Deputy Editor Joel Tadman is joined by resident rules expert Fergus Bisset to run through the six links golf rules you absolutely need to know ahead of the Open Championship at Royal Portrush!
► Chapters
Introduction 0:00-0:31
Ball lost in a gorse bush 0:31
Ball suspended in gorse bush 2:15
Ball moved by wind after you start the swing 3:51
Ball moves after coming to rest 5:59
Ball hits you in the bunker 8:06
Ball moves in the general area 9:38
► Did any of these rules surprise you? Let us know in the comments below! 💬
► Video shot on location on the Ailsa course at Trump Turnberry. Visit https://www.turnberry.co.uk/ for more information.
► Become a FREE SUBSCRIBER to Golf Monthly’s YouTube page now – https://www.youtube.com/c/GolfmonthlyCoUkmagazine/videos
► Watch more on Golf Monthly…
📹 6 Most Broken Rules In Golf! 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT6iCq_R9tw
📹 How To Take An Unplayable Drop 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUpItZZ9xJ0
📹 Crucial Bunker Rules Every Golfer Needs To Know 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV9TbR6p40o
🎵 Music – licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵
► For the latest reviews, new gear launches and tour news, visit our website here – http://www.golfmonthly.com
► Find us on social media:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/golfmonthly
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@golfmonthly.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GolfMonthlyMagazine/
Twitter (X) – https://x.com/GolfMonthly
It’s without doubt the purest form of the game and arguably the most fun too. But Lynx’s golf also throws up its own unique set of circumstances. It is important you know how the rules of golf apply in those different situations. So in this video we’ve come to the beautiful Elsa course at Trump Turbury and I’m joined by our resident rules expert Fergus Bissit. We’re going to run through the six links golf rules you need to know. If you play a lot of Lynx golf, make sure you watch to the end and definitely watch number three cuz that catches a lot of golfers out. Well, Fergus on Lynx golf courses, we often find these very um heavily gor bush areas. And yeah, uh for my second shot, I definitely saw my ball go into this bush, right? Um you saw it go in, but we’ve come up here and we just can’t find it because it’s incredibly dense. It’s also very spiky, so I’m not able to get too close to it and get really sort of inside there to find my ball. What are my options here? because I feel like we sort of we all know it went in there. Surely there’s something I can do. Sort of take an unplayable lie and I can be on my way. Well, you are a bit limited here. Uh because you can’t find the ball. We don’t know where it sits. We don’t know the position of your original ball. Your only option in this circumstance is to go back and play another one under penalty of stroke and relief, one shot penalty. In order to make use of rule 19.2 to uh to take an unplayable lie to to use the back on the line relief or the two club length lateral relief, you have to know this the spot of the original ball. Right now, if you were to estimate say, “Well, I think it’s about here.” Uh and take a two club length lateral drop and then play from that spot, you would be breaching rule 14.7, you’d be playing from the wrong place. If you finish the hole, I would say you’d been gaining a significant advantage there as well because you should be playing from quite a long way back. If you did that, finished the hole, teed off on the next hole, you’d be dqed. So, you’re probably better off in that situation. If you see your ball going into a thick course like this, well, play a provisional from where you last played your Yeah, that’s a good idea. I mean, you can do that if you think your ball’s lost anywhere on the course. You can you can play a provisional ball and that might be the best best approach. So, there you have it. The rules have not come to my aid here. I’ve hit my ball in the Gorbush and unfortunately I can’t find it. Got to take stroke and distance for a one-shot penalty. Right. So, Fergus, I’m not sure if I’m lucky or unlucky here because I’ve hit my ball to the right into this gor bush. And luckily, I’ve found it, but unluckily, as you can see, it’s suspended in the air on this gor bush. Um, it’s a predicament that not many golfers find themselves in. But in this particular situation, what are my options in terms of the rules of golf? Okay, option one is you could play it. Okay. Uh, I don’t know if you remember Ernie L’s doing that in the 2004 Open at Royal Trun. famously played one out out of a Gorbush. Uh it’s a tricky shot. If you didn’t fancy that, you can certainly identify your ball. We know it’s definitely yours, which means you can take an unplayable. Uh you’ve got the standard three options for an unplayable ball under rule 19. Um you can go back and play another from where you played the original shot that ended in the bush. You could take back on the line relief, keeping the original ball in the hole, and go back as far as you want, but I think you’re in the ghost bushes there. that goes for you exactly. So that’s not good. Or you would be able to take the two club length lateral uh drop no closer to the hole. Now you don’t measure from the ball. You measure from a reference point on the ground directly beneath where the ball is sitting two club lengths with the driver from there. Uh drop within that area and that’s one shot penalty of course. But those would be your options under rule 19.2. That’s interesting. Yeah, I think that’s an appealing option. But given that you know we’re doing a video and it’s a lot of fun, why don’t we have a go? I think I quite fancy this one. Yeah. Let’s have a go. Let me go at it. Yeah. [Laughter] Right focus. For this one, we need to use our imaginations a little bit, but typically on a Lynx golf course in the summer, very tightly moan, dry fairways, and obviously you often get a lot of wind in these particular type of courses. So in this situation, I’m about to sort of take my shot and I take the club away and the ball moves because of the wind. The wind blows the ball. Okay. What are my options here in terms of my swing and relief from um obviously probably going to be a misruck shot scenario. What what happens? Well, first thing to say is that rule 10.1d says that you must not make a strike or a stroke at a moving ball. But rule 9.1 could will come to your aid in this case because once you’ve started your stroke, there are a couple of uh things that might happen. One is that you’re as good as Tiger Woods and you’re able to stop mid swing. Yeah. Or you may purposefully miss even if you continue the swing, but purposefully sort of pull out of it in order to say I’m not making an attempt to hit the ball. So you sort of see it moving and then you sort of step away. If you if you do that, uh then rule 9.3 will kick in. ball has been moved by natural forces. Uh and you will simply play the ball from where it now where it now lies. Okay. However, if you continue to make the stroke and attempt to hit the ball Yeah. as it’s moving, then whatever happens after that stroke, you will be playing another stroke where even if you miss the ball, that stroke counts and you’re now playing your next stroke at the ball uh from where it now lies. Okay? So, no penalty shots technically. penalty shots, but you you would whatever happened if you made an attempt to hit the ball, you would be playing your next stroke from where the ball the ball was. Yeah, I think that’s that’s relatively common if you the ball moves just as you’re literally about to hit it, which is incredibly unlucky. Um, but you don’t get to replace the ball. I think your instinct quite often your instinct is to try and hit it and once you’ve tried to hit it, that stroke will count. Yeah. So, if your ball is on a tight line in the fairway on a link’s course and it’s pretty windy, you need to be careful of the rules here because if the ball moves and you attempt to play the shot, you got to play it from where it is and it could be in an unfavorable position. Right, Fergus, we’re on the ninth green here on the Elsa course at Trump Tbury. Possibly the best backdrop in all of golf, frankly. Um, and I’ve hit my T-shot onto this green. My ball has come to rest up on the sort of top of the slope there. But then since it came to rest, it’s rolled down this hill because of the wind. The wind has caused it to move down this hill close to the hole, which I’m absolutely delighted about. But do the rules of golf permit me to play my next shot from here, or do I have to go back to where it originally came to rest? Well, okay, this is an interesting one. This is rule 13.1d, part two. uh and it very much depends on whether you marked the ball and replaced it or not. Now, if you had got up to the ball where it was uh originally and you’d marked it and replaced it and the wind had then caused it to blow down, you would be required to take the ball back and replace it as near well on the spot that it was on or an estimated spot if your marker was no longer there. Um, if however you hadn’t marked it uh and the wind had caused it to to blow down the hill before before you’d got a chance to mark it, then you would in fact now play it from this spot and and you would be incorrect to replace it. If you hadn’t marked it and then you replaced it, you would be playing the ball from the wrong place and that would be a two-shot general penalty. Um, if you had marked it and then the wind had blown it and then you played it from here, it would be a two-shot general penalty. But I also think that you would be getting a serious advantage from that um playing from the wrong place. And if you didn’t correct that mistake before you went and played a shot at the next hole, I think you would probably be disqualified in this instance. Okay. So potentially quite a penal outcome there. But if your ball does move before you mark it, you can gain advantage of that rule as long as it moves close to the hole. I mean, you might be unfortunate and it would blow away, but you you would have a disadvantage. But in this case, you would have had an advantage. There you go. So, a lot of things to think about there. If you’re playing on a very windy day on a link’s course with quite fast, slopy greens, it could well happen. Your ball could move because of the wind. And you need to know those rules. [Music] Ah. Ah. Fergus. Um, I feel like I might be in trouble here. Obviously, we saw their balls hit the bank, come down, hit me in the foot, right? Um, I know it used to be a two-shot penalty. Um, can the rules come to my rescue here? Well, I mean, they sort of have done. You’re right. In the old days, that would have been a two-h shot penalty. Ball ball striking you or your equipment would have been a two-h shot penalty. But since the rules changed in 2019, uh, rule 11.1A says if the ball does strike you, in this instance, coming off the face of a bunker, there’s no penalty and you must play the ball as it now lies. Now, it’s not lying very well, but that’s that’s it. Yeah, that’s where that’s where you’re going to have to now play it from. Here’s a question for you, Fergus. So, what if I was to hit the bunker shot? It It hits the lip, pops up. I can see it’s kind of come back in the bunker. Yeah. And I decide, do you know what? I don’t fancy playing again from here. I’ll just give it a little kick out with my foot. Or maybe try and double hit it out with my club. Okay. And the ball goes out and I’m like, get in. I’ve got out the bunker. Yeah. Uh am I going to incur any penalty shots? You are going to definitely incur a penalty for that. That ball deflected uh in motion. That’s a that’s a general twoot penalty for doing that. Yes. Two shot penalty for that. Okay. Probably not worth the risk on that. So, I’m back in this position. I’m sat down in some sort of hole here, which is not ideal. Let’s see if I can make a better fist of it this time. Well, you have actually pretty happy with that one. Yeah. Right, Fergus. My ball has finished precariously on this sort of quite tight lie here just just off the side of the green. Um, obviously not a windy day here today, but if it was quite a windy day, there would be a chance of this ball rolling off into this bunker. It could roll off into a penalty area. Uh, what are the what sort of my next steps that I have to take if that happens to me in this particular situation? Well, 9.3 ball moved by natural forces uh on the general area of the course. If the wind did gust and blew that ball into the into the bunker there, you would now be in the bunker and you would play the ball as it lies in the in the bunker. If you were unfortunate enough that this line was a a penalty area, your ball would now be in a penalty area. The only exception uh would be if you had either dropped, placed, or replaced the ball there. uh say you were taking relief away from a a sprinkler head that was just there perhaps, right? And then it blew into another area of the course, say a bunker or a penalty area. In those in that instance, you would replace the ball. Uh but in all other circumstances, you would then you would play it as it as it lies. And if you did replace it, uh you would be playing a ball from the wrong place on in rule 14.7, general penalty. In this circumstance, you would definitely be gaining a serious advantage. So, if you didn’t correct that mistake and then play again from the correct place, uh you would be disqualified if you played a stroke at the next hole. And what if the ball moves um if you’re taking relief from a sprinkler, say, and the wind blows the ball but not into a different area of the course, do I still have to put it back? You don’t replace it in that. You only replace it if it blows into a different part of the course. Okay. All right. Well, in this particular situation, luckily, the ball has not moved by the wind. It’s a lovely day and the ball hasn’t moved. So, I can have a little ship at this, can’t I? Lovely tight lies here at um Trump Tbury. Nicely spicy. Nicely lit. So there you have it. If you are playing on a particularly windy day on a link course and the ball does blow into a bunker or a penalty area, unfortunately you don’t get free relief. You got to play as it lies. So there you have it. That concludes our look at the six links golf rules everyone needs to know. If you play a lot of links golf, hopefully you found this useful and might just save you a shot or two here or there depending on some of the situations you get into. That’s all from me here at the amazing Trump Turnbury Elsa course. I’ll see you next time.
1 Comment
Hole in one