Golf Rules Discussion

Hi all. In the winter our 17th, which is a dog leg, has the tee moved forward, this enables a short cut by playing down the 18th fairway. On the grounds of safety we have made the 18th fairway OB from the 17th tee ,but only from the tee. This has now been called into question. Is there a difinitive answer in the rules that either allows or disallows us from doing this.

Hi Swindlehurst, welcome to the forum. Decision 33-2a/14 answers your question. It is not allowed to make such a Local Rule:

33-2a/14
Internal Out of Bounds Applying to Stroke from Teeing Ground Only

A Committee may make a Local Rule under Rule 33-2a declaring part of an adjoining hole to be out of bounds when playing a particular hole, but it is not permissible for a Committee to make a Local Rule placing an area of the course out of bounds to a stroke played from the teeing ground only.

Hi Swindlehurst,

Decision 33-2a/14 answers in the negative to your club's local Rule. I hope you have a Decisions book handy, or go to either http://www.randa.org or http://www.usga.org (for some reason my computer isn't allowing me to paste text to show you the rule here, neither paste in a link)

Decision 33-2a/13 also affirms, stating, "In play of a particular hole, an area cannot be both in bounds and out of bounds."

Andrew
PS - posted after Johanna has answered correctly - hi Johanna, are you having an early spring like here in Norway?

Hi Andrew,

It is 10C today and the birds are singing. That means they're establishing territories and luring little hen-birds to their lair