Rule of the Week – Applying the Rules

Players are responsible for applying the rules to themselves, ensuring honesty in recognising and penalising any breaches. Failure to apply a known penalty can result in disqualification.

1.3b(1) Player responsibility for applying the rules

• Players are expected to recognise when they have breached a rule and to be honest in applying their own penalties
• If a player knows they have breached a rule that involves a penalty and deliberately fails to apply the penalty, the player is disqualified
• If two or more players agree to ignore any rule or penalty they know applies and any of those players have started the round, they are disqualified (even if they have not yet acted on the agreement)

Example: In a stroke play round, a player fails to putt a ball into the hole, and both the player and the scorer agree to treat it as a “gimme”, conceding the short putt. As a result, both the player and the scorer are disqualified.