- 4 minutes ago
Avoid costly penalties and gain a competitive edge. This video breaks down 5 essential rules that change between match play and stroke play, covering everything from teeing area infringements to holing out. Watch now to become a smarter golfer.
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00:00When it comes to the rules of golf, there are some significant differences between match
00:04play and stroke play, and these are things that every golfer should really get to know.
00:09So in this video, I'm going to be joined by a golf monthly rules guru, Fergus Bissett,
00:14and he's going to talk me through five times where the rules differ between match play
00:18and stroke play.
00:19We're here at the London Club.
00:20Let's get started.
00:22Okay, so we are on the tee here of the 16th hole on the international course at the London
00:26Club.
00:27And I've teed my ball up, but Fergus, if I was being honest with myself, I think that
00:33ball is slightly ahead of the tee, I guess.
00:37And this is one of those scenarios where there is a difference between how you proceed in
00:41stroke play and in match play.
00:43Yes.
00:44Explain.
00:44Okay, rule 6.1b, playing from outside the teeing area.
00:48Now, if you played this shot in match play and I was your opponent, I would have a choice
00:54to make.
00:55I would notice that you played from outside the teeing area.
00:58I would see where you've hit the shot and I would decide whether I was going to cancel
01:02your stroke.
01:02So my trademark carve out to the right, you might decide to let me off.
01:05I might just say, you carry on.
01:06You carry on, son.
01:07However, if you've ripped it down the middle, I might say, you play from outside the teeing
01:11area, cancelling that stroke, please play again from within the teeing area.
01:14Right.
01:15If you play from outside the teeing area in stroke play, you're in a bit more trouble.
01:48Okay.
01:50If you're playing partners decide to only tell you after you've continued to play, which
01:55strikes me as something very unlikely, but if it did happen, it's not great form, I would
02:01say.
02:01I would say it's not great form and you would like to think it wouldn't happen, someone
02:04would advise you that you had made a mistake.
02:06Yes.
02:06But yes, if it did happen, that would be the consequences.
02:10I guess the point here is either way, it's always best to make sure that you're teeing
02:14off from slightly behind the markers.
02:16Don't leave any doubt there because it could cost you.
02:19Dude.
02:20Okay, so this one refers to playing out of turn and again, there is a difference between
02:24match play and stroke play in this scenario.
02:27So imagine that we are playing over the camera, so we're playing in this direction.
02:30My golf ball is clearly closer to the target than yours is, Fergus, but you are still
02:35raking your bunker footprints or something, you're talking to somebody on another fair
02:39area.
02:40I don't know what you're doing.
02:41So I decide that I want to go first.
02:42Okay.
02:42Now in match play, what happens next?
02:45Okay, well it's rule 6.4, which deals with playing in turn or the order of play.
02:51In match play, unless we had agreed for you to play first in order to save time, then
02:57I might decide that I don't like what you've just done, particularly if you've hit a very
03:03good shot.
03:03Good shot.
03:04You've played out of turn and I have the option in match play to cancel your shot and
03:09ask you to play again.
03:10Same as if you're ahead of the tee, Marcus, as we've already talked about on the tee.
03:14But it's different in stroke play and match play.
03:16Why do you think it's different?
03:17Why is the order, I guess the order is more important.
03:21Yeah, I mean in stroke play, ready golf is encouraged.
03:24It would be prudent for you to play first if I was taking some time to rake a bunker.
03:29It's not going to affect the result of that hole.
03:32Whereas in match play it's really quite important who gets the first blow in.
03:36Yes.
03:36If you get to go first and stick one to six feet, I'm under pressure.
03:41I would have liked to have the chance to put you under pressure.
03:43Yes.
03:43So that's why I would have had the option to cancel your shot.
03:48So are we saying here that if you play out of turn in stroke play, there's no penalty then?
03:52There's no penalty.
03:53There is no penalty.
03:53But what's it say in the rule book?
03:54Is it is encouraged to keep to the honours?
03:58What's the rule?
03:58The basic guidelines is that you would keep to the same honour system from the tee and playing
04:04from who's furthest away goes first on the way up to the green and to the hole.
04:09But ready golf is what's encouraged.
04:10So if it's safe and responsible and reasonable to do so, then play out of turn.
04:16Keep play flowing.
04:18Keep play flowing.
04:18It's a good message and one that will certainly help in stroke play.
04:22In match play, however, keep an eye out for that one.
04:31Oh, I'll take that.
04:32That's a good shot.
04:34Now, I did notice, Ferg, that one potential problem here, I may have just grazed the sand
04:41on the way back.
04:42Yeah.
04:43With my club.
04:43Did you notice that?
04:45I did notice that.
04:46Yeah.
04:46Presumably that's fine though.
04:48No, I'm afraid not.
04:50It's in contravention of rule 12.2b that-
04:53You follow me around all the time.
04:55I know.
04:55I'm a menace.
04:56I am.
04:57You are a menace.
04:57So I've broken the rules.
04:58Two shots.
04:59It's the general penalty.
05:00Now, this is where we need to ask-
05:03Two shots.
05:03Two shots?
05:04Well, are you playing match play or stroke play?
05:07Well-
05:07Because there's going to be a difference.
05:08We're playing at the match and I'm free up.
05:11Let's have a little bit of a discussion about the general penalty.
05:15Now, the general penalty in stroke play is two shots.
05:18You're correct.
05:19But the general penalty in match play is loss of hold.
05:22Okay.
05:23So if you'd made that breach of the rules in stroke play, it's a two shot penalty.
05:28You would add to your score at the end of this hole.
05:31Yeah.
05:31In match play, you have immediately lost the hole.
05:33Lost the hole onto the next.
05:35So for instance, another example of that would be say you ran onto the tee, the first tee,
05:39one minute late.
05:40In stroke play, that would be a two shot penalty.
05:43In match play, you'd have lost the first hole.
05:45Really?
05:46Yeah.
05:46Okay.
05:47So it's worth knowing that the general penalty still exists in stroke play and match
05:51play.
05:51Yes.
05:52But it means different things in different formats.
05:54Yes.
05:54It's two shots in stroke play, loss of hole in match play.
05:57Okay.
05:57That's pretty much all you need to know here.
06:00However, make sure that you also remember the other caveats that we're exploring in
06:04this video.
06:05Indeed.
06:07Okay.
06:07So for this one, let's talk holing out.
06:09And there's a big difference, obviously, between match play and stroke play.
06:12Let's start with match play.
06:13Okay.
06:13In this scenario, I've just rolled a ball up from 15 feet to about 15 inches.
06:19Yeah.
06:19There or thereabouts.
06:20I would be looking at you at this moment in time thinking, Fergus, are you going to
06:23give me this putt?
06:24Is this a gimme?
06:25Yeah.
06:25And you would say?
06:26In match play, I would say, it is a gimme.
06:28Oh, thank you.
06:29Pick it up.
06:29Pick it up.
06:29Whether it's for a half or for a win, I concede that stroke and that's fine.
06:35You don't have to put it in the hole.
06:37I could concede a stroke, a hole or a match at any point.
06:41Okay.
06:41So you can do it on the tee.
06:42So if I sprayed one miles right off the tee and you're next to the hole.
06:46Yeah.
06:46You might concede.
06:47I might concede the hole to you and say, pick it up.
06:49Don't worry about it.
06:50Let's go to the next.
06:51And that just helps pace of play.
06:53It keeps the pace of play up during the round, but it's not the same in stroke play.
06:56There is no such thing as a gimme in stroke play.
07:00If I've rolled this up from 15 feet to here and I pick it up and walk off to the
07:03next tee
07:04thinking that you've given it to me, what happens to me in this scenario?
07:07Well, in standard stroke play, if you don't haul out, move to the next tee and tee off on the
07:11next hole
07:12without correcting the mistake of not hauling out, you'll be disqualified.
07:15Disqualified.
07:16VQ.
07:16No coming back.
07:17Goodbye.
07:18That's it.
07:18Yes.
07:20But there are different forms of stroke play, aren't there?
07:23Good point.
07:23So let's talk about the difference between medal and stable foot here because it's an important one.
07:27Okay.
07:27So in standard stroke play, you have to haul out.
07:31Other forms, stable foot being one of them, par bogey competitions, max score competitions, for instance,
07:37you don't actually have to haul out.
07:39Stable foot, for instance, if that putts for a 10, you're getting zero points on the haul.
07:43Regardless.
07:44It doesn't matter whether you haul it or not.
07:45Yeah.
07:46So if you pick it up, you just put a zero on the scorecard, across the scorecard, no points on
07:50that hole,
07:51move on to the next hole and you can complete the round without being disqualified.
07:54No penalty shots, no disqualification, all good.
07:56And again, it's about pace of play.
07:58If you've hit your 10th shot and you're still in the rough on the right-hand side, pick it up.
08:02Don't keep hacking your way through the hole.
08:04Get your head into the game for the next hole, I would say, just to help keep pace of play
08:08moving.
08:09Hopefully that tells you the difference between stroke play and match play and that there are no gimmies in standard
08:14medal stroke play.
08:17Okay, so for this one, we're talking about moving your opponent or your playing partner's golf ball.
08:24And there's a difference there, the difference between match play and stroke play.
08:27So let's say in this scenario, Fergus, you've hit your ball to here, but I'm mindlessly kind of wandering up
08:33and I think your ball is way up the fairway over there.
08:35Okay.
08:35And I thought that's a golf ball from another part of the court and I've just picked it up.
08:39Right.
08:40What happens in match play?
08:41Well, in match play, rule 9.5b, you're going to incur a one-shot penalty.
08:48You've lifted a ball at rest. You've lifted your opponent's ball at rest.
08:52You will replace the ball where it was, but you'll get a one-shot penalty.
08:56One-shot penalty.
08:57It's one of those occasions in the rules where it is a one-shot penalty, which is quite rare actually
09:01because the general penalty,
09:02I know we're talking about stroke play and match play, but the stroke play general penalty is two shots.
09:05So it's one of those occasions where it is a one-shot penalty.
09:08What's the penalty then in stroke play?
09:10There's no penalty in stroke play.
09:12Right.
09:12If you lift the playing partner's ball in stroke play, you simply replace it and there's no penalty.
09:17So it's a one-shot penalty in match play, but no penalty in stroke play.
09:20So I will finish with a very simple piece of advice, which is probably best not to pick up your
09:25playing partner or your opponent's ball.
09:26And at any time on the golf course, it can get you in a bit of bother.
09:31There ends our look at the occasions when the rules differ between stroke play and match play.
09:36If you have any questions or comments, please do leave them in the box below.
09:39We'd love to hear what you have to say.
09:40And also, please don't forget to subscribe to the Golf Monthly channel for more rules-related videos.
09:45And also hit the like button for this video as well.
09:47And thanks for watching.
09:48But for now, from The London Club, please, goodbye.