DEFINITIONS-RULE BOOK
DEFINITIONS RULE
BOOK page 135-148.
At every rules course I’ve ever
been to, the first and most important statement goes something like this.....”If you read nothing else in the rule book,
read the definitions. You will learn a lot!”
In the new rule book, the
definitions are, unfortunately, hidden at the back, starting on page 135. It is
worth checking them out every so often.
Here are two that have caused
concern in recent weeks.
1. The teeing area. This is the area you
must play from at the start of each hole. The teeing area is a rectangle that
is two club-lengths deep, where the
front edge of the rectangle is the line between the forward-most points of the
two tee markers and the side edges are defined by the lines back from the
outside points of the tee-markers. (It does not mean the whole raised teeing
ground.....the rest of this is in the general area.)
2. The general area (formerly “through the
green”). This is the area of the course that covers all of the course except the other four defined areas as
follows 1. the teeing area of the hole you are playing, 2. all penalty
areas, 3. all bunkers and 4. the putting green of the hole you are playing. All
other teeing locations and all other greens are part of the general area.
There is no specific mention of
fairway and rough in the rules. They are both part of the general area, but you
will see reference to these areas in local rules such as the preferred
lie rule.
At Breakers, we usually have preferred lies on
fairways only. In this case, you may prefer your lie if your ball lies on
the fairway. However, if you are close to the edge of the fairway, there is
nothing to stop you from preferring onto a nice lie just in the rough as the
rule states that you can prefer onto any part of the general area.
Similarly, we occasionally have
preferred lies in the general area (formerly through the green). In this case,
if you are just in the rough, you may choose to prefer your ball onto the
fairway.
Note: Occasionally you will see that
the preferred lie local rule at other clubs is more restrictive eg. If on the
fairway, you must prefer onto the fairway but this is not the case at Breakers.
