Golf Game Rules And Etiquette

Back in 1744, when a group of men from the honorable company of Edinburgh golfers got together to draw up a list of governing rules, they felt the necessity to come up with only a handful of regulations.

In the nineteenth century, control of the game passed to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, whose riles are now considered the backbone of the game.

Since the, the club has made more than 130,000 separate adjudications as people have written in with examples of the game’s list of possible variation. Few golfers, though, even tournament professionals, know all the rules. They are always falling foul of one obscure rule or another.

Know Your Rights

No golfer should be allowed out on to a course until he or she has a working knowledge of the rules, as much for their own benefit as anyone else’s.

In every sport, it is a case of what you can get away with by bending the rules, but not in golf. Knowing the rules is every golfer’s responsibility because they are the sole arbiter of their actions.

If people do not know the rules they are liable to break them, and it is a fine line between breaking rules deliberately and ignorance of them.

Here are the basic rules of golf which you should have a working knowledge before stepping out on to the course.

Positive Put Aways

Your short putt strategy should be to take the break out of play. All too often, missed putts from 3 to 4 feet are caused by a lack of confidence. Players frequently make the mistake of trying to trickle in shots that need to be played with a positive putting stroke.

Two of the world’s best putter knocks in the short putts with a firm stroke. This method means that all you need to worry about on a short putt is the initial line, because after that you know that the ball will not have time to break.