You do not need to know every rule before you start. Learn the situations beginners encounter most often.
Learn the essentials →Golf has many rules, but you do not need to memorise them all to get started. These are the situations you are most likely to meet on the course.
Good behaviour on the course is just as important as knowing the rules.
Only play when the people ahead are safely out of range. Do not stand where you could be hit, and stay quiet while another player is making a stroke.
If your ball unexpectedly flies towards other people, warn them immediately and loudly by shouting FORE!. Do not wait to see exactly where the ball will land.
Golf courses may have additional local rules. Before your round, check the scorecard, information near the first teeing area, or information provided by the club.
You do not need to rush. It does help if you are ready when it is safe for you to play.
Ready Golf means playing when you are ready and it is safe, rather than always waiting for the player who would traditionally play first. It helps keep a good pace of play.
Safety always comes before speed. Only play when nobody can be hit, and do not disturb or distract other players. If you are unsure whether it is safe, wait.
Be careful in match play: the order of play matters. If you play when your opponent should have played, your opponent may cancel your stroke and require you to play again.
A few simple habits make a big difference to the golfers playing after you.
A ball landing on the green can leave an indentation. Carefully push the edges inwards with a pitch-mark repair tool and then smooth the surface with your putter.
Smooth out footprints and deep marks after your stroke. Return the rake where the golf course asks you to leave it.
Replace divots when that is the practice on the course, and do not take trolleys or buggies into areas where they are not allowed.
This is one of golf's basic principles. You may not simply improve the conditions affecting your stroke.
Before your round, put your own identifying mark on your ball. This makes it easier to recognise a ball you find.
Cannot tell whether it is your ball? You may lift or rotate it to identify it.
Important: if you lift the ball without first marking its spot, or clean it more than necessary for identification, you get one penalty stroke. On the putting green you may lift and clean your ball.
On the putting green you may mark, lift and clean your ball and then replace it. You may also repair pitch marks and certain other damage to the green.
Sometimes the Rules allow or require you to continue from a different place. In many of these situations you put the ball back into play by dropping it in a relief area.
If a lifted ball must be replaced on its original spot, for example after lifting it on the green, mark the position of the ball first.
This is a situation every golfer encounters sooner or later.
A ball is lost if it is not found within three minutes after you or your caddie begin searching for it.
White stakes or lines usually mark the boundary. A ball is out of bounds only when all of it is outside that boundary.
If your ball is lost outside a penalty area or is out of bounds, add one penalty stroke and play again from where you made the previous stroke. This is called stroke and distance.
Penalty areas are usually marked by red or yellow stakes or lines.
You may play the ball as it lies without penalty. If you cannot or do not want to do that, you can continue outside the penalty area for one penalty stroke. Your options depend on the colour of the penalty area.
Important: under the normal Rule, you may not play an ordinary provisional ball when it is known or virtually certain that your original ball is in a penalty area. A golf course may, however, use a local rule for a specific penalty area that allows a provisional ball. Check the course's local rules.
Yellow: for one penalty stroke, you may play again from where you made your previous stroke. You may also take back-on-the-line relief: imagine a straight line from the hole through the point where your ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area. Choose a point on that line behind the penalty area and drop in the required relief area.
Red: you have the same options as for a yellow penalty area. In addition, for one penalty stroke you may take lateral relief within two club-lengths of the point where the ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area, no nearer the hole.
If you are unsure, check the current Rule or ask the club for help.
Is your ball deep under a bush, for example? Outside a penalty area, you may decide that your ball is unplayable.
Add one penalty stroke and play again from where you made the previous stroke. This is stroke and distance.
Add one penalty stroke. Imagine a straight line from the hole through the spot where your ball lay. Go as far back as you want on that line, choose a point and drop in the relief area based on that point.
Add one penalty stroke. Use the spot where your ball lay as the reference point. Measure up to two club-lengths from there and drop within that area, no nearer the hole.
If you are unsure, you can always consult the official Rules of Golf from The R&A. There you will find the complete and current Rules of Golf. Startende Golfers focuses on the rules and situations beginners most often encounter on the course.
View the official Rules of Golf at The R&A →
From relief area and provisional ball to stroke play and penalty area, our glossary explains the most important terms in plain English.
View Golf Terms →Play safely, consider other people, care for the course and play fairly. You can always look up the details of a Rule when the situation arises.
Know the main rules? See how course permission, the rules exam and Handicap 54 fit together.
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