5 bizarre rules quandaries for which everyday golfers sought USGA guidance

There are no dumb questions, but there are strange ones.

Just ask the folks at the USGA. Every year, the governing body receives thousands of queries from the public about the Rules of Golf. While many of the questions concern commonplace scenarios — lost balls, embedded lies, and such — others stray into wilder territory.

How wild? Judge for yourself.

Here are 5 of the wackiest rules questions the USGA fielded in 2024. 

(Meantime, if you’re looking to shore up your knowledge of the Rules, try the USGA’s online course. Completing it will arm you with the information you need to navigate most situations that might come up during a round, and it’s a great way to prep for the season ahead.)

1. The smoke signal ruling

There are many ways to judge the wind. You can toss grass. You can gaze at the trees or a flag in the distance. But what about studying cigarette smoke? That question — or, rather, a quirky permutation of it — came from a golfer who noticed that his partner was scrutinizing the smoky trails of a cigarette he’d lit. The golfer then asked his partner if he could bum a cig so he could do the same.

“He knows I do not smoke,” the inquiring golfer wrote to the USGA’s rules mavens. “He said that because I do not smoke, it would be illegal for me to make smoke only for information while being a smoker, he was able to look at this smoke. Is this true?”

Ah, the addiction defense. Interesting but ineffective. Any player purposefully using smoke to determine wind direction is in breach of the rules. Being hooked on nicotine is not a valid excuse. But simply observing smoke from another source, like, say, a smokestack or another player smoking a cigarette? That’s a different story. You can do that. As long as you haven’t created the smoke yourself with the intent of using it to gauge the wind, you are not in violation of the rules.

In short, cigarettes are hazardous for your health. And the smoke from them isn’t good for your game, either.

2. The double jeopardy ruling

Time was when accidentally hitting the ball twice during a stroke carried a penalty (remember T.C. Chen at the 1985 U.S. Open?). But that changed with the modernization of the rules. Now, there is no penalty. You just count one stroke and play the ball as it lies. But what about this scenario?

“A player was hitting a shot,” another inquiring golfer wrote, “the ball hit a tree and as it rebounded back toward him he swung the club — probably as a defensive measure — and hit the ball again.”

In golf, there’s no such thing as the “self-defense rule.” But there’s also no penalty in this case either. The player accidentally deflected the ball in motion. 

3. The ricochet ruling

They say that trees are 90% air, but it’s amazing how often they get in the way. What happens next is anyone’s guess. Take the case of the guy whose shot hits a tree and the ball bounces straight back at him. Instead of swinging at it, he instinctively catches it. He happens to be standing in the rough. Now what?

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Answer: This is an accidental deflection, and because the ball is now considered to be “on” the player, that player is entitled to drop the ball within one club length of where he caught it, no closer to the hole, without penalty. If that one club length happens to take him out of the rough into the fairway or some other friendlier lie, lucky him.

4. The bounce-out ruling

Philosophical question: If a ball drops into the cup and no one takes it out, and then another ball drops into the cup but bounces out because another ball is already in there, what’s the ruling?

Come to think of it, that’s not a philosophical question. It’s a hypothetical question, posed by golfer to the USGA. The good news is there would be no penalty. The bad news is that the ball that bounces out would have to be played as it lies.

5. The really dangerous animal ruling

Rule 16.2 provides free relief from what is known as a “dangerous animal condition,” which arises when a dangerous animal “such as a poisonous snake or an alligator near your ball could cause you serious physical injury if you had to play the ball as it lies.”

But what if the dangerous animal is an angry homeowner wielding a knife and warning you to stay away?

“Aside from calling the police, I assume relief would be allowed but just getting clarification,” another golfer wrote to the USGA, before painting an even darker scenario: What if it’s a gun instead of a knife? Because two-club lengths won’t get you out of danger, can you take relief all the way out onto the fairway?”

We wish there were an easy answer. Alas, according to the USGA, “the Rules of Golf do not cover this situation.”