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50 free Rules of Golf trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Golf is the one sport where a champion can call a penalty on himself, a television viewer can decide a major, and a pencil slip on a scorecard can cost a green jacket. The rulebook the R&A and USGA share is where those stories come from, and every question here is built on it. The 50 questions cover penalties and relief, drops and lost balls, how many clubs you may carry and what your gear may look like, the difference between match play and stroke play, how handicaps and course ratings work, the etiquette that never carries a penalty, the big 2019 rewrite and the 2023 tweaks, and the rulings that undid champions at Augusta, Oakmont and the ANA Inspiration. It suits a club night, a society dinner or anyone who wants to stop arguing on the 4th tee. Play on your phone with instant answers and a one-line explanation for each, or print it for the table.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many clubs may a golfer carry under Rule 4, a limit whose stroke-play penalty maxes out at four shots a round?
14
Carrying 14 clubs is the ceiling, and a player who finds a 15th must take it out of play before the next shot; in match play the penalty is one hole deducted per hole played, capped at two.
Q 02How long may a golfer search before a ball is lost under the 2019 Rules, down from the old five-minute limit?
Three minutes
Three minutes is all the Rules allow, and the clock starts when the player or caddie begins to search, so the time spent walking forward to the area is not included.
Q 03Where must a golfer release the ball for a drop under the 2019 Rules of Golf, which scrapped the shoulder-high method?
Knee height
Knee height is the rule, and the ball must fall straight down without touching the player or any equipment; if it twice rolls out of the relief area, the player places it instead.
Q 04Which colour denotes a penalty area offering lateral relief under Rule 17, an option yellow-staked water does not give?
Red
Red stakes let a golfer drop to the side of where the ball crossed the edge for one penalty shot, and since 2019 such areas need not even hold water, as desert, jungle and lava rock can all be marked.
Q 05Which rule, forcing chips over an opponent's ball on the green, died with the joint R&A and USGA rulebook of 1952?
The stymie
The stymie applied only when the balls lay more than 15 centimetres apart, so a blocked player had to loft over or putt around the obstruction; today the nearer ball is simply marked and lifted.
Q 06What penalty does Rule 1.3 set as the match-play default, the counterpart of two penalty shots in stroke play?
Loss of hole
Loss of hole is the match-play default because most breaches cost the hole outright, yet smaller slips such as a lost ball still cost a single shot in either form of the game.
Q 07Who conceded Tony Jacklin's three-foot putt at the 1969 Ryder Cup, a gesture that left the contest tied at 16 apiece?
Jack Nicklaus
Jack Nicklaus, playing his first Ryder Cup at 29, told Jacklin he did not think the putt would be missed but would not give him the chance, while captain Sam Snead fumed at the surrendered win.
Q 08Which Argentine signed for a 4 on Augusta's 17th after making 3 at the 1968 Masters, handing Bob Goalby the title?
Roberto De Vicenzo
Roberto De Vicenzo's playing partner Tommy Aaron wrote the 4, the higher signed score had to stand, and the champion said only 'What a stupid I am'; Augusta put up a scoring tent the next year.
Q 09Who won the 2016 U.S. Open by three despite a late one-shot penalty for a ball that moved on Oakmont's 5th green?
Dustin Johnson
Dustin Johnson was told on the 12th tee that he might be penalised and played the last six holes not knowing his score, a limbo that drew social-media fury at the USGA from fellow pros.
Q 10Who lost the 2017 ANA Inspiration playoff after a TV viewer's report brought a four-shot penalty for a misplaced ball?
Lexi Thompson
Lexi Thompson's ball had been replaced about an inch from its marker, yet two shots for that plus two for the wrong card turned a lead into a deficit; the outcry produced the 'naked eye' video standard.
Q 11What is the stroke-play penalty when a putt hits another ball at rest on the green, if both balls started there?
Two strokes
Two strokes is the price in stroke play, while in match play the same collision goes unpunished, which is why tour pros lift even a tap-in when another ball lies anywhere on the green.
Q 12How long may a golfer wait for a ball on the lip to drop, after which a late fall costs a shot?
Ten seconds
Ten seconds, plus a reasonable time to reach the hole, is the limit; at the 1985 U.S. Open Denis Watson waited 35 seconds, took a two-shot penalty under the old rule, and finished one shot behind the winner.
Q 13What does Rule 2 call most of the course, fairway, rough and trees included, but not tees, bunkers, water or greens?
Q 21What term describes a match-play side leading by exactly as many holes as remain, needing only one more half to win?
Dormie
Dormie means the worst outcome is a halved match unless extra holes are required; 'dog licence' is the slang for winning 7 and 6, the old price of a UK dog licence in shillings and pence.
Q 22In which Ryder Cup pairs format do partners share one ball, one driving on odd-numbered holes and the other on evens?
Foursomes
Foursomes is also called alternate shot, and its greensomes cousin lets both players drive before choosing the better ball, while 'bloodsomes' hands that choice to the opponents.
Q 23Which scoring system, devised to stop golfers quitting after a few bad holes, debuted at Wallasey Golf Club in 1932?
Stableford
The general area
The general area replaced the old phrase 'through the green' in 2019 and is where most shots are played; the four exceptions each carry their own rules, from no grounding a club in sand to free lifting on the green.
Q 14What must a golfer announce before replaying a possibly lost tee shot, or the new ball becomes the ball in play?
Provisional
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.
Q 15How deep is the teeing area behind the tee markers, the rectangle from which every hole's first shot must be played?
Two club-lengths
Two club-lengths is the depth, its front and sides set by the outer edges of the markers, and a player may stand outside the rectangle as long as the ball itself is teed inside it.
Q 16Which one-shot relief sends a golfer back to replay the last shot after a ball is lost or out of bounds?
Stroke and distance
Stroke and distance appeared in golf's very first written rules, and committees may now offer a local-rule alternative that drops at the fairway edge for two shots to keep play moving.
Q 17Which club alone may have a non-circular grip, a bent shaft or two striking faces under golf's equipment rules?
The putter
The putter enjoys these exemptions as the one club with loft of ten degrees or less, which is why a 'chipper' built with a flat-topped grip or two faces is ruled non-conforming.
Q 18What is the maximum driver-head volume under R&A and USGA equipment rules, a cap that pushed makers toward square heads?
460 cc
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.
Q 19What is the minimum diameter of a conforming ball, a limit the smaller 'British ball' ducked under R&A rules until 1990?
1.68 inches
1.68 inches is the floor and 1.62 ounces the weight ceiling, but the rules set no limit on dimples, so one ball has carried 1,070 of them.
Q 20What putting method did a 2016 rule outlaw, ending the stroke that belly and broomstick clubs were designed for?
Anchoring the club to the body
Anchoring the club to the body, directly or via a forearm, was banned from 1 January 2016, yet long-shafted models stayed legal, so Adam Scott and Bernhard Langer kept them with the butt held clear.
Stableford was the brainchild of Frank Stableford, tried informally at Glamorganshire in 1898, and it speeds play because a player out of points simply picks up and walks to the next tee.
Q 24What is a golfer with a handicap of zero called, the standard against which a Course Rating's 'good score' is set?
Scratch
Scratch is the word, and touring pros sit below it with plus handicaps, which is why the rating system also defines a 'bogey' golfer of roughly 20 to 24 to measure how much harder a course plays for the rest.
Q 25Under the USGA's slope system, what rating signals a course of standard difficulty on a scale that runs from 55 to 155?
113
113 is the benchmark, so a course handicap is the index times slope divided by 113; the system came from Dean Knuth, a naval postgraduate student whose maths the USGA rolled out nationally from 1987.
Q 26What is the maximum Handicap Index under the World Handicap System, which merged six national systems from 2020?
54.0
54.0 is the cap for men and women alike, a figure that lets a complete beginner hold an index, and it can be earned from as few as 54 holes of submitted scores.
Q 27How many of a player's best score differentials from the last 20 rounds are averaged into a World Handicap System index?
8
8 of 20 is the formula, borrowed from Golf Australia, and the old USGA system used the best 10, so many American handicaps shifted a shot or so when the world system arrived.
Q 28Who picked up a short putt, assuming it was conceded, at the 2015 Solheim Cup, for Suzann Pettersen to claim the hole?
Alison Lee
Alison Lee's lapse decided a square match, and the Rules gave Europe's captains no way to undo it once the ball was lifted; Pettersen apologised on Instagram as the USA rallied from 10-6 down to win.
Q 29What may a match-play opponent do when a golfer plays out of turn, a slip that goes unpunished in stroke play?
Cancel the shot
Cancel the shot is the opponent's option, and it must be used promptly and cannot be withdrawn, which is why match-play rivals sometimes agree to play out of order to save time.
Q 30Who tees off first under Rule 6.4's order of play, the 'honour' that a group is expected to respect?
Lowest scorer on the previous hole
Lowest scorer on the previous hole keeps the honour after a tie, and once everyone has driven, the ball farthest from the flag is played first, though stroke play now lets a group ignore the order.