Here’s 1.3 right from the rule book:
“You are expected to recognize when you have breached a Rule and to be honest in applying your own penalties.
You may ask for help with the Rules from a referee or the Committee, but if help is not available in a reasonable time you must play on and raise the issue later.
There are times when you must make estimates, such as the spot where to replace your ball, the point where your ball crossed the edge of a penalty area or when taking relief under the Rules. You are expected to consider all available information and to make a reasonable judgment in the circumstances.
A penalty applies when a breach of a Rule results from your own actions, the actions of your caddie, or the actions of another person acting with your authority or knowledge.
Penalties are meant to cancel out any potential advantage. There are three main penalty levels:
· One-Stroke Penalty: Applies in both match play and stroke play.
· General Penalty: Loss of hole in match play and a two-stroke penalty in stroke play.
· Disqualification: Applies both in match play and stroke play.”
Let’s break this sub-rule down a bit. For the third straight week we’re talking about expected behavior. Most of us will never play in any event in which there’s an official walking with our group. Even though we don’t have an official doesn’t mean we should play by any rules we dream up. There is a statement that I like in the REGL rules that says “Team captains shall not by mutual agreement waive rules”. There’s also one that precedes it that says “League competition shall be under USGA stroke play rules.” The bar has been set – the onus is on all of us to comply with those expectations. Without a referee we first must know the rules and know how to apply them. It’s my hope that those of you who read this blog religiously will have those rules sink in and using your knowledge when you play a round of golf.
Penalties are expected (there’s that word again) to be self-imposed. You shouldn’t have to wait for an opponent to cry foul if you’ve done something wrong, nor should ignorance of the rules be an excuse. Again, the expectation from the governing body of golf is that you (the player) are responsible and knowledgeable for knowing and enforcing the rules ON YOURSELF. In this respect, golf is a very different sport. For competitors who play many different sports, this idea can be entirely foreign. In baseball, for example, you can hit a ball down the foul line that you know is a foul ball, but you run hard to first because there’s a chance the umpire sees something different from his perspective. The throw might beat you to the bag, but you make the turn behind the bag and look to the umpire who may call you “safe”. Golf is played from your perspective and you are the player and the umpire.
Other than your playing partner and your fellow competitors, in REGL play you’re on your own. There are going to be a number of rule decisions that you’re going to have to work out with your competitors as you play a round. It’s essential that you inform them of any lifting of the ball (unless it’s on the putting green or teeing area), any infringement of a rule, or any discretionary action on your part (where to drop a ball, whether you are (or aren’t) in your own fairway, etc.).
When you and your playing companions can’t agree on a path forward to play out a hole, there are REGL rules that allow for playing two balls and recording two scores for a hole with an explanation on the back of the card to allow the committee to render a decision on the appropriate score of the hole.
It’s also important to understand that you are in charge of your actions, your caddie’s actions (I’ve never seen one in REGL), your teammate’s actions, your equipment (including your cart), and the safety and positioning of your fellow competitors or opponents. Let me give you a couple of examples. You’re busy trying to find a competitor’s ball in the left rough and your teammate wants to go over to the other side of the hole where both of your balls are in close proximity. He asks you if he can identify your ball and you give him permission. He wanders over there, picks up a ball, see’s that it’s yours and replaces the ball. No problem, right? Actually, no, there is a problem. Your teammate didn’t mark the ball before he picked it up. Since he was acting with your permission, you receive the penalty stroke for lifting a ball without marking it. Second example – you’re chipping from the fringe and a competitor doesn’t notice that you’re making a stroke and wanders in front of your line to the hole and the ball hits him and stops. Unless he did it on purpose, you have to accept where the ball came to rest. Third example – you’re making the same chip and you’ve laid your putter on the line between the ball and the hole and inevitably you hit your putter and the ball stops. Under the pre-2019 rules, you’d actually be assessed a penalty for hitting your own equipment. Under the new rules, no penalty, but you have to play the ball from where it came to rest. Keep in mind ALL the things that you’re responsible for on the course.
Finally, as stated in this rule, there are three levels of penalties that you can impose on yourself of the committee can impose on you for your actions on the golf course. The most infrequently applied penalty is a disqualification. It’s usually an egregious action that causes a DQ – lying on a scorecard, blatant disregard for a rule, disrespectful or unsafe behavior, and I’ve never seen or heard about a REGL player being disqualified. That’s not saying it can never happen, but you never know. The two-stroke or loss-of-hole penalty isn’t common but does occur. For instance, you walk up to hit what you think is your ball, send it sailing, and then one of your playing competitors asks you “Hey, don’t you mark your ball with a big “T” with a 3 on one side and a 9 on the other? This is your ball over here.” 2-stroke penalty, or if you’re playing a match play event, loss of hole. Play with more than 14 clubs in your bag? Two-stroke penalty for each hole where you had the extra clubs up to a maximum of 4 strokes total.
The one-stroke penalty is much more common and is assessed in play into a penalty area where you have to make a drop, in play into out-of-bounds areas, in situations where you have an unplayable condition and have to make a drop, or in situations where you accidentally move your ball (other than the putting green or teeing area).
The new rules have been written to try to lessen penalties that have been deemed to be a bit silly. Hitting the flagstick while putting on the putting green used to be a penalty. Now you can leave the flagstick in the hole, slam the ball into the stick and have the ball drop down into the hole without penalty. Hitting your equipment (including your golf cart) is no longer a penalty – you just have to play the ball from where it ended up after contact (unless there’s a rule to get you relief from the condition).
The intent of penalties in golf is to try to mitigate potential advantage. Golf course are designed with areas of preferred play (fairways and greens) and areas to avoid (penalty areas, bunkers, environmentally protected areas and out-of-bounds). If a player gambles and puts a ball into an area to avoid, he has to play out of that area (if possible) or elect a penalty to drop the ball.
Sometimes you gamble to win, but very often you’ll pay a price for the aggressive play. In general, playing smart and staying away from the areas to avoid will lead you to stress-free and penalty-free golf. Although this sounds reasonable, the golf swing will inevitably lead us to stress and penalties, and that’s when you’re expected to take your lumps gracefully.