Penalties are meant to cancel out any potential advantage to the player. There are three main penalty levels:

One-Stroke Penalty

This penalty applies to both match play and stroke play under certain Rules where either:

(a) the potential advantage from a breach is minor or

(b) a player takes penalty relief by playing a ball from a different place than where the original ball lies.

General Penalty (Loss of Hole in Match Play, Two-Stroke Penalty in Stroke Play)

This penalty applies for a breach of most Rules, where the potential advantage is more significant than where only one penalty stroke applies.

Disqualification 

In both match play and stroke play, a player may be disqualified from the competition for certain actions or Rule breaches involving serious misconduct (see Rule 1.2) or where the potential advantage is too significant for the player’s score to be considered valid.