Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro

Another great things about the game of golf is that we know it's play with honesty there's no cheating there's no fouling there's no diving on the ground cry get penalties off your opponents. It's dealt with honestly because we have a rulebook and we understand the rule book and a lot of golfers when they play they don't necessarily know every single rule in the book but they can pick the rulebook up and hopefully find the rule and I think the important thing to understand is you don't have to know every single rule but there are some that can help you can benefit you actually understanding the rules. can be playing to your advantage but pick a very small particular scenario where we've landed a golf ball off the tee and landed in the bottom of a bush is like a bush the size that you would have in your back garden like a shrub and the ball's in the bottom of it we can see it now the temptation there is I can see it I can play it but if you get in there and you realize that hitting this ball is going to be can be difficult to get the ball out potentially it could cost me a shot it could cost me an injury if I don't hit this well and I might destroy the bush now if I didn't know the rules of the game I might think I've got to go and play this. So get in the bush ten swings later my score has been shot to pieces the bush is also shot to pieces and I'm no better off but if I understand the rulings I know that if I find my ball in the bush I've actually got four different options first option is to play it but I've decided that that's not going to happen my next option and most often on the golf course this is always an option you can plan you can go and play the previous shot again but you have to add a shot penalty to if I've driven the ball in the bush for what am I can take it back to the tee for two and then and then playing three sometimes I might feel like a two shot penalty but it's only actually the one shot penalty plus the shot you hit.

So in the bush one take it back four to play it again for three my other two options are I can drop the ball and I can drop the ball in one of two places the first one is I can drop the ball within two club lengths of where it lies but no nearer the hole. So let's say I'm aiming towards the tree over this way and that means I've got a semicircle anywhere this way I can't go this way come nearer to the hole. So here all the way around here to club like so when I have two clicks could be measured with my driver measure one measure two and drop it at the end and then play from there so that's going to be quite a good option as long as one of those directions give me a route out where back onto the semi roll for the fairway Now there's another option which is I can drop the ball in line with where it is in line with the hole as far back as I like. So let's imagine our Bush is really big and two club blanks isn't going to get me to the edge of the bush. So I've got no option to drop this ball out but I could then walk back walk back or back and I might be walking back forty or fifty yards to then get on to another fairway to hit all the way back over the top of the trees to get back to my target. So those are my options I want to have weighed up all those options playing it doesn't cost me a penalty or the other three should three options do cost me penalties have to work out my risk and reward strategy which is riskiest which is going to give me the best reward and how can I best play my shot but I can only understand if I've got those options if I understand some of the rules. So going itself a rule book three should be from the R.N.A. or the U.S.G.A. should give you a rulebook free of charge or the local golf club and then you can understand some of the key rules that help you drop the ball into a better situation than where it currently is.