Rules Guy: Is it legal to add a club to your bag mid-round?

The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

My buddy is 2 up on me after six holes when he realizes he’s missing his sand wedge. His house is next to the 7th tee, and he runs inside the garage to get the club. I penalized him a hole and rallied to win the match, and he hasn’t stopped complaining since. What’s the actual ruling? —Michael Washburne, Alpharetta, Ga.

We’re going to assume your buddy — assuming he’s still your buddy — remained at or under the 14-club limit post-wedge. If so, he was allowed to grab the wedge so long as he didn’t unreasonably delay play.

You were 1 down on the Rules of Golf, tainted victory notwithstanding.

For more club-related guidance guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

In a stroke-play competition, Player A inadvertently pulls Player B’s driver out of B’s bag and makes a stroke from the teeing area. Realizing the mistake, A hands the club to B and declares it out of play, then replays the stroke with his own driver. He abandons the first ball and winds up making a 5 with the second ball. What is his score for the hole? —Johnny Williams, Tampa Bay, Fla.

Something similar once happened to Rules Guy with a pair of identical-twin sisters on a tournament committee, but this is not the forum for such matters ….

Even if you had less than 14 clubs, you’re not allowed to use a club selected for play by another player on the course. In essence, you get two penalty strokes for the breach of Rule 4.1b.

Then, when you played again from the teeing area, you were actually playing under stroke and distance. Before the 4.1b penalty, that stroke with your own driver was actually your third shot, plus whatever else it took to get the ball into the hole, plus two more for the 4.1b penalty.

To review: 1 (stroke with wrong club); 2 (penalty stroke under stroke and distance); 3 (stroke with correct club from teeing area); 4, 5, 6, 7 (four more strokes to complete the hole); 8, 9 (penalty strokes under 4.1b). And with that, Rules Guy is off to take a nap. We are exhausted.

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Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.