Most golfers know {that a} most of 14 golf equipment are allowed in your bag. However even a few of the greatest gamers on the planet have made the error of beginning a spherical with greater than 14 golf equipment, resulting in some unlucky outcomes.
Assume you already know the rule? Let’s put your data to the check.
The situation
You borrowed your good friend’s hybrid to see if you happen to can hit it higher than yours. He stated to carry on to it so that you left it in your golf bag.
You’re on the fourth gap a few days later while you attain on your hybrid. Whoops! You forgot to take his membership out of your golf bag. You haven’t used it thus far throughout your spherical, however you’ve received 15 golf equipment in your bag.
What’s the ruling?
A) There’s no penalty if you happen to haven’t used the additional membership however you could take an motion that clearly signifies that the membership is out of play earlier than making your subsequent stroke.
B) You get the final penalty of two strokes added to your rating for each gap you began with greater than 14 golf equipment—as much as a most of 4 strokes. You have to additionally instantly take the additional membership out of play.
C) You’re mechanically disqualified for carrying greater than 14 golf equipment.
The right ruling? Reply B.
Beneath Rule 4.1b(1), the penalty for carrying greater than 14 golf equipment in stroke play is 2 penalty strokes for every gap the place a breach occurred with a most of 4 whole penalty strokes per spherical.
It doesn’t matter whether or not you used the additional membership. Merely having it within the bag places you in breach of the rule as quickly as you begin taking part in your spherical.
When you uncover the violation, you could additionally instantly take the additional membership out of play earlier than making one other stroke.
What if …?
What if you happen to uncover the additional membership in your bag simply earlier than teeing off on the primary gap?
For those who catch the error earlier than beginning your spherical, it’s best to attempt to go away the surplus membership or golf equipment behind. However as an choice with out penalty, you’ll be able to hold the surplus membership(s) with you however you could take the surplus membership out of play. The breach happens solely when the spherical begins (i.e., when you play your first stroke from the teeing space) with greater than 14 golf equipment.
What if the membership was left in your bag by one other participant?
It’s the identical state of affairs. If it’s in your bag and also you’ve began the spherical, you’re in breach. After I performed school golf, our coach taught us to rely our golf equipment earlier than we teed off to make sure nobody had inadvertently put their membership within the fallacious bag. I’m positive it saved a number of penalty strokes someplace alongside the way in which.
What if it’s match play?
In match play, the penalty for exceeding the 14-club restrict is an adjustment to the match rating. It isn’t the identical as a loss-of-hole penalty.
You have to deduct one gap out of your match rating for every gap the place the breach occurred with a most of two holes per spherical.
As in stroke play, you could instantly take the additional membership out of play when you notice you’ve exceeded 14 golf equipment.
For instance:
You begin the match with 15 golf equipment however don’t discover it till you’re on the third gap. You gained the primary gap and tied the second gap so you’re 1-up within the match. The utmost adjustment of two holes applies (lack of two holes most), leading to you being 1-down within the match.
How do you declare a membership out of play?
For those who uncover you could have greater than 14 golf equipment, you could present clear intent that the membership is not in use. Beneath Rule 4.1c(1), you’ll be able to:
Verbally declare to an opponent or fellow competitor, “I’m taking this club out of play.”
Bodily separate the membership out of your regular set. Flip it the wrong way up in your bag, place it on the ground of your cart or hand it to another person who won’t return it through the spherical.
As soon as a membership is out of play, you could not make one other stroke with it for the rest of the spherical. Doing so ends in disqualification.
Does this occur to the professionals?
So simple as this rule is, this has occurred in skilled tournaments greater than you assume.
Johnny Miller received dinged 4 strokes on the 1976 World Sequence of Golf when he discovered his younger son’s 23-inch putter stuffed into the underside of his bag.
Ian Woosnam was tied for the lead within the 2001 Open Championship when his caddie informed him on the second tee, “There’s too many clubs in the bag.” The enraged Woosnam grabbed the spare driver he had been making an attempt out on the vary previous to his spherical and hurled it into the bush. “God, I give you a job to do and you can’t do it,” he yelled at his caddie. He completed tied for third.
Joel Dahmen confronted a four-stroke penalty through the first spherical of the 2024 Shriners Youngsters’s Open in Las Vegas for carrying 15 golf equipment. Dahmen found the additional 4-iron on the fourth tee so it value him 4 penalty strokes in whole.
“I travel with 15, 16 clubs,” he said after. “I think most people out here do, depending on conditions and courses. I’d like to blame [caddie] Geno [Bonnalie]. That would be the easy thing to do. It’s not his fault, either.”
Ultimate ideas
Depend your golf equipment earlier than you tee off (particularly you probably have caddie!). Even if you happen to haven’t used that additional hybrid, you’re nonetheless carrying it and the penalty applies
The submit Assume You Know the Rule? Extra Than 14 Golf equipment In The Bag appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
