| An understanding of the Rules of Golf benefits everyone and ensures fair play. Here we feature simple tips about the Rules particularly relevant to Heydon Grange. If you have a question about the Rules or have a tip to suggest or a question to ask, please provide your feedback here. This is simplified guidance only - as always the full rules should be consulted if in doubt. Where are the rules? There should be free copies at the club - please ask. They are also available on line here. In addition, some common clarifications of more unusual rules matters are available in the 'Decisions on the Rules of Golf' available on-line here. If you think you understand the final details, why not take the quiz on the R&A site here. Finally, the full Rules can take a while to find you way round. There are many 'illustrated rules of golf' publications which provide 90% of what you need - most for less than a tenner and well worth a read. |
| Common problem | What you can and cannot do |
| When to declare a provisional ball |  | If you believe that your ball may be lost (or out of bounds), you can declare and play a provision ball (Rule 27.2). You cannot declare a provisional ball if you believe that the ball is in a hazard. The rules state that either a ball is in a hazard or it isn't - there is no 'maybe' - and so a provisional ball cannot be declared in this case. |
| How to declare a provisional ball |  | You MUST declare to your playing partner/opponent that a ball is provisional (Rule 27.2). If you do not say anything before playing, the ball is NOT a provisional and it becomes the ball in play (even if you later find your first ball). |
| One club length or two? |  | People often forget whether relief involves one club length or two. The easiest way the remember is that free relief = 1 club length. A penalty shot buys you an extra club length. |
| My ball is buried in a gorse bush |  | If you find your ball in a gorse bush (eg on Herts 3rd), you have four options:- play it as it lies (no penalty)
- declare it unplayable and drop within two club lengths from the ball NOT nearer the hole (penalty 1 shot)
- declare it unplayable and drop it as far back as you like along a line away from the direction of the flag (penalty 1 shot)
- declare it unplayable and replay your shot from where you previously played (penalty 1 shot)
Rules 13 and 28 explain all. |
| Ball in a yellow staked hazard | 
| The pond in front of the Essex 1st green is a yellow staked hazard. You have three options (Rule 26.1):- play it as it lies (maybe under water!) - no penalty
- replay a ball from where you played your previously shot (penalty 1 shot)
- agree where the ball LAST entered the hazard and go back in a direction away from the flag as far as you like and take a drop (penalty 1 shot)
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| Ball in a red staked hazard | 
| The pond to the right of the Essex 9th green is a red staked hazard (at least in part). These are 'lateral' hazards and are treated the same as yellow staked hazards except that dropping behind the hazard would be impractical. The options you have (Rule 26.1) are the same as for yellow stakes except that you have one further option:- drop within two club lengths of the edge of the hazard no nearer the hole (penalty 1 shot)
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| Staked, netted trees etc |  | In the normal rules, free relief can be obtained from staked trees. At Heydon, free relief can also be obtained from small trees where they have been marked with netting, tags or a protective sheath around the trunk. The last point is especially important because there are many trees with light green plastic sheathing on them - particularly in the plantation areas. Even if this sheathing extends an inch from the base, you must still take relief. |
| Relief from animal scrapes |  | Damage caused by birds or burrowing animals (including rabbits) anywhere on the course is an 'abnormal ground condition'. Except where your ball lies in a hazard, you may get relief without penalty (drop within 1 club length of your nearest point of relief no nearer the hole). |
| Earthworks on the new 9-hole course |  | The earthworks around the new 9-hole course are marked with white stakes as 'Out of Bounds'. If you have gone beyond the line of the stakes, your only option is to retake your shot under penalty of one shot - so the next shot will be your third if you were taking your tee shot. If you are not sure if you are 'out of bounds', you can declare and play a provisional. |
| Un-playable |  | Anywhere on the course (except in a water hazard), you can declare your ball unplayable - even if it is sitting in the middle of the fairway! Your options (under a 1 shot penalty) are:- drop two club lengths from the ball no nearer the hole
- go back as far as you like in a direction away from the flag
- play the ball from where you took your last shot.
However, if your ball is in a bunker, under (1) or (2) you must drop it within the bunker. |
| Nearest point of relief |  | There is much confusion about what is your 'nearest point of relief'. Put simply, it is the point where you would place your ball such that your stance and intended swing is no longer affected by whatever you were taking relief from (eg an animal scrape or staked tree). It is NOT the nearest place from where you can easily hit the ball. In some cases, your nearest point of relief might be in deep rough!!! |
| So many obstructions! |  | An obstruction is anything artificial such as a roadway, hut, distance marker, yellow/red stake, bin, ball washer etc. An obstruction is 'movable' if you can move it (!) - without causing damage to it or yourself. Procedure here (Rule 24.1) is to move the obstruction (replacing the ball if it moves in the process) and taking your shot without penalty. Should the Sphinx appear on the Cambs, this would be an immovable obstruction (Rule 24.2), from which you can take a free drop within one club length from your nearest point of relief no nearer the hole - except if you are in a hazard. |
| Planter box on the Essex 4th |  | The planter box is deemed an immovable obstruction. You can therefore get free relief if your ball lands in it or up against it. Find the nearest place no nearer the hole where the box does not interfere with your intended swing or stance. This is your 'nearest point of relief'. You can then go one club further without penalty. Important: Relief is intended to allow you to swing the club and play a shot - you cannot go even further back just so that it is easier to hit the ball over the planter or its contents!! And another point.... Immediately to each side of the planter are posts denoting hazards. If you are in one of these areas, proceed as appropriate for the hazard. If you are also very near the planter, it is just tough and you cannot take a free drop out of the hazard. |
| Stones in bunkers | 
| Heydon has a local rule which permits stones to be removed from bunkers. If your ball is in the bunker sitting on a stone, you may lift the ball, remove the stone and replace the ball without penalty - but remember to get your playing partner's agreement. |
| Grass/hay in bunkers | 
| Grass or hay is natural (termed a 'loose impediment') and, as such, cannot be removed from bunkers. If you pick it up, it is a 2 shot penalty in stroke play or loss of hole in match play. Anything man-made (movable obstructions) can be removed without penalty. If your ball were to come to rest on a crisp packet you could remove the packet but your ball would have to be dropped. |
| Tending the flag | 
| You can have the flag tended at any time even if you are teeing off on a par 5 although this might make you unpopular! If you are on the green, the flag MUST be tended (or removed). |
| Tyre tracks |  | Tyre tracks anywhere on the course made by tractors, motorcycles, buggies and tanks are 'ground under repair' and hence are treated as abnormal ground conditions (except in hazards). You may take a free drop one club length from your nearest point of relief no nearer the hole. |
| Completing competition cards | 
| No matter what the competition format (stroke play, stableford, bogey etc), you only have to do a few simple things before putting your completed card in the competitions box:- if not already completed, identify the competition, date and tees used
- mark your name on the card to identify it as yours
- mark your full handicap
- mark the gross score on each hole (or leave it blank if a 'blob' in stableford)
- ensure the marker has signed it
- sign it yourself
Everything else is the responsibility of the competitions committee - adding up, calculating stableford points, applying handicap formulas (eg 7/8ths) |
| Wrong handicap |  | About once per month, at least one person declares the wrong handicap on their competition scorecard - please ensure that next time, it isn't you! Make a habit of checking the official handicap list before you submit your card. If you declare a handicap lower than your true handicap, the card is processed as if the lower value were your correct one. If you declare a higher handicap, you are disqualified if it affects the number of shots received. (In practice, you would always be DQ'd in a stroke play event or a stableford competition off full handicap. However, if you were in a stableford competition off 7/8 hcp and it just so happened that 7/8ths of your true handicap were equal to 7/8ths of your declared handicap, you would not be DQ'd). |
| Searching for balls |  | Only 5 minutes is allowed. If you agree that time is up, it really is !! If you then find your ball (eg when walking back to play another) then tough - you must continue to take another as the first is deemed lost. |
| Wind blows a ball on the green |  | If, after you have replaced it, the wind moves your ball on the green, you MUST replace the ball without penalty. However, if you had 'taken your stance' (got ready to putt and grounded your club on the green behind it) you incur a 1 shot penalty - and the ball must still be replaced. This is because you (not the wind) are considered to have moved the ball under Rule 18.2-b. This is why good players 'hover' the putter in windy conditions hence avoiding grounding their clubs - just in case the wind moves the ball before they hit it. |
| Frost on the putting surface |  | Heydon may be one of the few places where we can play nearly all year round, but the winter brings its own special challenges. If there is frost on the green, you cannot remove it - either in the vicinity of your ball or from the line of your putt. What about those big chunks of ice which fall off our shoes onto the green? The rules do allow you to remove frost if removing it is incidental to removing loose impediments such as small stones, small lumps of loose soil/sand or detached grass. Provided that these chunks include such loose impediments - as most of them will - then they can be safely removed. What you cannot do is brush away swathes of otherwise undisturbed frost along your line of putt. |
