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These are a view of the most important golf rules and regulations.
The complete set of rules is available at and are published by the
Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews
as well as the Austrian Golf Association.
These rules are based upon the
initial 13 rules
by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.
Many of these rules (for example: "Unplayable", "Lost out of Bounds",
"You and your caddie" )
do not apply to the Indoor-Golf environment and circumstances (some are simulated by the
computer system) but where applicable and appropriate, they do.
Note:
Please do NOT mark your balls, the balls should not even have prints on them.
Dirt and prints damage the screen of the golf boxes!
Match and Stroke Play
- Put an identification mark on your ball. If you can't identify it as yours, it's
lost. If your ball becomes unfit for play, you may replace it, without
penalty, on the hole where it becomes unfit or between holes.
- No more than 14 clubs are allowed.
- No artificial devices or unusual equipment for gauging or measuring distance
or conditions, or to give artificial aid you in gripping the club.
- You can ask advice from your caddie or your partner but not from anyone else.
You are not to give advice to anyone except your partner.
- A practice swing is permissible during a hole but you may not play a practice
stroke. Between holes you may practice chip and putt on or near the putting
green of the hole last played or the tee of the next hole but not from a hazard.
- Play without delay.
Order of Play
- On the first tee the honor is determined by the order of the draw or, in the
absence of a draw, by lot.
- In match play, the ball farther from the hole is played first. The winner of
a hole tees off first on the next hole. If a player plays out of turn anywhere
on the course, his opponent may require him to replay.
- In stroke play, the ball farthest from the hole is played first. The
competitor with the lowest score on a hole tees off first on the next hole.
There is generally no penalty for playing out of turn.
- In four-ball competitions, partners may play in the order they consider best
Teeing Ground
- Tee off within two club-lengths behind the front edges of the tee-markers.
- If you tee off outside this area, in match play there is no penalty but your
opponent may require you to replay the stroke. In stroke play you incur a
two-stroke penalty and must then play from within the proper area.
Playing the Ball
- Play the ball as it lies. Do not touch it unless a rule permits.
- Play the course as you find it. Do not improve your lie, the area of your
intended swing or your line of play or a reasonable extension of that line
beyond the hole by moving, bending or breaking anything fixed or growing except
in fairly taking your stance or making your swing. Do not press anything down.
Do not build a stance
- If your ball lies in a bunker or water hazard, Do not touch the ground in the
bunker or the ground or water in the water hazard before the downswing.
- Strike at the ball with the clubhead. Do not push or scrape it. If
your club strikes the ball more than once in a single stroke, count the stroke
and add a penalty stroke.
- If you play a wrong ball (except in a hazard), in match play you lose the
hole. In stroke play you incur a two-stroke penalty and must then play the
correct ball.
Putting Green
- Do not touch the line of your putt unless a Rule permits. You may repair
ball marks and old hole plugs on the line but not spike marks.
- You may lift, and if desired clean (for Indoor Golf very much desired!),
your ball on the putting green. Always replace it on the exact spot.
- Do not test the surface by scraping it or rolling a ball.
- If your ball played from the putting green strikes the flagstick, in match
play you lose the hole or in stroke play you incur a two-stroke penalty.
- Always hole out unless in match play your opponent concedes your putt.
Ball at Rest Move
- If your ball is moved by you, your partner or your caddie except as permitted by
the rules or if it moves after you have addressed it, add a penalty stroke and
replace your ball.
- If your ball is moved by someone else or another ball, replace it without
penalty to you.
Ball in Motion Deflected or Stopped
- If your ball in motion is deflected or stopped by you, your partner or your
caddie, in match play you lose the hole. In stroke play you incur a two-stroke
penalty and the ball is played as it lies.
- If your ball in motion is deflected or stopped by someone else, play your
ball as it lies without penalty, except (a) in match play, if an opponent or his
caddie deflects your ball, you may play it as it lies or replay it or (b) in
stroke play, if your ball is deflected after a stroke on the putting green, you
must replay.
- If your ball in motion is deflected or stopped by another ball at rest, play
your ball as it lies. In stroke play, you incur a two-stroke penalty if your
ball and the other ball were on the green before your stroke. Otherwise, there
is no penalty.
Lifting, Dropping and Placing
(very few of this applies to Indoor Golf )
- If a ball to be lifted is to be replaced, it's position must be marked
(remember: please do not stick anything in the indoor golf boxe's floor).
- When dropping stand erect, hold the ball at shoulder
height and arm's length and drop it. A ball to be dropped in a hazard must be dropped,
and stay, in the hazard.
- If a dropped ball strikes the player or his partner, caddie or equipment, it
must be re-dropped without penalty.
- A dropped ball must be re-dropped if it rolls into a hazard, out of hazard,
onto a putting green, out of bounds or to a position where there is interference
by the condition from which relief is taken (in case of immovable obstructions,
abnormal ground conditions and wrong putting green) or comes to rest more than
two club-lengths from where it first struck a part of the course or nearer the
hole than its original position or other reference point. If the ball when
re-drooped rolls into any position listed above, place it where it first struck
a part of the course when re-dropped.
- If the original lie of a ball to be replaced has been altered, place it in
the nearest similar lie within one club-length not nearer the hole, except in a
bunker recreate the original lie and place it in that lie.
Interference
- You may lift your ball if it might assist any other player.
- You may have any other ball lifted if it might interfere with your play or
assist any other player.
Loose Impediments
(under normal circumstances this does not apply to Indoor Golf )
- Loose impediments (such as stones and leaves) are natural objects not fixed or
growing, not solidly embedded and not adhering to the ball.
- You may move them unless the loose impediment and your ball lie in or touch a
hazard.
- If you move a loose impediment within one club-length of your ball and your
ball moves, the ball must be placed and (unless your ball was on the putting
green) you incur a penalty stroke.
Obstructions
(very few of this applies to Indoor Golf )
- Man-made artificial objects are Obstructions. Out of bounds fences and markers
and immovable artificial objects out of bounds are not obstructions.
- Movable obstructions anywhere may be moved. If your ball moves, replace it
without penalty.
- If an immovable obstruction interferes with your stance or swing, you may,
except when your ball is in a water hazard, drop within one club-length of the
nearest point of relief not nearer the hole. In a bunker drop in the bunker, and
on the putting green place in the nearest position which affords relief, not
nearer the hole, there is no relief for intervention on your line of play unless
your ball and the obstruction are on the green.
- If your ball is lost in an immovable obstruction (except in a water hazard)
take the same relief based on the point where the ball entered the obstruction.
Abnormal Ground Conditions
(very few of this applies to Indoor Golf )
- If your ball is in casual water, ground under repair or, except in a water
hazard, a hole or cast made by an animal, you may drop without penalty within
one club-length of the nearest point of relief not nearer the hole, except (a)
in a hazard drop in the nearest position in the hazard which affords maximum
relief and is not nearer the hole or, under penalty of one stroke, drop any
distance behind the hazard or (b) on the putting green place in the nearest
position which affords maximum relief and is not nearer the hole.
- If your ball is lost in such condition (except in a burrowing animal hole in
a water hazard), take the same relief based on the point where the ball last
crossed the margin of the area.
Water Hazards
- You may play the ball as it lies or, under penalty of one stroke, drop any
distance behind the water hazard (keeping the point at which the original ball
last crossed the margin of the water hazard directly between the hole and the
spot on which the ball is dropped), or replay the shot.
- In a lateral water hazard, you may also, under penalty of one stroke, drop
within two club-lengths of (a) the point where the ball last crossed the hazard
margin equidistant from the hole.
Lost or Out of Bounds
(this one is especially useless in an Indoor Golf environement)
- If your ball may be lost outside a water hazard or out of bounds, a provisional
ball may be played providing you announce your intention to do so before you go
forward to look for the original. If your original ball turns out to be a water
hazard or is found outside a water hazard, you must abandon the provisional
ball.
- If your ball is lost outside a water hazard or is out of bounds, add one
penalty stroke and play the provisional or, if you did not play a provisional,
replay the shot.
Unplayable
- If you believe your ball is unplayable outside a water hazard, you may add one
penalty stroke and
- drop within two club-lengths of where the ball lies not
nearer the hole,
- drop any distance behind the point where the ball lay
(keeping that point directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is
dropped), or
- replay the shot.
If your ball is in a bunker you may proceed under
- or
- or
-
however, if you elect to proceed under 1) or 2), you must drop in the bunker.
Etiquette
- Outdoors
- Do not play until the group in front is out of the way.
- Always play without delay. Leave the putting green as soon as all players in
your group have holed out
- Offer faster groups the chance to play through.
- Replace divots. Smooth out footprints in bunkers.
- Do not step on the line of another's putt.
- Do not drop clubs on a putting green.
- Replace the flagstick carefully in an upright position.
- Indoors
- Our carpet is pretty rugged, but if you manage to produce divots,
please do not try to replace them, place them at the reception
- Do not create footprints in the golf box
- Do not drop clubs in your neighbour's golf box
- Do not bring flagsticks for your indoor golf session and if you do,
please do not stick them anywhere in any position
- Make sure you stand behind the silver line on the ground while not playing
- Both
- Do not move, talk or stand close to or directly behind a player making a stroke.
- Leave the course in the condition in which you would like to find it.
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