United States Golf Association®

The United States Golf Association was formed on December 22, 1894. The USGA, together with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, writes and interprets the Rules of Golf. The rules cover the countless situations you may encounter on the course, and tell you clearly how to proceed.


• Be considerate of others. Don’t talk, move or stand near a player about to play a stroke.


• Be careful. Before making a stroke or a practice swing, make sure you will not hit a person with the club. Don’t play until the players in front are out of range.


• Leave the course in better condition than you find it. Repair divot holes, repair ball marks on the putting green and rake a bunker after playing out of it.


          • Count your clubs. No more than 14. Fewer is OK.


              • Be ready to play when it’s your turn.


               • Start each hole from the teeing ground.


• During the play of each hole, the ball farthest from the hole is played first. The player with the lowest score on the hole tees off first on the next hole.


• Play the ball as it lies.


• If your ball is in the bunker, don’t ground your club in the bunker before your downswing.


• You may repair ball marks on the putting green but not spike marks.


• When played from the putting green, your ball may not strike the flagstick.


• “Loose Impediments” are natural objects, such as stones or leaves, that are not fixed or growing. You may move them unless the loose impediment and your ball lie in or touch the same hazard.


• “Obstructions” are artificial (man-made) objects. You may  remove movable obstructions and generally may drop away from an immovable obstruction.


• When your ball is in a water hazard, you may play it, or with a one-stroke penalty, replay the stroke or drop a ball any distance behind the hazard — but along an imaginary line from the hole through the point at which the original ball last crossed the hazard margin.

Since this is a lateral water hazard (defined by red line or stakes), you have two more options: drop a ball within two club-lengths of the point where the ball last crossed the hazard margin, no nearer the hole; or drop within two club-lengths of a point on the opposite hazard margin the same distance from the hole.


• When dropping a ball, stand erect, hold the ball at shoulder height and arm’s length and drop it.


• If your ball may be lost outside a water hazard or out of bounds,
you may play another ball (known as a “provisional ball”) before you
go forward to search for the original, provided you announce your intention to do so.


• If your ball is lost outside a water hazard or is out of bounds, add one penalty stroke and replay the stroke. If you played a provisional ball, add one penalty stroke and continue with the provisional ball.


Good habits when taking practice swings:

• Look behind and all around

• No divots

• Take only one practice swing


Where you should stand when others play:

• Well away from the player, and not ahead

• On either side of the player, but not behind


Must-dos on the putting green:

• Repair ball marks

• Avoid stepping on other’s line of putt


The starting place for every hole:

  1. •The teeing ground is the area behind the 2 tee markers (not more than 2 club-lengths back)

• The ball may be teed up


Except on the tee, what happens if your golf ball is accidentally moved by you?

• Replace the ball

• Add one penalty stroke


When is a golf ball lost?

• When it cannot be found within 5 minutes

• When a stroke is made with a new ball


What do you do when there is lightning and/or thunder?

• Stop play immediately and go to a safe place


What do you do if your golf ball is in a bad spot and cannot be played?:

• Go back to where you played your previous stoke; or

• Drop behind the bad spot; or

• Drop within two club lengths of where the golf ball lies


What is a water hazard?

• Any sea, lake, pond, river or ditch

• Marked with yellow (or red) lines or stakes


What are obstructions?:

• Generally, anything artificial (man-made)

  1. •If readily movable, you may move these any time, anywhere


What are loose impediments?:

• Generally, anything natural that is loose

  1. •You may move these anywhere, except in a water hazard or bunker


What happens if your golf ball is in casual water, ground under repair, a burrowing animal hole, or an immovable obstruction?

• No Penalty

  Find the nearest point, no nearer the hole, away from

  the area and drop within one club-length of that point


What is “Advice”?:

  1. •Any information that could affect a player’s method of making a stroke 

  2. • You cannot give or get this from anyone except your partner or caddie  


Things to be careful of if your ball is in a bunker or a water hazard:

  1. •Don’t touch the ground in the area before the down-swing (2-stroke penalty)

  2. •Don’t touch or move loose impediments that are in the same hazard (2-stroke penalty)


If you have an out of bounds or lost ball:

  1. •Play from the spot of the last stroke (plus one penalty)is the only action allowed

• Play a provisional ball to save time


Know how to take turns on the golf course:

• Play only when it is your turn

  1. •Wait for others who are farther away from the hole than you are


Be ready to play when it is your turn:

  1. •Plan your shot while walking to your golf ball or when others are playing their shots

• Take only one practice swing


Things to think about when planning a shot:

• Lie

• Distance

• Terrain