By: Richard Todd
PGA Tour players have been using the rules of golf more effectively for their benefit rather than simply to assess penalties. Equity and fairness in play is the reason the USGA and The R&A created the rules.
At the 2017 Open Championship, Jordan Spieth’s ball landed on a hilly slope in deep rough on the 13th hole. Rather than punch it out or attempt a highly risky shot to move it close to the pin he used another tool in his bag, the rulebook, and declared his ball ‘unplayable’.
Note, only the player can make the verdict a ball is unplayable. USGA Rule #28.
What you or I may consider unplayable, others may be willing to give a whack.
Under penalty of one stroke, Spieth was faced with multiple options:
-proceed under the penalty of stroke and distance
-drop his ball within two club-lengths of where it lay but no nearer to the hole
-drop as far back as desired on the flagline.
The ‘flagline’ is an imaginary line drawn from the flagstick through a player’s ball/line. A player can drop on that line no nearer the hole.
The first two options did not alleviate the problem of the tall thick rough or gain a playable lie. He took advantage of the third option to find an acceptable shot. Although farther from the green, he was in a clear, flat area on the adjoining practice range. From there he could hit an approach shot.
Even with the penalty stroke, Spieth escaped with only a bogey and went on to post a magnificent birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie finish, to clench the victory.
As David Rickman, The R&A’s Director of Rules and Governance put it,
“This was a “smart use of the rules.”
The rules of golf are not always penal!
They were created to provide an equitable competition among the golfer, the course, and fellow competitors. I know golfers that have been playing for decades and still get this rule wrong.
Learn and know the Rules of Golf. They are there to help you enjoy the game more fully.
