With the beginning of team competition scheduled to begin in April, here is a review of some of the rules and situations most commonly encountered in match play.
First, keep in mind that in match play the focus is on what is happening between you and your opponent. For that reason, rules questions that arise must either be settled between opponents on the spot, or a claim must be made in accordance with the procedure in Rule 2-5. You are not allowed to play a second ball in match play.
As a matter of proper terminology, by the way, in match play the players who are opposing each other are opponents (in stroke play they are competitors). In both match and stroke play, however, the person who is playing on your side is your partner. This is a helpful distinction to realize when you are reading the rules.
If you and your opponent have a dispute about a rule, a claim must be made before ANY player tees off on the next hole, or if the dispute arose on the final hole, before ALL players have left the putting green. Otherwise, you will lose your claim. If you have time to read only one rule before team play starts, Rule 2 is the one to read. To make a claim you must tell your opponent the facts that you think are in question and say you want the rules of golf applied. It’s not enough to say something vague like “I don’t think that’s allowed.” Once a claim has been properly made, the Rules Committee will make a ruling for you when you finish the match.
The format the WDCGA uses for team competition is four-ball match play. This means you and your partner count your better ball against the better ball of your two opponents. The general penalty under match play for a breach of the rules is loss of hole. When you are playing with a partner, if one of you breaches a rule for which the penalty is loss of hole (for example, by hitting someone else’s ball), the effect is to disqualify only the partner who breaches the rule from the hole. The other partner is not affected by her partner’s penalty and can play on for the side.
Keep in mind that not every breach of a rule in match play results in a loss of hole. There are 15 occasions when the penalty is one stroke, in both match play and stroke play. Some of these one-stroke penalties are well known to most of you, such as going into a water hazard or losing your ball. Others are a bit less familiar, such as striking the ball more than once (the so-called “double-hit”) or allowing too much time to elapse when the ball you putted is overhanging the hole and looks like it’s going to drop in any second.
Penalties are applied differently in some instances depending on whether it is match or stroke play. For example, in match play if you putt your ball on the putting green and it hits your opponent’s ball which is also on the green, there is no penalty — this would be a two-stroke penalty in stroke play. It works the other way around, too. In stroke play if you accidentally move your fellow-competitor’s ball, there is no penalty, but in match play, if you accidentally move your opponent’s ball, other than during a search, you incur a one-stroke penalty. The reason for these variances is based on the underlying difference between stroke play, where you are playing against an entire field of players who must be protected from rules violations that they are not able to witness, and match play in which whatever happens affects no one but you and your opponent, both of whom have the opportunity to observe what is happening during the round.
One of the hallmarks of match play is the emphasis placed on not playing out of turn. While there is no penalty for playing out of turn in match play, Rule 10-ic allows your opponent to immediately require you to replay your shot if you’ve hit out of turn. This is understandable because in a match there can be a big advantage in being the first to play a particular shot and you should not lose that advantage to an opponent who plays out of turn. It’s particularly important to keep this in mind on the putting green, where many of us are in the habit of simply putting out. In match play you need to mark those two-footers, or even those two-inchers, unless they are conceded.
Which bring us to the topic of concessions. A player may concede her opponent to have holed out with her next stroke, which most often occurs on the putting green. A question that often arises is, once your next stroke has been conceded, can you putt anyway with the intention of helping your partner gauge the line of her putt? The answer is no — if your opponents have conceded your putt (quite often for the very reason that they don ‘t want your putt to help your partner) you must pick up. If you don’t, and putt out to help your partner, your partner is disqualified for the hole. Concessions cannot be declined or withdrawn. So if your opponent concedes your putt, and then you putt anyway (not to help your partner, just for practice) and miss, it makes no difference — the concession stands.
One important responsibility you have as a player in match play is that of ensuring that you have the correct number of handicap strokes on your card (Rule 6). If you begin a match having declared a higher handicap than you actually have, and it affects the number of strokes given or received, you and your partner will be disqualified. It’s also good habit to check on each hole where the strokes fall so you don’t pick up prematurely and squander a chance to win a hole.
You also have some rights that you can invoke to help your side. One of the lesser known ones is in Rule 22. You can have anyone’s ball lifted if you consider that the ball might interfere with your play or assist the play of another. It’s the second part of this rule that player’s sometimes forget. So, for example, if you see your opponent’s ball lying near the hole and you think it might serve as a helpful backstop for her partner’s ball, you can have it lifted. This rule comes up often on the putting green, but it can be used over the entire course.
Finally, here are the answers to some questions that come up frequently:
1. I allowed my opponent to mark and lift my ball on the green. Who can replace it?
A. It may be replaced by you, your partner or the person you authorized to lift it. In this case your opponent. People often try to convince you that the ball can only be replaced by the person who lifted it — that is not so as Rule 20-1 makes clear.
2. Can I use my partner’s clubs during the match?
A. No, not unless you two were in the eccentric position of having started the match with only 14 clubs between you. (Rule 4-4(b))
3. If my ball crosses a water hazard (not a lateral water hazard), hits the bank on the other side, and rolls back in, I can drop over there on the other side, right? After all, I crossed the hazard.
A. No. The point is not that you crossed the hazard; the point is that, when all is said and done, you have ended up in the hazard. Once you’re in a water hazard, your relief options under Rule 26 all require that you drop behind the hazard and hit over it again.
4. When am I allowed to clean my ball?
A. The easier way to look at this is that there are only three times that you cannot clean your ball: when you are lifting it (1) for identification, (2) to determine whether it is unfit for play, or (3) because it is assisting or interfering with someone else’s ball. (There are two other esoteric instances as well, but they are not important here.) Other than these three instances, any time you are allowed to lift your ball, you can clean it as well.
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