Rule 10: Your Stroke: How to Do It & Advice on the Course
What this is about
This rule explains how to correctly strike a golf ball. It also covers what help and advice you can ask for on the course. Golf is meant to be a personal challenge, without too much outside support.
What you need to do
To strike your ball, you hit it with a single, fair swing of your club. You can't push, scoop, or shovel the ball.
- Your club can't use your body as support during the swing, this is called 'anchoring'.
- Don't stand with your feet on either side of, or on, the line you want to hit the ball along.
- Always wait until the ball comes to rest before you play it. Only in water can you sometimes strike a moving ball.
- You can only ask your own caddie for advice about your next stroke. Don't give tips to your fellow players either.
- Breaking these rules results in the general penalty of two penalty strokes.
Common mistake
A common mistake is thinking you can strike a ball that has just started rolling. The ball must be completely at rest. If you play it anyway, you get two penalty strokes.
Example
You're facing a short putt. The wind blows the ball slightly to the side. Even though the ball barely moves, you must wait. If you strike the ball while it's still rolling, you get a penalty.
Practise this rule with real exam questions in the free app.
10.1 Making a Stroke
10.1a Fairly striking the ball
A stroke must be made by fairly striking the ball with the clubhead. This means you must strike the ball with a brief contact between the clubhead and the ball. You're not allowed to push, scrape, or spoon the ball. If the club accidentally hits the ball more than once during a single stroke, this counts as only one stroke and there's no penalty.
10.1b Anchoring the club
When making a stroke, you may not anchor the club, either directly or indirectly. This means you may not hold the club or the hand gripping the club against your body as a fixed point, and you may not hold the leading end of the shaft against a part of your body to create a fixed pivot point.
10.1c Making a stroke while standing on or touching another player's line of play
You may not make a stroke while deliberately standing on or close to the line of play, or the extension of that line, of another player if this gives you an advantage. This also applies to putting on the putting green while standing on the extension of another player's line of putt.
10.1d Playing a ball in motion
You must not make a stroke at a ball while it's in motion. Exceptions to this apply when a ball falls off the tee after being teed up, when a ball is moving in water, or when a ball is moved by natural forces (such as wind).
10.2 Advice and other help
10.2a Advice
During a round, you may not give advice to or ask advice from another player on the course, except your partner or caddie. Advice includes any comment or action that's meant to influence a player's choice of club, type of stroke, or way of playing a hole. Information that's freely available, like the location of hazards or the position of the flagstick, isn't considered advice. Penalty for breaching this rule: the general penalty.
10.2b Other assistance
A player must not place an object on the course to indicate the direction of their line of play. They also may not ask someone to stand on or behind their line of play to indicate the direction. During a stroke, no one may deliberately stand on or close behind the line of play. In addition, a player must not gauge weather conditions by holding up an object, and must not use medical devices in a way that isn't intended for medical purposes.
10.3 Caddies
10.3a Caddie can help
A caddie can help the player by carrying and transporting clubs, and by giving advice and other assistance. Each player may have only one caddie at a time. The player is responsible for the actions of their caddie.
10.3b What a caddie is allowed to do
A caddie can carry your clubs, help look for your ball, give advice, clean the putting green, and attend the flagstick. But there are limits: your caddie can't lift or mark your ball without your permission, and can't drop or place a ball on your behalf.
10.3c Caddie must not stand behind the player
From the moment the player starts to take their stance for a stroke until the stroke is made, the caddie must not deliberately stand on or close to an extension of the line of play behind the ball.