7/27/16 - Admiral Baker North

This isn't a golf rule, but a club rule.  We give out a prize for low putts for every tournament.  What constitutes a putt?

If you use your putter from off the green, that does not count as a put.  So a recipe for getting low putts is to miss a lot of greens, but not by very much.  I'd rather have the GIR and a lower score than fewer putts.

If you use a wedge on the green (don't do that), then it's a putt.  PGA tour pros can get away with this.  You're not that good.

Once you've hit your first putt (defined as above), then every stroke after that on that hole is a putt.  So if you putt off the front of the green, and you have to chip back up, for purposes of counting putts, that chip counts as a putt.

Maybe your club does it differently.  I'd love to hear how you do it.

7/23/16 - Balboa

We're all used to moving loose impediments (small rocks and twigs).  I knew that you could not do so in a bunker, but it did not occur to me that you can't do it in any hazard until it was too late.  Rule 13-4.  So two bonus strokes for me!

I have a job now, which is seriously cutting into the frequency of my golfing.

7/9/16 - Mt. Woodson

Rule 26-1 says that if a ball is found in a hazard, or if it is known or virtually certain that the ball is in the hazard, then you can proceed under this rule (ball in hazard).  Otherwise, you must proceed under Rule 27-1 (ball lost).

On a short downhill par 4, I expected to find my ball on the right side of the fairway.  I didn't.  There was a hazard to the right, and my ball was probably in there.  But I was looking in bunkers, looking down the cart path, I really had no idea where it was.  So rather than assume that it's in the hazard, the rules say that you have to go back to the spot of the previous shot.

The lesson here (as always) is that it is never a bad idea to hit a provisional.  It beats the walk (or in this case drive) of shame.

7/8/16 - The Vineyard

It had been a long time since I had a double-contact on a chip.  Per Rule 14-4, that's a penalty stroke.  So in essence, each hit of the ball counts as a stroke.

Actually that last statement isn't accurate.  The rule says if you hit it more than once, then it's a penalty stroke.  So if you somehow managed to hit the ball three times on one stroke, it would only count as two strokes (one stroke plus the penalty).

7/7/16 - Mt. Woodson

You probably know that you have to tee off between and behind the markers on the tee box.  But how far back can you go?

Two club lengths (See the definition of Teeing Ground).

No one broke this rule during my round today, it just came up in conversation.

7/6/16 - Balboa (again)

Did you know that leaving the flagstick in when you are putting is illegal?  One of the guys I was playing with didn't.

Rule 17-3 (c)
The Player's ball must not strike the flagstick in the hole, unattended, when the stroke has been made on the putting green.

Two bonus strokes for a violation of this rule.

It's tough to beat $19 weekday twilight for Balboa.  This time of year it's really easy to finish before dark.