DAVID The rulebook, translated
Basic golf rules you will actually meet this month
I am not a rules official. I am the person next to you when your ball is under a bush and your friends are offering folklore. Here is the folklore I throw out, and the bits I keep.
Play it as it lies — until you take relief
Default: hit the ball from where it sits, do not improve the lie by pressing grass down, do not snap branches that are still attached. Free relief (no penalty) often exists for cart paths, sprinkler heads in your way on the green, and abnormal ground. You drop in a relief area. You do not wander until you find a favourite tuft.
Lost, out of bounds, provisional
Out of bounds is usually white stakes. Lost is when you cannot find it in three minutes. Both are traditionally stroke and distance: add a stroke and play again from where you last played. That hurts, so if you even think it might be gone, hit a provisional. Announce it. Play it. If you find the first ball in bounds, the provisional is abandoned — pick it up.
Some clubs use a local rule for a drop near the point it went out, with a two-stroke penalty. Ask the starter. Do not invent a local rule because you are late for lunch.
Water and unplayable
Red penalty areas: drop laterally, or back-on-the-line, or replay, always with a penalty stroke. Yellow: usually not lateral — replay or back-on-the-line. Unplayable (your choice, any lie except a penalty area): one stroke, drop within two club-lengths no nearer the hole, or back-on-the-line, or replay.
If two options exist, pick the one that leaves a shot you can hit, not the one that looks closer to the pin.
Wrong ball in the rough happens to good players. Stop. Identify. If you already hit it, we have a problem — call it, do not hide it. Integrity is the only handicap that does not get adjusted.
On outings I do rules assistance, not courtroom. Ask me to walk with a group that includes nervous beginners.