RULE OF THE DAY -- MISSING CLUB - WHAT TO DO

 As mentioned yesterday, an interesting scenario came up a few weeks ago. 

Imagine you accidentally left your putter in the car and didn't realise until you went to putt on the 1st green. What can you do??? 

1. Firstly, no, you can't go back to the car to get it at this point as this is considered an unreasonable delay in play and you would be penalised.

2. Secondly, no, you can't borrow a putter from another player. This would also be a penalty. The explanation of this rule is only in the full rule book as follows...

NO SHARING OF CLUBS.  A player must not make a stroke with a club being used by anyone else who is playing on the course (even if the other player is playing in a different group or competition)

3. The only option here would be to use a different club to putt with, eg hybrid or 3 wood, until you finished the first nine, when you could quickly go to the car to pick it up.

4. This issue did bring up the thought that what if you discovered you were missing a club just as you were about to hit off the first hole. If you had time, you could go to the pro shop and borrow one BUT, if that meant you would have 14 clubs in your bag, you wouldn't be able to get your club after nine holes because that would mean you had had 15 different clubs in your bag during your game. However, you could do it if you had less than 14 clubs usually.

5. I also mentioned yesterday that there is a limited exception in partner forms of play, allowing partners to share clubs, if they have a total of no more than 14 between them. This is only in events such as foursomes or fourball with no singles in conjunction. (I note that I have heard of  say husband and wife who buy only one set of clubs, with one mainly using the even numbered clubs and the other  using odd numbered. If  they were playing foursomes, for example, they could, in theory, share their clubs and carry them in one bag.)

Cheers,
Jenny