Rule 26-1: My own ignorance has been my worst enemy

This weekend while playing with my brother, we had an often-debated rule show its ugly face again. Over the past year, this question has arisen on two or three occasions and we have never taken the time to check the official rules. On three separate instances I(why is it always me?) have hit the ball into a lateral hazard on the left with my vicious yet reliable snap-hook. Because the ball has clearly entered the hazard each time, there has been no need for me to hit a provisional, and so we have proceeded through the high grass or forest to look for my ball.

It seems that every time I have found the ball in a lateral hazard it has been in an unplayable position, which is where the debate has started. His argument has been that if a player looks for his or her ball in a lateral hazard and finds it, that player loses the privileges applied by rule 26-1 (the rule regarding hazards), and therefore is forced to play the original ball. I have disagreed, but he has cited a situation during a playoff that occurred in 2001 at the Buick Invitational in which a fan or spotter (the story has changed) found Phil Mickelson’s ball in a lateral hazard, and Mickelson was forced to play it even though he had a provisional ball in the fairway. This story has been confirmed by other players, and I was satisfied that my brother was right.

As it turns out, the area in which Mickelson and his competitor Frank Lickliter drove their tee shots was not actually a hazard, but was considered to be “through the green.” Had I known this rule from the beginning, or at the very least taken the time to research the rule after the first time it came into question, I would have saved myself several shots over the past few months, because I would have been able to take a drop under rule 26-1 even though my ball was visible in the hazard. This past weekend I tried to play it out of the high stuff and ended up making a 9 on a 380 yard par four.

The one good thing that has come out of my ignorance is my new commitment to reading the rule book; I have learned several rules that would have helped me over my years of playing golf. Ironically, I have always understood the general idea of the rules and have been proud of the fact that I follow them; however, most of the specifics that I have recently discovered are rules that could have helped me in nearly every round, and I hate to think how many shots, and more importantly dollars, I have cost myself by always assuming that I was taught each rule in its entirety.

Today, I found a few rules that are commonly misunderstood by the majority of amateur golfers that I see. First of all, I have always been told that a lateral hazard grants a player the opportunity to take a penalty stroke with a drop 2 club lengths from the spot where the ball crossed the hazard line. However, I have never exercised, nor have I ever seen anyone exercise, the option of “keeping the point at which the ball last crossed the margin of the (lateral) hazard directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind the (lateral) hazard the ball may be dropped” (Rule 26-1 B). Obviously this is an understood option after hitting a ball into a regular water hazard, but I can’t think of a time I’ve ever seen anyone use this to his or her advantage after knocking it in a lateral hazard.

Another common rule (or incorrect version of a rule) that has been beaten into my head is that a player can’t ever take a drop in a hazard. This is actually completely incorrect. While there are not many situations when it is necessary, if a player plays a ball from one hazard and hits it into the same or another hazard, then the player has the option of dropping his or her ball in the same spot. Again, while this might not be a frequent occurrence, it is always good information to have.

Finally, I have always believed that a player only receives one club length of relief under the penalty of one stroke when taking an unplayable lie . I finally realized that a player receives two club lengths anytime there is a penalty stroke involved, and only one club length during any situation that calls for free relief.

While I’ve always considered myself to be well versed in the rules of the game, I was humbled today when I looked at the Official Rules of Golf. I’m anxious to keep looking through the book to see what other accommodating rules I can discover- God knows I need all the help I can get.