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Episode 32 The rules for the rest of us

Marc: Welcome to another episode of Golf is Hard TV. The Golf show for the
rest of us, today we’ve got the rules for the rest of us, right so we got a
copy of the official USGA rules of golf. Dave is showing it to you.

Dave: Just like the Wine Library.

Marc: The Wine Library that’s exactly right and we’re not going to talk too
much about rules, a little bit but first of all you can get your own copy of
the rules, just join USGA and we’ll send you a hat and the rules of golf
and you can kind of come through these and the rules of amateur status
too.

Dave: That’s a nice little pocket size made to keep in the golf bag.

Marc: Yeah so you can whip it out on your buddies.

Dave: Yeah exactly.

Marc: And you’re going to show rule 34 obstruction in case of— let me ask you
a sort of a high level question. When as an average golfer, when do I think
about the rules and do I think about it in every round I play, just when
attending a tournament and when do they apply, I guess?

Dave: That’s a great question because I mean most people really don’t play by
the rules or know much about the rules and the thing is it’s good to know
the rules because a lot of times they can benefit you as to where you can
drop your ball sometimes. How many, you know is it two strokes or one
stroke and a lot of times the reason to know the basic rules are to use it to
your advantage and you want to play fair I mean there are no referee’s out
when you’re golfing.

Marc: Yeah.

Dave: That’s the great thing about the integrity of the game, things that we teach
kids. It’s up to you. If you’re ball moves or if you’re moving a branch and
your ball rolls I mean that’s a penalty.

Marc: Yeah.

Dave: And it’s up to you to call yourself on that unless someone sees you and
talk to them.

Marc: Talk to them.

Dave: And you see you know the thing is there’s an obligation, well, it’s your
question, the rules probably you want to start to play more by the rules
when you get better and certainly when you’re in competition you have to
know the rules at least the basic ones.

Marc: Yeah.

Dave: But you know out there on the tour for instance, if a player sees another
player, you know if it sees the rules of fraction the other player is
obligated to report that because it’s against the whole field. It’s not just
against the three of them in that threesome.

Marc: So when you’re playing tournaments you obviously need to now at least
the basic rules. This happened to me last year I was on a kind of on a hill
and I definitely addressed the ball rounded the club and all of a sudden the
sucker started rolling down the hill. I was like, I don’t really know what
the rules, what was the rule there.

Dave: That rule because you addressed it. Now you actually caused that to—
maybe you didn’t but you probably did. According to the rules you did, so
you have to replace the ball.

Marc: Put it back, now is the lesson learned is don’t address the ball.

Dave: And you get a 1 stroke penalty.

Marc: Now if the ball is on shaky ground.

Dave: Exactly because— and they talk about a lot especially when it’s windy and
on a putting green too.

Marc: Yeah.

Dave: I remember watching one tournament last year on TV and the thing is the
wind especially the greens are very fast and very sloped and once that
player addresses the ball, touches the ground behind then they would
address the bal and then if it moves out then they get the penalty that’s
why they recommend don’t sole the club same out in the fairway or
whatever if you’re on kind of like I said a hill or something.

Marc: Yeah, so you know there’s something missing form here I think. I mean
maybe it’s just me, but I’m looking at the index here and you know I’m
looking under M and I don’t see Mulligans and I’m curious why I don’t
see Mullignas not in the rules of golf.

Dave: I bet the average golfer most people think that Mulligans a part of the
game. Mulligans do not exist according to the rules of golf. You know
what’s it called in the rules?

Marc: What?

Dave: Provisional so if you hit a ball and let’s say I’m out of bounds down the
right side which by the way we’ll talk about the red stakes, yellow stakes
and white stakes quickly. If you hit a ball and you think it’s lost, then you
say okay provisional so that you can hit another one. Now it’s not a
mulligan. The thing is you do it the same time so you hit a provisional, if
you find the first one and its not— let’s say it’s just on the woods but there
aren’t white stakes you have to play the first and then you pick up the
second.

Marc: So if you’re playing with your buddies not competitive what typically—
how many mulligans can you take?

Dave: It’s up to you.

Marc: The easy one really.

Dave: Basically you don’t. Mullignas don’t exist like I said, if you really want to
get better, you eliminate that thought from your mind.

Marc: Just go hit that shots.

Dave: Now some times and we used to do this even you know scratch golfers do
this, you get out there, there’s no range. You go right from the first tee, hit
to take off the first hole.

Marc: Oh.

Dave: That’s it so you can hit 2 that’s if you don’t have force behind and the way
it’s played.

Marc: Alright. Let’s quickly talk about the mulligans? Let’s talk about the stakes
real quick because I see stakes all the time red I know is bad I try to avoid
those.

Dave: Not always bad red can save you.

Marc: It can save you. That’s true. So you have red, yellow and white. Okay so
what are those?

Dave: Okay so define a hazard, a hazard is a bunker or water hazard marked by
yellow or red, those are the hazards.

Marc: Okay and if you hit the ball into a hazard.

Dave: Yeah there are certain rules that apply.

Marc: Okay.

Dave: Yeah so there’s a hazard which are all of those now more specifically a
water hazard which are marked by red and yellow and more specifically a
lateral water hazard marked by red.

Marc: Yeah.

Dave: They are all. It’s not red it’s pretty simple actually, there’s some different
rules that apply the red versus yellow because there are certain things you
can’t do if you hit it to a red stake area vs. a yellow stake and one is you
cannot drop behind a lateral water hazard that’s why it’s called lateral.

Marc: Okay.

Dave: So you’re on the fairway or you on the tee and there’s water all the way on
the right side usually there’ll be red stakes a couple feed in that’s lateral
water hazard you couldn’t possibly drop it behind that hazard in line with
the hole.

Marc: To be in water.

Dave: Exactly. So there are certain rules there a typical water hazard marked by
yellow stakes could be a creek running perpendicular to the fairway or it
could be alike in front of the green and it will be marked by yellow so as
you approach that hazard marked by yellow.

Marc: You hit it in a watered area, you’ve got, you can drop it behind.

Dave: You can drop it behind. You can go back as far. You can always re tee so
if you hit it out of bounds or in a red hazard or yellow hazard you an
always opt to re hit the shot and that can be your mulligan. You can call
that a mulligan.

Marc: Still count that first shot though.

Dave: Absolutely it’s mostly kind of like so the difference in between red and
yellow basically is with and uses your advantage if you hit it in a water
hazard marked by yellow you keep the point between where it went in the
flag. You can come back as far as you want in that line. You can come
back to your perfect you know favorite yards 120 hit in the red basically
you would drop it with in. I’m pretty sure it’s nearest point of where it
went in and it’s two club lengths.

Marc: I probably can find this one here.

Dave: Two club lengths from the point where it went in, it is two.

Marc: Because I’ve got you know I don’t know about 147 pages.

Dave: Yeah there’s a lot there. It’s not just 36 rules or 36 ABCD you know it’s
just amazing also.

Marc: Let’s wrap this up with a random rule I’m just going to open this and see
what we got.

Dave: Oh by the way white stakes are out of bounds.

Marc: Alright.

Dave: Two stroke penalty.

Marc: Oh this is a good one rule 3 4 refusal to comply with the rule.

Dave: You get kicked off the golf course.

Marc: The competitor refuses to comply with the rule and you would have to
know what the rules are of course. Affecting the rights of another
competitor—

Dave: Interesting I have to say fine qualification yeah for me.

Marc: Very good.

Dave: One more, one more.

Marc: One more, here we go random rule 27 playing from the wrong place. Now
there’s a bunch of revisions here let’s—

Dave: That’s the question you just asked what if that ball or your ball rolled
down the hill you play it from there it’s playing from the wrong place.

Marc: Yeah. So in general, yeah there’s a general rule, there’s a max play rule
and as stroke play rule and then there’s a bunch.

Dave: Yeah because technically you’re not playing form the wrong place
because it’s your ball.

Marc: Exactly.

Dave: Unless it moves that’s the wrong place.

Marc: So usually I’ll just talk about C27 C stroke play the competitor makes a
stroke from the wrong place he incurs a penalty at 2 strokes under the rule.

Dave: Okay.

Marc: And of course if he disagrees with that rule.

Dave: I guess so.

Marc: Alright that’s the rule show. And if you have questions for us on rules, we
have the book so we you can ask us and we’re going to look it up for you
and it’s another great episode, hopefully another great, I keep saying—

Dave: I think it’s a great episode because there’s so much to talk about.

Marc: Oh great.

Dave: We just hopefully saved a few shots and get drop your ball in a little better
position and win that match.

Marc: Rules of golf, golf is hard tv see you next time.