If you've played golf for decades, you probably encounter the same rules questions from less-experienced golfers year after year. To be fair, it's not exactly their fault. The Rules of Golf has changed significantly, and it has a lot of nuances that aren't necessarily important to know for a casual round.
That said, there are five (probably more than five) commonly misunderstood rules that are worth knowing if you want to avoid any uncomfortable moments in a match or whenever money is on the line. Try to commit these to memory if you don't already know them.
1. In a match, the farthest player from the hole plays first.
Don't roll your eyes if you think this one is obvious, because you'd be surprised how many golfers think a player off the green has to hit his or her shot before a player on the green can putt. Not true. If a player on the green is farther from the hole than a player off the green, that person should putt first. In match play, if you play out of order, your opponent can make you replay the stroke. That would sting if you chipped in.
In stroke play, there is no penalty for playing out of order and it's encouraged by the rules makers if it speeds up play. Obviously, courtesy matters, so it's probably a bad move to walk in front of another golfer to hit your shot ahead of him or her, but prudence should rule the day.
2. You don't get relief from boundary objects such as OB stakes or fences.
You hit a shot that nearly left the golf course but stayed in play—that's great. However, having your ball next to an out-of-bounds fence or some other course boundary means you're going to have to get creative about how to play your next shot. Unlike stakes that mark things such as penalty areas, environmentally sensitive areas or ground under repair, you don't get relief from OB markers unless you want to take an unplayable lie (and accept the penalty stroke that comes with it). What you could do is strike the fence or object first to advance your ball, or even play your shot off the boundary object. Players at the Old Course at St. Andrews have been known to hit shots off the rock wall behind the 17th green to get their ball on or near the putting surface.
3. There is no lateral relief for penalty areas marked in yellow.
This rule is especially important to remember when a yellow penalty area fronts a green. Even if your ball carries the pond but then rolls back in—like from the false front on the 15th hole at Augusta National—you don't get to drop on the side of the pond where the ball rolled in. At best, the course might provide a drop zone so you don't have to replay from the spot where you just hit or anywhere using back-on-the-line relief, but playing on the other side would be playing from the wrong place (two strokes or loss of hole in match play).
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4. You probably won't get relief from a sprinkler head on your line of play.
It seems unfair to be a few yards from the front of a green but your only decent option for your next shot is to chip over a sprinkler head. Unfortunately, that's typically the case. Although sprinkler heads are considered immovable obstructions, you only get relief if your ball, stance or swing are interfered with by one of them. There is one exception, however. If the course or committee is using Model Local Rule F-5, there's a good chance you can move your ball. Here are the requirements:
The sprinkler head must be on your line of play. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be on a direct line between your ball and the cup, but you can't claim the free relief if you choose a line of play that is clearly unreasonable. The sprinker head must be within two clublengths of the putting green and your ball must be within two clublengths of the sprinkler head. A clublength, by the way, is the longest club in your bag that is not a putter.
David Cannon
5. You can't play a provisional ball if its known or virtually certain your ball is in a penalty area.
Golfers get this one wrong, a lot. If you hit a ball into a penalty area, the minute you reload and hit another shot, the second ball is in play (plus add a penalty stroke). It doesn't matter if you said "provisional ball" or similar before hitting the shot. The provisional-ball procedure is reserved for times of uncertainty, like when you think the ball you just hit might be lost and you want to save time not having to walk back to the spot of your previous shot after a failed search. There's nothing uncertain about seeing your ball fly into a penalty area or being told by someone else it went in. You must proceed with penalty-area options, which, by the way, include hittting a shot from the penalty area if you can find your ball. And you can ground your club and make practice swings, too. Did you know that rule also changed?