The Worst Rule In Golf

Over the past couple of years, we’ve had some fun debating and discussing the Rules of Golf.

There was a heated discussion about whether golfers deserve free relief from fairway divots (they don’t), an article about common sense golf rules for recreational hackers, some golf rules that should change and the weirdest golf rules we know.

I’m largely a defender of golf rules. The game can’t be distilled into a handful of rules. There are complications that make it impossible to do so.

Could it get simpler? Absolutely. Have the rules improved over time? Yes.

But this is still a game played outside. Unusual things happen and not every scenario is straightforward.

There are, however, a few rules that could be simplified to make the game better for everyone involved.

I am a big believer that the game is becoming increasingly bifurcated between professionals and amateurs so some rules shouldn’t apply to both.

I want to single out one of these rules. In my opinion, this is the worst rule in golf for amateur golfers.

The harshest penalty in golf

If you’ve ever played golf, you have lost a ball or hit one out of bounds. Most of us have done it hundreds of times.

It’s an inevitable part of the game.

The Rules of Golf are abundantly clear on this situation: if your ball goes out of bounds or can’t be found, you must return to the previous point from where you hit. There are no other options.

The penalty is stroke and distance, costing golfers a penalty stroke plus the lost yardage.

In my opinion, this penalty is overly harsh when considering some of the circumstances around recreational golf.

For one, most golfers are not very good.

For another, there is so much out of bounds on may modern golf courses because of real estate that pinches in way too close to the fairway. We have built a lot of courses with houses on both sides of the fairway (yuck).

And then consider that while the pros have galleries to trample down rough and find lost balls, the average amateur has none of those advantages. Pros even have grandstands that occasionally protect balls from finding deep grass or OB. You won’t find those at a local muni.

On top of all of that, the average golf course is not properly marked with hazard lines. In many cases, there are unkept areas that should be better maintained. Both of these factors lead to more lost balls.

If someone wanted to play a round by the book, it would require trudging back to the tee and adding more time onto a game that is already too slow.

While a lot of us might just drop one down where we went OB or couldn’t recover our ball—which is totally reasonable—that is not the official rule.

A lot of people say that hitting a ball off the playing field should warrant the harshest penalty possible, but does it have to be that harsh?

I don’t think so. To me, it’s the worst rule in golf.

So what should the official rule be?

Many will disagree with this but I believe the Rules of Golf will slowly become more bifurcated over time.

The pro game resembles nothing like the amateur game. There are already many rules in place specifically for “entertainment golf” like the PGA Tour.

For example, TIO (temporary immovable obstruction) is constantly a factor on pro tours when a player gets relief from infrastructure. The limit of this relief has been tested in recent years as when players blow a shot 40 yards left of a grandstand and the result is virtually no consequence at all.

Video replay has led to many penalties over the years. Look at last month’s PGA Championship when Shane Lowry thought he had an embedded ball in the fairway but was then told by a cameraman that his ball had rolled to that position.

Would he receive relief if he wasn’t on TV? Would an amateur receive relief is he or she was playing a by-the-book round at home? It’s very possible. That’s a pro-only problem.

Driver testing reared its ugly head at the PGA when the literal two best golfers in the world (Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy) had to switch drivers before the tournament. That’s a pro-only problem.

The point is that many in the game desperately want the Rules of Golf to equally govern all players, both professional and amateur. That is just not always the case.

So in my opinion, there are some rules in golf that should bifurcate. Some rules make sense for pros and don’t make sense for amateurs.

Stroke and distance penalties simply don’t make sense for the common golfer.

The USGA has an optional local rule that allows a player to take two penalty strokes and then “estimate the spot where your ball is lost or went out of bounds and then find the nearest fairway edge that is not nearer the hole than the estimated spot.” It goes on to state that, “You can drop a ball in the fairway within two club-lengths of that fairway edge point, or anywhere between there and the estimated spot where your ball is lost or went out of bounds.”

That means you would essentially be simulating your tee shot as if you hit the ball OB—but you would be guaranteed safety for what would have been the provisional ball.

Personally, I would like to see this as one penalty stroke. This would treat lost balls and OB the same as other penalty areas. Keep the rule the same except giving golfers the chance to hit their third shot from the fairway or an estimated area where they lost their ball or went OB.

At the very least, I think we should allow amateurs to hit their fourth shot from the fairway without going back to the tee.

As for the pros? Lost balls and OB barely come into play—and these are the best players in the world—so I’m all for keeping the rule the same.

Final thoughts

I know there will be pushback on this one but I like rules that speed up the game and make things more efficient for the average golfer.

The relief from fairway divots discussion is on a different plane. If everyone can’t automatically agree about what a divot is and what it isn’t—doing so in a way that can be easily self-governed—then the only other solution is to have lift, clean and place (or just lift and place) in the fairway at all times. That is something I don’t believe in at all. You play the ball as it lies. Golf is not a game of perfect lies. Most fairway lies are not perfect.

In this instance of hitting the ball OB or losing it, the ball is gone. It’s out of play. You can’t hit it.

What happens next is a cut-and-dried rules situation.

Right now, the book says you take a stroke-and-distance penalty. There is no reason the book can’t give golfers the ability to estimate where the ball went out or go back to the fairway’s edge while taking a penalty stroke.

It’s the harshest (and worst) rule in golf. One day, I hope it will change.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.