Golf Rules Golf Rule 3 Stroke Play (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Rules Golf Rule 3 Stroke Play (Video) - by Pete Styles

So the third rule in the golf rulebook covers stroke play. Now stroke play is a fancy name for just the general stuff you see on the TV most weeks. Some people call it medal play as well. Basically it’s hit it, count it, and write it down on the scorecard, that's stroke play. And it's a great way of playing a game where a hundred players are going to play throughout the day and we're going to work out who has the best score at the end of the day. So everyone hits it, counts it, writes it down.

You sign the bottom of the score card to prove that that was a true testament of your game. Your marker will also sign the scorecard. You give the card into the committee and that's your scorecard with your net score at the bottom because your handicap would come off your gross score to give you a net score. Now a couple of things that are important in stroke play is you must always follow the rules all of the time and you must always hole out. There's no gimmies in stroke play like there might be in match play. In match play just because it's me against you, if the ball is this close to the edge of the hole, I'll say yeah you can have that, you're not going to miss that. We’ll count you a point, but it's not going to – you don't actually have to put the ball in. In stroke play even if it's right on the side of the hole, you've still got to tap it in. There's no gimmies. There's no, oh yeah you would have got that one or I'll let you off that. We've got to be fair to everybody across the whole field that we have to do things correctly and do things properly. One other rule that can be specific to stroke play is that if you're not entirely sure what to do and you and maybe your playing partner have disagreed on a certain ruling. So I think I should be allowed a free drop and you think that I should have to play the ball as it lies, you have an option in stroke play where you’d actually do the two-ball rule. I would do the ball I think I have to do and you would say, well I don't think you should get a free drop. You've got to play it from here. We’d actually play both balls. We’d play both balls to a finish, put them both in the hole. Mark the scores for each individual ball. Then we can check that back when we get in either through the rule book and agree what we should have done correctly or actually take that to the committee. And the committee who are running the competition on the day, they will decide the ultimate outcome. The problem being is if I think it’s this and I only play this ball, and then find out that I was wrong and I should have done your ruling, then I'm disqualified because I didn't have an option or vice versa. So actually we play both balls and then if the committee can decide I've actually got a score that can still carry forward to keep my scorecard alive, so I've still got a result at the end of the day. So it's an extra sort of two-ball option that you have available to you in stroke play. Hopefully, if you understand the rules on stroke play, you’ll have a really successful golfing career. 2015-07-16

So the third rule in the golf rulebook covers stroke play. Now stroke play is a fancy name for just the general stuff you see on the TV most weeks. Some people call it medal play as well. Basically it’s hit it, count it, and write it down on the scorecard, that's stroke play. And it's a great way of playing a game where a hundred players are going to play throughout the day and we're going to work out who has the best score at the end of the day. So everyone hits it, counts it, writes it down.

You sign the bottom of the score card to prove that that was a true testament of your game. Your marker will also sign the scorecard. You give the card into the committee and that's your scorecard with your net score at the bottom because your handicap would come off your gross score to give you a net score. Now a couple of things that are important in stroke play is you must always follow the rules all of the time and you must always hole out. There's no gimmies in stroke play like there might be in match play.

In match play just because it's me against you, if the ball is this close to the edge of the hole, I'll say yeah you can have that, you're not going to miss that. We’ll count you a point, but it's not going to – you don't actually have to put the ball in. In stroke play even if it's right on the side of the hole, you've still got to tap it in. There's no gimmies. There's no, oh yeah you would have got that one or I'll let you off that. We've got to be fair to everybody across the whole field that we have to do things correctly and do things properly.

One other rule that can be specific to stroke play is that if you're not entirely sure what to do and you and maybe your playing partner have disagreed on a certain ruling. So I think I should be allowed a free drop and you think that I should have to play the ball as it lies, you have an option in stroke play where you’d actually do the two-ball rule. I would do the ball I think I have to do and you would say, well I don't think you should get a free drop. You've got to play it from here. We’d actually play both balls.

We’d play both balls to a finish, put them both in the hole. Mark the scores for each individual ball. Then we can check that back when we get in either through the rule book and agree what we should have done correctly or actually take that to the committee. And the committee who are running the competition on the day, they will decide the ultimate outcome. The problem being is if I think it’s this and I only play this ball, and then find out that I was wrong and I should have done your ruling, then I'm disqualified because I didn't have an option or vice versa.

So actually we play both balls and then if the committee can decide I've actually got a score that can still carry forward to keep my scorecard alive, so I've still got a result at the end of the day. So it's an extra sort of two-ball option that you have available to you in stroke play. Hopefully, if you understand the rules on stroke play, you’ll have a really successful golfing career.