Creeks, cedars and groundhog holes: the rules calls Canadian golfers miss

Most rules arguments in a Canadian foursome are not about obscure situations. They are about the same handful of moments that come up every round: a tee shot heading for the spruces, a ball in the creek, a burrow in the rough, a cart path, a flagstick. In most of them the player takes a bigger penalty than the Rules require, or wastes ten minutes finding out.

Golf Canada applies the Rules of Golf written by the R&A and the USGA, so what follows is the same game played everywhere. What changes here is the setting. Rather than a list, here is an ordinary round on a tree-lined parkland course, hole by hole, with the ruling each situation calls for.

Hole 1: the drive towards the trees

Your opening tee shot slices towards a stand of spruce. It might be in there; it might be out of bounds behind them.

The ruling. Before you walk forward, announce a provisional ball, and use the word “provisional”. “I’ll hit another” is not enough. Without that word, the second ball is in play under stroke and distance, and the first is abandoned even if you find it in a perfect lie.

Once you start searching, the clock runs for three minutes. After that the ball is lost, even if someone finds it thirty seconds later. Three minutes goes quickly under trees, which is another reason to hit the provisional.

The alternative some clubs allow. Many courses adopt a Local Rule that lets a player whose ball is lost or out of bounds drop near where it was lost, in the fairway area alongside, for two penalty strokes, instead of returning to the tee. It is meant for casual and club play and is not normally used in higher-level competitions. Check the scorecard or the notice board; if it is not posted, it is not in effect.

Hole 4: the creek with red stakes

Many courses in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia route a creek or river across several holes. Your second shot finds the water.

The ruling. A red penalty area gives you four choices. You can play the ball as it lies, if you can find and reach it, for no penalty. Or, for one stroke, you can:

1. go back to where you played the last shot (stroke and distance);
2. drop back on a line from the hole through the point where the ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area, as far back as you like;
3. drop within two club-lengths of that crossing point, no nearer the hole.

If the stakes are yellow, the third option does not exist. That is the whole difference between red and yellow.

What groups get wrong. The reference point is where the ball last crossed the edge, not where it splashed or where you are standing on the bank. On a creek that runs diagonally across the fairway, the two can be many yards apart. And you do not need to find the ball: it is enough that it is known or virtually certain to be in the penalty area. If it could equally be in the long grass beside the creek, it is a lost ball instead.

For a closer look at these choices, see our guide to penalty area options.

Hole 7: the groundhog’s front door

Your ball rolls to rest next to, or into, a burrow in the rough. On Canadian courses the digger may be a groundhog in the east or a ground squirrel on the Prairies.

The ruling. Rule 16 lists animal holes among the abnormal course conditions, alongside ground under repair, immovable obstructions and temporary water. Under the Rules, an animal is any living member of the animal kingdom other than humans, so it does not matter which creature dug it. You get free relief: find the nearest point of complete relief, then drop within one club-length of it, no nearer the hole.

Many golfers either play it as it lies out of habit or pick the ball up and place it somewhere nice. Both are wrong, and the first may cost you more than a stroke.

Hole 9: the cart path and the sprinkler head

Your approach finishes on the cart path, or your stance is on it.

The ruling. The path is an immovable obstruction and relief is free, with the same procedure as the animal hole. Two details trip people up.

• Nearest means nearest. The nearest point of complete relief might be on the side of the path next to a tree, not on the side with the clean lie. You take the one the Rules give you, or you play the ball from the path.
• Complete relief includes stance and swing. If your feet would still be on the path, you have not reached the reference point yet. That is why relief from a path sometimes moves you further than expected.

What is not free relief: a ball in a divot hole in the fairway, a poor lie in the rough, a patch of thin grass. Those are the course, and you play them. After autumn aeration many courses post a Local Rule about aeration holes; without one, you play the ball as it lies.

Hole 12: stuck under the cedars

Your ball is sitting against the trunk of a cedar. You could try to hack it out left-handed.

The ruling. Anywhere except a penalty area, you may declare your ball unplayable, and only you decide. For one penalty stroke you can take stroke and distance, drop back on a line from the hole through the ball, or drop within two club-lengths of the ball, no nearer the hole.

The typical club golfer tries two heroic swings first and then takes the drop anyway, turning a one-stroke penalty into three shots. Declaring the ball unplayable straight away is one of the simplest ways to save strokes.

Club-lengths are measured with the longest club in your bag except the putter, usually the driver. Two club-lengths is therefore a generous area, often more than players give themselves.

Hole 15: buried in the bunker face

Your ball plugs under the lip of a greenside bunker.

The ruling. An unplayable ball in a bunker gives the same three options, but the back-on-the-line and two-club-length drops must stay inside the bunker. There is a fourth option: drop outside the bunker, back on a line from the hole through the ball, for a total of two penalty strokes. From a truly buried lie against a steep face it is often the cheapest way to finish the hole.

How to drop, anywhere on the course

Every drop is made from knee height, standing however you like. The ball must be dropped in, and come to rest in, the relief area. If it rolls out twice, place it on the spot where it first touched the ground on the second drop.

Hole 18: flagstick and green repairs

You are on the final green with a 25-footer.

The flagstick. You may leave it in the hole and putt. There is no penalty if the ball hits it. This has been the rule for years, and yet someone in a group still tells a playing partner otherwise almost every week. Leaving it in is also quicker.

Repairs. On the putting green you may repair almost any damage: ball marks, shoe damage including spike marks, old hole plugs, and damage caused by animals. You may not repair natural imperfections of the surface or normal wear around the hole.

Cleaning the ball. On the green you may mark, lift and clean it whenever you like. Elsewhere you may clean it only when you lift it to take relief, unless a preferred lies Local Rule is in effect. Committees tend to adopt one when the ground is soft or muddy, which in Canada often means April and May, so read the notice board.

When you are not sure

In a stroke play competition, if you are unsure how to proceed, you may complete the hole with two balls, telling your marker before you play which one you want to count, and then report the facts to the committee before returning your scorecard. In a casual round, the same idea works informally: play both, record both, and look it up afterwards.

Above all, ask before acting when an official is available. Most rulings that go wrong started with a player guessing and moving the ball.

Where to check a ruling in Canada

Golf Canada’s rules page links to the official Rules of Golf app for iOS and Android and to the rules quiz on the R&A website. The app holds the full text and is faster than an argument on the tee.

Golf Canada’s Ask An Expert form lets you submit questions about the Rules of Golf and the Rules of Handicapping, and one of its experts replies. It is the right place for the unusual case your group could not settle.

Your club’s notice board and scorecard list the Local Rules in effect that day, such as preferred lies, the stroke-and-distance alternative or aeration holes. Read them on the first tee; they change through the Canadian season.

Competitions. Golf Canada publishes its competition policies, and every organised event has its own terms of competition and Local Rules. Read them before your round, not after a ruling.

Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with any association or app mentioned here.

Six calls to remember

• Say “provisional” out loud, and search for three minutes at most.
• In a penalty area, measure from where the ball last crossed the edge; red gives the lateral option, yellow does not.
• Animal holes, cart paths and sprinkler heads give free relief: nearest point of complete relief, then one club-length.
• Declare an unplayable early; in a bunker, the fourth option costs two strokes and gets you out of the sand.
• Drop from knee height, and you may putt with the flagstick in.
• Read the Local Rules on the notice board, especially in spring and after aeration.

Knowing six rulings will not lower your handicap by itself, but it stops the Rules costing you strokes they never meant to take.