Lost ball: When you lose your ball and can’t find it within 5 minutes of looking for it you must go back to where you hit the shot from and either drop a ball or re-tee the ball if you hit from the tee and play another shot and add a 1 stroke penalty. This is called stroke and distance. Many people when they can’t find their ball just drop one in the general area of where they think the ball might be and play from there. This is not part of the rules. You must go back to where you hit it from. If you suspect that you ball might be lost after you hit your shot you can play a provisional ball and play this ball if you can not find the ball.

Unplayable Lie: Occasionally you hit your ball into a spot where it is impossible to hit. You can then declare your ball unplayable and proceed under the rules. Here are your options. You can take two club lengths for where the ball is no closer to the hole, go back as far as you want keeping the point of where the ball is and the hole or go back to where you hit the original ball from and add a 1 stroke penalty. You are the sole determiner of whether you ball is unplayable.

These are some of the rules and I encourage people to learn them. Other rules like when you ball goes into the water are important as well. Under most situations you also must play the ball as it lies. You can not move the ball onto a nice piece of grass in order to hit a good shot. What bothers me the most is the people that know the rules but choose to ignore them to get a better score or a better shot especially if they are competing. This says volumes about their character and I would wonder if they cheat at cards or other games. Play the game the way it is meant to be played and in the long run you will enjoy it immensely even if you have a few bad lies along the way.

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Many people do not know the difference between chipping and pitching the golf ball. Generally speaking chipping is done around the edges of the green and pitching is done from a little farther away and requires getting the ball higher in the air and is done with a fairly lofted club. Examples of both would be if you ball is a few feet off the green and you use your 8 iron to run the ball up to the hole would be a chip and using you wedge to loft the ball over a sand trap onto the green would be considered a pitch.

Chipping can be done with many different clubs from your sand wedge right up to your fairway woods. The object is to get the ball on the ground as soon as possible and let it run up to the hole. The basic chipping motion is very similar to your putting stroke. Not much wrist hinging if any and a very simple stroke. Your clubface gives you all of your direction so how you stand is a little irrelevant however standing with your front foot pulled back a bit (open stance) does give you a better plane and more of an opportunity to get under the ball.

Pitching on the other hand should be done with your most lofted clubs. A lot of the pros will use their 60 degree sand wedge to get the ball up in the air and come down with little or know roll. Swinging the arms back and through similar to a pendulum tempo will help judge distances. The longer the swing the farther the ball will go. As in chipping your stance should be slightly open as stated before this allows a better plane to get the ball airborn. To get the ball even higher you could also open your club face however all these specialties shots should be practiced and used only when it is absolutely necessary.

Learning to chip and pitch does make the game more enjoyable. This will lead to more up and downs. (Chipping or pitching on to the green and sinking the putt.)

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Lately we have had a little rain and watching the U. S. Open and the heavy rains that they have had there brought up an interesting topic. Even though any of you won’t play tournament golf you should still prepare for different conditions on the golf course. Looking at the forecast is the first thing you should do although they are not always right.

First, let’s take rain. In your bag you should have a rain suit and at the very least a jacket to put. Now the most expensive rain suit will be in the $500.00 range, these are 100% waterproof and a great investment if you play a lot of golf. Next, an umbrella would be handy although I hate trying to hold on to one of those. A dry towel would be an asset to have as well as a hat. The most important piece of equipment that I carry is a rain glove. These gloves are actually grip better the wetter they are. With one of these I do not even cover my clubs.

Other elements that we prepare for would be hot or cold weather. Having a jacket or sweater in the bag is great because you never know when the temperature will drop. In warm weather having a bottle of water and sun screen is never a bad idea.

Preparation for the elements will make your game more enjoyable. This is as important a part of the game as anything so go through your equipment to make sure you have everything that you might need under different circumstances even if you only play in good weather. You never know when you might get caught.

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Nowadays, golf course owners and superintendents try and toughen up their courses by letting the grass grow long off the fairway. The rough as it is called does pose some problems but knowing what to expect can make you game a little better.

The first assessment of the shot is how deep the ball is sitting in the grass. This will determine basically how far you can advance the ball. If you have a long way to go and there is lots of grass around the ball then you might considering taking your wedge out and chopping the ball back to the fairway. However if the ball is sitting up reasonably then you should go for the green. There are a couple of tips to keep in mind. First a wood is easy to hit out of the rough than an iron as the wood will glide through the grass and the iron will get caught in the long grass. Second the ball will come out with little backspin so it will not stop very quickly. You should allow for this and take less club.

For shots around the green in long rough, this poses other problems. Treating it like a sand shot and blasting out of the rough is one solution. Using a lofted club and chopping it out is another. Remember that the ball will come out with little spin and run quite a bit so you need to allow for this.

Making good decisions on how the ball will react is as important as having a good swing when it comes to playing the game. Good golfing!

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