Use the Rules of Golf to Your Advantage
There have been some unscientific polls and research recently that shows most amateur golfers don’t strictly abide by all the rules of golf when they play. Whether that’s because they don’t know the rules, feel the rules are too harsh, or something else completely, I’m not sure. To be clear, I don’t blame people who don’t follow the rules to the exact letter; after all, golf is meant to be fun. Regardless, it’s a bit unfortunate because knowing the rules can actually help you to lower your scores.
Teeing Off
We don’t all have the luxury of playing at courses in pristine condition all the time like the professionals. Most of us play on “real” golf courses that have bumps and blemishes. And, to be honest, I think that’s a good thing. It’s probably a blog article for another day, but the expectations placed on golf courses and their maintenance crews to be perfect like the courses we see on television is unsustainable, but I digress.
How many times have you stepped onto a tee box and noticed that there isn’t a flat piece of ground between the tee markers? Obviously it doesn’t happen all the time, but often enough that it can be a bit frustrating when it does happen. Golf is hard enough and flat lies are hard to come by, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect that the tee box is the one place we can expect a flat lie. Sometimes the guys setting the tees each morning don’t think about finding a piece of turf that’s flat and well-maintained. Sometimes they’re just looking to rotate the tees, so that it spreads out the traffic.
Most amateur golfers assume they have to keep their ball directly between the markers. While that’s partially true, you can actually go back up to two club-lengths behind the markers. Either players don’t know this or they don’t want to “lose” any distance on their tee shot by moving farther away from the hole. But if you can improve your shot by finding a flat or better piece of ground, you’ll actually gain distance and accuracy. The distance lost is insignificant when it comes to having a better chance of hitting a quality golf shot.
When you find a tee box that’s uneven or lacks a quality piece of turf, feel free to move back a bit to find some that is better suited for teeing off.
Drop the Ball
Next, many amateur golfers don’t realize that when they hit a ball into a penalty area (aka: “hazard”), they have some better options than just dropping the ball close to where it entered the penalty area. I’ve noticed that most people just think that you need to take two club lengths relief and drop the ball. Again, that’s partially true, but it helps to know a bit more.
Often times around a body of water, the ground slopes down as it goes into the water and/or the grass is longer. Both of those things can make the next shot a bit more difficult than it needs to be. A player can actually go back to the spot of their last shot and take a penalty stroke to play it again. How many times have you thought, if I could just try that shot over again, the result would be so much better? Well, this option allows you to do that; play the shot again.
You can also drop the ball back anywhere along the line between where the ball entered the penalty area and the flag extended back. That means, you don’t have to keep the ball in the rough or side-hill lie near the water. Move back a bit farther and drop it in the fairway where you have a better lie if that helps.
Repair Your Line
It used to be that you couldn’t repair any damage, except ball marks, that were in your line on the green. From my experience, though, I rarely saw an amateur golfer even repair ball marks in their line. They, typically, error on the other extreme than the pros who would try to make a case for repairing every little thing they could.
As of the new rule changes in 2019, a player can repair any damage on the green in order to provide them a more smooth and consistent putting surface. That means when you’re looking at your putt before you play, see if there’s any damage in the path that may negatively influence where your ball travels. Take some time to repair that damage, whether it’s a ball mark, spike mark, or something else (not aeration holes). You’re perfectly within the rules to take the time to even out your putting line.
And More
Knowing the rules can benefit you in a ton more ways that can’t fit in one short blog post, so take some time to study them and learn how you can lower your scores by just following the rules. Did you know there are only 25 rules? If you read through one per day, it’d take you less than a month to know them all.