Knowing these 4 rules could help your golf score. Listen to Gail.

Guidance guru Gail Rogers

THE GOLF SEASON is in full swing – literally and figuratively. Working with a golf professional at this time helps us refine swing path, bunker techniques and other physical aspects of our game. It is also time to work on the mental side of our game by finding ways to control tension during a critical shot in the round, to learn to let the negatives go and focus on the shot at the moment.

Clear thinking and decision making involves not just club selection and target, but making the best choice available when the Rules of Golf can rescue a hole and save a par or give us a “good” bogey. Knowing as much as possible about the rules prevents unpleasant surprises during a round that can turn into major distractors and tension builders in a heartbeat.

Follow along for four reasons the Rules of Golf should be your friend.

REASON 1: RULE 6-3

At the 8 a.m. starting time, Player X thought she was on time when she arrived at the tee ready to play just prior to her name being announced. She, however,  was listed as the third player in the group, and all the players listed at the same starting time need to be at the tee ready to play at the tee time listed for the group.

Because this was a stroke play event, she began her day with a two-stroke penalty that the starter explained just after she played her tee shot.  Understanding Rule 6-3 could have saved her two strokes and started the day on a happier note.

REASON 2: RULE 26-1

Yellow-staked water hazards give us simple options if we cannot play the ball as it lies. I have watched players line up the hole location with the spot on the hazard margin where the ball last crossed and drop the ball on that line. While this is one of the two options a player may select as she incurs a one-stroke penalty under Rule 26-1, the spot for the drop is frequently selected without much thought. Dropping on  down slope or in high rough certainly does not showcase the strength in most of our games.

Because the rule allows us to go as far back on that line as we wish (as long as we stay within the bounds of the course), let’s think about dropping where we have a level lie, good grass and/or a yardage that we prefer for the next shot. This careful execution of the Rules can give us the confidence to make our next stroke a good one.

REASON 3: RULE 20-2C

At a recent tournament a player worked with her caddie taking proper relief from a cart path. Because the ground sloped back to the path, her two drop rolled back onto the path. Now she had to place the ball.  heard her say to the caddie, “Now I can place the ball on the spot I like best within the club-length.”

Unfortunately the answer to that is, “No.”

The time for thinking about the perfect spot where you want to place the ball is before you drop. Analyze the contour of the ground, and when you think you will likely be dropping twice and then placing, identify the best lie possible within the dropping area allowed and aim for that spot when you let go of the ball. If you are lucky the ball will strike that spot when you drop the second time and it now is THE SPOT where you will place the ball. Rule 20-2c gives us examples of the times when we must drop, re-drop and then place.

REASON 4: RULE 24-1

At a Northern California women’s tournament, players waved me over as one player had her ball held in position on the steep slope of a bunker by the bunker rake. “She just moves the rake and if the ball moves plays it from the new position,” one player stated emphatically.

“We might get there eventually, but we have a procedure to follow first,” I responded.

Because she could mark the ball with a tee before entering the bunker, I had her do that and then carefully remove the rake. The ball did roll down the slope.

Then I asked her to think before walking into the bunker as she was going to need to try to replace the ball on the original spot without pressing it into the sand. If it did not stay after a second attempt, she would be trying to place it down the slope, not nearer the hole until we finally found a spot where it would come to rest. We did not want that spot to be one of her footprints.

After a number of tries, the ball finally came to rest on a gently up slope. The player made a terrific up and down. The Rules are her friend!

Remember a rake is a movable obstruction. That means something man made on the course that can be moved without unreasonable effort, without causing undue delay to play, and without causing damage to the course. Rule 24-1 tells us how to remove a movable obstruction when our ball lies next to or against it.

Look carefully at Rule 24-1: There are no EXCEPT words of caution. That means everywhere on the course we can remove movable manmade objects. Cigar butts (ugh), pop cans, directional signs for cart traffic, abandoned golf balls, even WATER HAZARD STAKES whether your ball is lying inside or outside the water or lateral water hazard. Yes, put that last thought on movable water hazard stakes in your thinking. You will be amazed how few people understand that and how often it can help you.

THE LAST WORD

A recent tweet from Maverick McNealy, Stanford golfer, said “You control everything until the ball leaves the clubface. Then you control nothing but your reaction. Act accordingly.” Employing the Rules to your advantage as you act on this next shot is your best reaction.