48 Fun Facts About Rules of Golf

How many clubs may a golfer carry in a round under the Rules of Golf?

14. There is no minimum, so a golfer who starts with fewer may add clubs during the round until the bag holds 14, but a 15th has to come out of play before the next shot.

Since 2019, how long may a golfer search for a ball before it is lost?

Three minutes. The limit was five until the 2019 rewrite of the Rules, and the clock starts only when the player or caddie begins to look, not when the ball disappears from view.

From what height must a golfer drop the ball under the Rules of Golf rewritten in 2019?

Knee height. Until 2019 the ball was dropped from the shoulder, and a player who forgets and does it the old way must drop again correctly, however many times that takes.

Which colour of stake marks a penalty area where golfers may take lateral relief?

Red. A red area adds a third way out, a sideways drop beside the point where the ball crossed the edge, and since 2019 such areas need not contain any water at all.

Which old match-play rule let an opponent's ball block a golfer's line to the hole until 1952?

The stymie. Unless the two balls lay within six inches of each other the blocker stayed where it was, so the player behind had to chip over it or bend a putt around it.

What is the standard penalty for most rule breaches in match play?

Loss of hole. It covers most breaches in match play but not all: a lost ball or relief from a penalty area still costs a single stroke, exactly as it would in stroke play.

Who conceded his opponent's final putt at the 1969 Ryder Cup, leaving the contest tied at 16 points each?

Jack Nicklaus. In his first Ryder Cup he picked up Tony Jacklin's marker and said he did not think he would have missed, but would not give him the chance, while his captain, Sam Snead, was furious.

Which Argentine signed for a 4 on Augusta's 17th after making 3 at the 1968 Masters, handing Bob Goalby the title?

Roberto De Vicenzo. His playing partner Tommy Aaron wrote down the 4 and he signed without checking, told the press 'what a stupid I am', and prompted Augusta to put up a private scoring tent the next year.

Who won the 2016 U.S. Open despite a late one-shot penalty for a ball that moved on Oakmont's 5th green?

Dustin Johnson. Told on the 12th tee that he might be penalised after the round, he played the last seven holes not knowing his score, while fellow professionals attacked the USGA on social media.

Who lost the 2017 ANA Inspiration playoff after a TV viewer's report brought a four-shot penalty for a misplaced ball?

Lexi Thompson. She was leading with six holes to play when officials told her, and within weeks the governing bodies ruled that video could no longer convict a player of a breach the naked eye could not see.

In stroke play, a shot that hits another ball at rest brings a penalty on which part of the course?

The putting green. Both balls must have been lying on it before the stroke, and the rule bites only in stroke play: in a match the same collision goes unpunished.

How long may a golfer wait for a ball on the lip to drop, after which a late fall costs a shot?

Ten seconds. At the 1985 U.S. Open Denis Watson was judged to have waited 35, watched the putt drop, and still took a two-stroke penalty that left him one shot behind the winner.

What do the Rules of Golf call the whole course outside four defined areas such as bunkers and penalty areas?

The general area. Of all the tees and greens, only those of the hole being played are left out, so every other hole's tee and green count as part of the general area too.

What must a golfer announce before replaying a possibly lost tee shot, or the new ball becomes the ball in play?

Provisional must be said out loud, or clearly signalled, because otherwise the new ball is in play and the original is abandoned even if it turns up sitting in the fairway.

How deep is the teeing area behind the tee markers, the rectangle from which every hole's first shot must be played?

Two club-lengths. The markers fix the front and sides of the rectangle, and only the ball has to be inside it: the golfer is free to stand outside the teeing area to hit.

Which one-shot relief sends a golfer back to replay the last shot after a ball is lost or out of bounds?

Stroke and distance. The penalty is as old as the rulebook: golf's first written code, drawn up at Leith in 1744, already sent anyone who lost a ball back to the spot of the last stroke.

Which club alone may have a non-circular grip, a bent shaft or two striking faces under golf's equipment rules?

The putter. A chipper is swung like one but has more than ten degrees of loft, so the Rules class it as an iron, and a chipper built with two faces or a flat putter grip is illegal.

What is the maximum driver-head volume under R&A and USGA equipment rules, a cap that pushed makers toward square heads?

460 cc, plus a 10 cc tolerance, is the ceiling, and even World Long Drive competitors must stay under it, chasing yards with 48-inch shafts instead; the 'plain in shape' rule was bent to allow squares.

What was the smaller golf ball, legal under R&A rules until 1990, commonly called?

The British ball. At 1.62 inches across it was a shade smaller than the American 1.68, which gave it extra distance in a wind, and it stayed legal outside the United States until 1990.

Which putting method did golf's rule-makers ban from 2016?

Anchoring the club to the body. The ban hit the stroke, not the equipment: long putters stayed legal, and Bernhard Langer and Adam Scott kept using theirs with the butt held clear of the body.

What term describes a match-play side leading by exactly as many holes as remain, needing only one more half to win?

Dormie. It is only a guarantee where a match can end level, as in the Ryder Cup: elsewhere a tied match goes to extra holes, so a side that loses every remaining hole can still be beaten.

In which Ryder Cup pairs format do partners share one ball, one driving on odd-numbered holes and the other on evens?

Foursomes. The order is strict: a penalty stroke does not change whose turn it is, and a partner who plays out of sequence lands the side with a penalty of its own.

Which scoring system, devised to stop golfers quitting after a few bad holes, debuted at Wallasey Golf Club in 1932?

Stableford. Frank Stableford had first tried the idea at a Welsh club in 1898, and it speeds a round up as well: a golfer who can no longer score a point on a hole simply picks up and moves on.

What is a golfer with a handicap of zero called, the standard against which a Course Rating's 'good score' is set?

Scratch. Zero is not the bottom of the scale: golfers better than scratch carry 'plus' handicaps and have to give strokes back to the course.

Which rating, with 113 as its standard value, tells higher-handicap golfers how much harder a course will play for them?

Slope Rating. A single course rating could not show how much faster a weaker player's scores climb on a hard course, so the USGA added a second number devised by naval officer Dean Knuth, the 'Pope of Slope'.

For handicap purposes, what is the most a golfer may record on any one hole since 2020?

Net double bogey. The cap stops one disastrous hole from distorting an index that is worked out from the best eight of a golfer's last 20 scores.

Who picked up a short putt, assuming it was conceded, at the 2015 Solheim Cup, for Suzann Pettersen to claim the hole?

Alison Lee. The match was all square with two holes left, Europe took that hole and then the match, and the stung Americans came from 10-6 down to win the Cup before Pettersen apologised.

What may a match-play opponent do when a golfer plays out of turn, a slip that goes unpunished in stroke play?

Cancel the shot. The opponent has to decide at once, before anyone plays again, and cannot take the decision back, so a poor shot played out of turn can simply be left to stand.

After the first hole, who has the 'honour' of teeing off first under the Rules of Golf?

Lowest score on the last hole. A tie leaves the order as it was, and in stroke play nobody is penalised for ignoring it: the Rules now encourage 'ready golf' to keep a round moving.

Which question to another player breaks golf's ban on asking for advice during a round?

Which club they just hit. Club choice is advice, which only a caddie may give, while distances, wind direction and the Rules are public information, and there is a twist: a golfer may look into a rival's bag but not touch it.

What damage on the green, banned from repair for decades, may a golfer tap down on the putting line since 2019?

Spike marks. In 2013 tapping one down got Simon Dyson disqualified from the BMW Masters, fined £30,000 and given a suspended ban, all for a repair that is now perfectly legal.

How is an accidental double hit scored today, the mishap that cost T.C. Chen the 1985 U.S. Open?

Counts as one shot. In 1985 the same accident cost Chen the stroke plus a penalty, turned a four-shot lead into a quadruple-bogey 8, and saddled him with the nickname 'Two Chip'.

What does a golfer now incur when hit by their own rebounding shot, as Kevin Na was while making 16 in 2011?

Nothing. The ball is now simply played where it stops, but in 2011 the rule still carried a penalty, and a shot that ricocheted off Na's leg helped him to the worst par-4 score in the PGA Tour's records.

What must a golfer do when wind moves a ball at rest in the rough?

Play it from its new spot. The green is the exception: a ball that has already been lifted and replaced there goes back to its mark, whatever moved it.

In golf's Maximum Score format, who sets the cap on a player's score for each hole?

The Committee. It might pick twice par or a fixed number, and the format forgives what ordinary stroke play punishes with disqualification: a golfer who never holes out simply takes the maximum.

The last numbered Rule of Golf, Rule 25, modifies the game for which group of players?

Golfers with disabilities. The Rule lets a blind player have an aide help with aim and stance and adjusts what counts as a stance for a player in a wheelchair, changes that once sat in a separate booklet.

Which Wisconsin course cost a 2010 PGA contender a playoff place for grounding his club in a sandy patch ruled a bunker?

Whistling Straits. A locker-room notice had warned all week that every patch of sand on the course counted as a bunker, so the leader's bogey at the last became a triple and he missed the play-off.

Which Welshman began the final round of the 2001 Open with one club too many, a two-shot blunder by caddie Miles Byrne?

Ian Woosnam. He still tied for third and gave his caddie a second chance, then sacked him two weeks later when Byrne overslept and missed a tee time.

Whose on-air admission of a drop 'two yards' back brought two shots, not expulsion, at the 2013 Masters?

Tiger Woods. His third shot at the 15th had struck the flagstick and bounced back into the water, and officials waived disqualification because they had reviewed the drop before he signed his card and not raised it with him.

Who hit a still-moving putt back toward Shinnecock's 13th hole at the 2018 U.S. Open, taking two shots and shooting 81?

Phil Mickelson. He ran after a putt that was rolling off the green and hit it back while it was still moving, and four days later said he was 'embarrassed and disappointed' by what he had done.

Who took a much-delayed unplayable drop on Royal Birkdale's practice range in the 2017 Open, then won by three?

Jordan Spieth. More than 20 minutes after his wild drive he escaped with a bogey that cost him the lead, then played the next four holes in birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie.

Who called a penalty on himself at the 1925 U.S. Open and likened the ensuing praise to not robbing a bank?

Bobby Jones. No official had seen the ball move, so the ruling was left to him, and the stroke he added dropped him into a 36-hole play-off that Willie Macfarlane won by a single shot.

Who lost the 1957 U.S. Women's Open to a scorecard error, then received a collection bigger than the winner's cheque?

Jackie Pung. She and her playing partner each marked the other down for a 5 on a hole where both had taken 6, so both were out although their totals were right, and Winged Foot's members passed the hat for her.

Golf's oldest surviving rules were written in 1744 for a contest with which prize?

A silver club. Edinburgh's council put it up at the golfers' request, and the first winner, John Rattray, became the society's captain and signed the 13 rules.

Which course cut its round from 22 holes to 18 in 1764, the length that later became golf's standard?

St Andrews. The golfers there judged the first four holes too short and merged them into two, and because each was played going out and coming home, the round fell by four to eighteen.

Whose second place at the 1987 Andy Williams Open vanished after a viewer phoned in about the towel he had knelt on?

Craig Stadler. He had knelt on the towel only to keep his trousers out of the mud, which counted as building a stance, and when the tree he was under died in 1995 he was invited back to cut it down with a chainsaw.

What do the Rules of Golf call unattached natural objects such as leaves, twigs and stones?

Loose impediments. A golfer may clear them away anywhere on the course, even in a bunker, but the freedom has a catch: if the ball moves as a result, it usually costs a penalty stroke.

Who shot 67 in the 2003 Open's third round, then was thrown out for not swapping cards with Jesper Parnevik?

Mark Roe. He and Parnevik had forgotten to exchange cards on the first tee, so each signed for the other's score, and the R&A later changed the rule so that the same mix-up no longer disqualifies anyone.