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.
On a trip to Myrtle Beach, we were part of a large outing on a course called Kings North. The group behind us teed off on the correct hole, the fifth, but played in the wrong direction, to the fairway of the wrong hole, the sixth. Once they figured out their mistake, they picked up their balls and returned to the tee box, re-teeing without penalty (and plenty of delay for other on-course groups). I believe they should have been hitting 3 off the tee, although since there wasn’t OB I’m thinking they could have played the hole as an 800-yard par 4. What does Rules Guy say? —RJ Sulli, via email
Interesting, RJ, very interesting! It’s a matter of geometry as to which Rule applies, but both amount to the same result. First off, if these discombobulated golfers got turned around and played the wrong way, the likelihood is that they teed their balls up on the wrong side of the tee markers. In that case, they played from outside the teeing area, got two penalty strokes, and were indeed required — as you noted — to re-tee (correctly), hitting 3, because the stroke from outside the teeing area doesn’t count.
That said, if somehow they’d managed to play from within the correct rectangle of the teeing area, then going back and playing from the tee again would indeed be playing under stroke and distance, hitting 3. Or, as you suggested, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, they could have played it as an 800-yard par 4 — without, one prays, hitting anyone along the way.
For more tee-related guidance from our guru, read on …
A four-ball match. Our opponents get to the tee ahead of us and hit. Inadvertently, I hit from the next box forward, which they duly noted. I rehit from the correct tees and played on, making a 5. Our opponents said my score was 7 for hitting from the wrong tees. Is that right? —Dennis Derby, via email
Your opponents weren’t obligated to tell you that you were about to play from the wrong tees, sportsmanship aside. Maybe they didn’t realize until too late … or not.
Still, they confused the relevant rule for match play, Rule 6.1b(1), with the one for stroke play, Rule 6.1b(2). In this case in match play, the opponents get the choice of whether they want to cancel your stroke and require you to play from the correct tees; if they don’t cancel, you just play out the hole, penalty-free, even from the wrong tees.
In stroke play, you indeed get a two-stroke penalty and are required to correct your mistake.
