Rules Review
Rules of Golf Review: My opponent used his wrench tool on his driver before teeing off. Is that allowed?
Customization of clubs to meet your individual needs is one of the great advances in golf technology. The ability to adjust everything from loft to face orientation to weight gives you a chance to make clubs perform better with the attributes of your swing.
The Rules of Golf addresses equipment alterations in a number of ways under Rule 4.1, including when you can repair clubs or change their playing characteristics. Among the most noteworthy allowances is for a club to be repaired during a round or even used in its damaged state (if possible) without being penalized for messing with it after starting a round. (We'll get back to this in a minute.)
There are, however, a variety of things golfers can't do on the adjustability front according to the rules. For instance, golfers are prohibited from digging a wrench out of their bag in the middle of the round and modifying their driver's clubface to a different position depending on how they're playing that day. If you can't stop slicing, you can't change the head on your driver so it's more closed at address. Nope, sorry.
You also can't apply lead tape or some other substance to a club mid-round to improve performance. Any legal alterations to a club that could change its playing characteristics must be done before or after a round. And if you do it during a round, the penalty is severe: If you're playing in a tournament, you'll be disqualified.
There is one thing to keep in mind if you find yourself mistakenly having made a mid-round adjustment. To get the DQ, you actually have to make a stroke with the club in its new setting. If you make an adjustment and don't use the club, or return it to its original position before hitting the shot, there is no penalty.
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OK, so you now know that your opponent can only take out that wrench tool and make some adjustments before he or she has teed off, right? Well, not exactly. Let's get back to the idea that golfers can fix damaged equipment during a round. Since you can do that, you can use the wrench so long as you're fixing something with the club. One thing that often happens to adjustable clubs is that the screw that governs the settings on the hosel or head becomes loose. That rattle can be annoying, but it also is considered damage that falls under the allowable things you can do to repair a club (see Rule 4.1a(2)/1). That's an instance where using the wrench would be OK.
Incidentally, if you had lead tape on your club at the start of the round and that tape came off the club and won't adhere to it anymore when you try to put it back on, you're allowed to use new tape to repair the club.
If you're wondering about what happens when a club's playing characteristics are changed through wear and tear, it's still considered conforming and OK to use.
