What do the rules say about holding a left stick like a right stick?
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The Rules of Golf Are Complicated! Thankfully, we have the teacher. our Rules Guy knows the book inside out. Have a question? He has all the answers.
Is it okay to hold 13 clubs in your right hand and one club in your left hand? That would work for me instead of swinging a club to get out of tight situations. – Paul Dziengelewski, Westfield, Mass.
Separate yourself, Paul.
There is no rule about the makeup of a deck, only that you have 14 clubs or less.
Seven left, seven right? Of course. Fourteen shooters? Have in it. As the kids like to say, you do you.
For more tips about the club from our teacher, read on…
In a stroke play contest, player A inadvertently pulls player B’s driver from B’s bag and makes a shot from the teeing area. Realizing the mistake, A hands the club to B and calls him out, then replays the shot with his driver. He drops the first ball and ends up making 5 with the second ball. What is his score for the hole? -Johnny Williams, Tampa Bay, Fla.
Something similar once happened to Rules Guy with a pair of identical twin sisters on a tournament committee, but this is not the forum for such matters….
Even if you have less than 14 clubs, you are not allowed to use a club selected for play by another player on the court. Basically, you get two penalty strokes for breaking rule 4.1b.
Then when you played back from the teeing area, you were actually playing under the stroke and distance. Before the 4.1b penalty, that shot with your driver was actually your third shot, plus whatever else it took to get the ball into the hole, plus two more for the 4.1b penalty.
To review: 1 (hit with the wrong stick); 2 (penalty kick under kick and distance); 3 (stroke with the right club from the teeing area); 4, 5, 6, 7 (four more strokes to complete the hole); 8, 9 (penalty kicks under 4.1b). And with that, Rules Guy will take a nap. We are exhausted.
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Have a question about the Rules? Ask Guy Rules! Send your questions, confusion and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.
