Rules of the Game

The rules of golf in the United States are set by the U.S. Golf Association. While the basic rules are simple and easily defined, the intricacies of the game demand a high degree of explanation. The full USGA rules are available in printed form or on the Internet.

The sport is so well-regulated that players police themselves, calling their own penalties. In fact, the rules stipulate that players who ignore the rules can lose strokes or even be disqualified. Cheating, while not unheard of, is rarely done.

Following are the basics, paraphrased from the official rules.

The game of golf is played by hitting a small ball with one of several sticks, or clubs. The object is to move the ball from the teeing ground, commonly known as the tee, to a smooth area called a putting green, which surrounds a cup, or small hole in the green. Along the way players hit in or near a fairway, an open area between the tee and green. Eighteen combinations of tee, fairway and green make up the normal golf course.

Normally, putting the ball into 18 holes is a complete game, but variations occur.

Scoring is of two primary types. Counting each stroke in an 18-hole round is the most common. The player taking the fewest strokes wins. In competition, this often is referred to as medal play.

A second method of scoring is by the hole. This is called match play. Players are matched against each other. The player with the fewest strokes on a hole wins the hole, which counts as one point for the winner. Play continues until one player has won more holes than there are left in the round.

The ball is a small, usually white, sphere with uniform depressions, or dimples, on its surface. Players may only designate to play only one ball a round, unless it is lost or damaged, in which case it may be replaced.

Clubs consist of woods and irons. Woods normally have heavier, bulkier striking surfaces, or heads, at the lower end of the stick, or shaft. They may be made of material other than wood. Irons, which may be made of metal other than iron, are flatter and thinner, which angled surfaces to provide varying degrees of loft. The more loft, the higher and shorter the shot.

A special club is the putter, a vertically faced club which is used on the green to tap the ball into the hole.

Balls and clubs are manufactured to strict guidelines. While a friendly game on the weekends may not result in penalties because a ball is too tightly wound or a club is larger than acceptable, in general all golfers use accepted clubs and balls at all times.

While rules vary from course to course and from local tournament to local tournament as to the number of clubs a player may carry, normally 14 are allowed - three woods, numbered one through three (a four-wood is commonly available), and nine irons, numbered one through nine, plus a sand wedge for hitting out of sand-filled pits called traps, and the putter.

Normally, four players play together in around, although fewer may play together.

To start play, in an average round of golf, players determine by lot who will play first. In stroke play, after the first hole the player who won the previous hole goes first, follow in succession by others based on scores at that hole.

Players normally place their ball on a cupped wooden peg called a tee to start a hole. It is not required. From that point on, however, and with certain exceptions, a player must hit his ball where he finds it, until he completes that hole.

Following the first shot by each golfer, play continues in the fairway, a smooth expanse of grass between the tee and the green.The object is to get from the fairway to the putting green. At that point, golfers play in turn, longest distance from the hole going first.Care must be taken not to step between a ball and the hole when sighting before putting, in repairing old marks or in removing movable obstructions. Golfers may lift their ball to clean it but first must mark its location with a coin or other flat marker placed behind the ball. Balls also may be marked and lifted if they might be in the way of another's putting line.Because the game is played outdoors in natural surroundings, rules take into account the fact that balls may wind up in natural and artificial places. Natural meaning trees, water (normally called water hazards), rocks and the like. Artificial meaning items such as concrete or asphalt paths, sprinklers heads, power poles or a spectator's umbrella. Also taken into account are boundaries of the course, so that golfers don't wander into the neighbor's back yard to play a shot.Certain spots where the ball lands may be actually unplayable. In those instances golfers are permitted to move their ball or drop their ball in another place, as long as they don't receive an advantage. For example, a ball falling into a deep water hazard would be unplayable, so another may be dropped. But, depending on circumstances, a penalty stroke may be assessed.One or two penalty strokes are assessed depending on the nature of the infraction, even in friendly games. In competition, disqualification is the most severe punishment; sometimes, golfers themselves point out that they should be disqualified.Detailed rules guide most possibilities of play gathered after years of competition. And when the rules don't cover a specific situation, the USGA permits each course to set its own local rules, not enforced anywhere else.

For a complete set of official USGA rules, visit http://www.usga.org/playing/rules/rules.asp