I played golf recently with a good friend of mine who is a casual golfer. He hit a ball into casual water off the tee on one hole and was about to play it as it lies when I interjected: “You can get relief from that lie.” He looked at me as though I was from Mars! “What do you mean, take relief?” he questioned. I then had to explain the rule for taking relief from casual water, showing him how to identify his nearest point of relief, no nearer the hole, where the ground wasn’t saturated.
I was amazed that he had never heard of the rule yet alone used it (especially after last winter). This was not a stand-alone incident. In fact, I am staggered on a weekly basis, at how many golfers who are marking a card in a competition round don’t know even the most basic Rules of Golf.
Compulsory Testing
It is my ever-growing frustration with what seems like a lack of guidance or certainly standards of acceptability in this department that has prompted me to make what some might seem to be quite a controversial suggestion – that we MUST pass a basic Rules of Golf knowledge test before we are allowed to enter a qualifying competition.
Now, before you get irate and suggest that we are in an era of trying to grow the game by making it more accessible to the masses than ever before and that this would be a barrier, I am talking about competition golf here, not a friendly knock with your mates. I think that it should be compulsory for all golfers to take (and pass) a basic, short rules test before they can enter competitions.
What I’m saying, in effect, is that while it is ok to turn a blind eye to rules mistakes made during casual play, it is totally unacceptable and frankly unfair that there are golfers competing in club, county and even national competitions, marking a scorecard and winning prizes, that are completely in the dark about many of what I would call the “basic” fundamental Rules of Golf. To be frank it’s not necessarily their fault because nobody is enforcing it.
You cannot set an object down to help with aiming
(Image credit: Golf Monthly – Kevin Murray)
The German System
In countries like Germany, on the other hand, taking a rules test is standard practice. To play golf in Germany, most golfers must possess a license called a ‘Platzreife’ before they can play. It’s expensive (around £300 for a 5-day course) and pretty rigorous (a written and a practical test.)
The Platzreife is a legal requirement to play golf in Germany,…
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