Imagine the scene – You’ve arrived at the golf club champing at the bit to get out on the course in the Saturday Medal. Your playing partners are ready to go, there’s nobody on the tee and the sun is shining. It’s 10 minutes before your allotted tee time but there’s nothing to stop you going out a bit early, is there?
Well yes, technically (if you’re playing a competitive round,) there is – The Rules.
Rule 5.3a deals with when to start a round. Your round starts when you make a stroke to start your first hole. You are supposed to start your round at the exact starting time set by the committee. You are expected to tee off neither before, nor after that time.
If you start your round at the wrong time, you could be penalised strokes, or even disqualified.
If your start time is 10am, the first player in the group should begin teeing off at 10am on the dot, not 9.59am and not 10.01am.
If you breach Rule 5.3a then you can get the General Penalty or be disqualified… It seems like one of the harshest rules in the game but being penalised for starting early is designed to prevent players gaining an unfair advantage, perhaps by taking the chance to sneak out in that window of better weather as described above.
If you were to start your round no more than five minutes early, compared to your allotted time, you receive the General Penalty of two shots. If you start your round more than five minutes early, you are disqualified!
Is there any leeway?
If the committee decides there were exceptional circumstances and they give you the go-ahead to tee off early, then there would be no penalty, but it would need to be a legitimate reason for the committee to make that call. Just saying, the weather’s nice and we want to get in for the football, wouldn’t necessarily cut it. It seems very strict but, if it gives you an advantage over fellow competitors to play ahead of your allotted tee time, a penalty seems appropriate.
Monty was penalised two shots for being one minute late to the tee at the 2000 BMW International Open
(Image credit: Getty Images)
It’s more understandable that you would be penalised for being late to the tee and the same Rule (5.3a) applies. If you are at the tee ready to play no more than five minutes late, (but still late, like Monty in the image above) you…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golf Monthly…