Questions on etiquette and rules of golf

By RCGA national rules officials Kay Thompson and Bruce Watson/tely Junior Golf Tour

Question:

Last year in our club championship, one of the competitors missed a crucial putt leaving it about one inch from the hole. In disgust, he hit his shoe with the head of his putter. Unfortunately, he bent the shaft but was able to sink the putt with the damaged club. Later the Committee disqualified him for using a non-conforming club even though he never used it for the remainder of the game. Isn’t this a little harsh? Couldn’t they just give him a penalty?

Answer:

Rule 4-3b states in part: “If during a stipulated round, a player’s club is damaged other than in the normal course of play … changing its playing characteristics, the club must not subsequently be used or replaced during the round.” The penalty for breach of this rule is disqualification. The fact that the competitor only used the non-conforming club once to hole out a very short putt has no merit.

The phrase “other than in the normal course of play” specifically includes cases of abuse.

Rule 33-7 allows the committee to waive, modify or impose a penalty of DQ in exceptional individual cases. The committee in this instance correctly disqualified the competitor as this is not an exceptional case. So, our advice to you is that you use your clubs for their intended purpose — that is, hitting the ball and not for venting your anger.

Email your Etiquette/rules question to bwatson@telytour.ca