Rule 8: Adapt to the golf course
What this is about
You must accept the golf course as you find it. You may not change anything to make your next stroke easier. Play with the conditions you're given.
What you need to do
You may not improve the area around your ball. This means you're not allowed to do the following, or you'll get a penalty:
- Move or break branches, leaves or plants that are attached to the ground.
- Press down, smooth out or remove irregularities in the ground. Think of loose sand or divots (pieces of grass) that have already been replaced.
- Remove dew, frost or water in your line of play.
- Move loose objects, such as a stone, to improve your stance.
But there are exceptions. You are allowed to:
- Search for and identify your ball in a normal way.
- Remove loose leaves or small twigs that are *not* attached (see Rule 15).
- Rest your club lightly on the ground, except in a bunker right in front of or behind the ball.
- Place your feet firmly in the sand or ground.
- In the teeing area, you're allowed to adjust the ground and bend or break plants.
If you break these rules, you get the general penalty. That's two penalty strokes.
Common mistake
A common mistake is flattening a small tuft of grass or a divot that's already been replaced. This might seem harmless. However, you're changing the surface your ball rests on or the spot where you want to stand. This gives you an unfair advantage.
Example
Your ball lies just off the putting green in longer grass. Right behind your ball there's a small weed still attached to the ground. You bend this plant out of the way so you can swing your club past it more easily. This isn't allowed and will get you a penalty.
Practise this rule with real exam questions in the free app.
8.1 Actions by a player that improve the conditions affecting the stroke
8.1a Actions that are not allowed
A player must not improve the conditions affecting the stroke by:
- Moving, bending, breaking or removing growing or attached natural objects
- Moving ground or pressing down sand or loose soil, or removing other irregularities of surface
- Removing dew, frost or water
- Moving, bending or breaking anything growing or fixed (an immovable obstruction, an integral object or a boundary object)
The "conditions affecting the stroke" include: the lie of the ball, the area of intended stance, the area of intended swing, the line of play and the relief area.
Penalty: general penalty.
8.1b Actions that are allowed
When preparing for or making a stroke, you're allowed to do the following, even if this improves conditions affecting the stroke:
- Take a stance firmly, but not build a stance
- Place the club fairly, without pressing it into the ground, except on the teeing area
- Make a stroke or practice swing and touch the ground or grass while doing so
- On the teeing area: work the ground and move grass or plants to place the tee
8.1c Avoiding penalty by restoring conditions
If you've improved your conditions in breach of Rule 8.1a, you can avoid penalty by restoring the original conditions as best you can, as long as you do this before you play your stroke.
8.1d Restoring conditions that worsened after a ball has come to rest
If the conditions affecting the stroke have worsened after the ball came to rest (due to another person, an animal, natural forces, etc.), you may restore the original conditions as best you can. But if the ball has been moved by natural forces (wind, water) and comes to rest in a different spot, you must play the ball from its new spot.
8.2 Deliberately altering other physical conditions to affect the ball at rest
8.2a When Rule 8.2 applies
Rule 8.2 only applies to deliberate actions by a player (not to actions that happen by accident).
8.2b Prohibited actions
A player must not intentionally alter physical conditions to affect where their ball comes to rest or the path the ball takes. Penalty: general penalty.
8.3 Deliberate actions that alter physical conditions and affect the ball at rest or the next stroke
8.3a When Rule 8.3 applies
Rule 8.3 applies when a player deliberately changes conditions that could affect the result of their next stroke.
8.3b Prohibited actions
A player must not intentionally change physical conditions with the aim of affecting where their ball, or another player's ball, might come to rest after the next stroke. Exception: a player may remove loose impediments and movable obstructions (Rule 15).