How to Do Business on the Golf Course: Counting Penalty Strokes

When you’re on the course hoping to seal a deal or pass the hiring exam, the rules of golf may not rank on a priority list with X’s, O’s and dollar signs. But they probably should.

“If you are presenting yourself in a position of wanting to do business with someone, wanting to develop trust, then the beauty of golf is that ability to play by the rules and to have a level of integrity that means you count all your strokes,” says Ryan Smith, executive director of the Colorado Golf Association’s foundation. “You don’t have to know all the rules, but if you do not hit it straight, if you’re dealing with water or with native areas, you’d better be ready. That’s just about respect for your host and the club itself.”

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Nobody knows all the rules inside and out — just ask any rules official, who will tell you his or her best friend is the radio, for calls for help. Laura Robinson, the former executive director of the Colorado Women’s Golf Association, volunteers these days as a rules official, and she touts the CGA’s rules card — a laminated bag tag of sorts — as a handy summary of key rules.

“Players won’t get into trouble if they follow the two principles of golf: Play the course as you find it and play the ball as it lies,” Robinson says via email. “But know where your ball is, because each of the ve areas of the course has di erent rules for relief for ‘when things happen.’ ”

fHere are just a few everyday rules scenarios and how they can be navigated and scored:

Your shot over the water (aka “penalty area”) splashed before it reached the green?

You can take one penalty stroke and replay the shot (now hitting your third), or you can take one penalty stroke and hit from between where you played and where you crossed into the penalty area. Most players go up to the edge of the water and play from there.

You sliced your tee shot into the woods, so you re-tee. Then you see that your original ball actually hit a tree and came back to the fairway?

Sticky one — just be sure whenever you retee to say why. “This is a provisional,” in case the original is found. “This is a mulligan,” if you’re not playing by the rules. Say nothing and the re-tee is in play, with a penalty stroke added.

Everyone’s on the green – what rules should you be sure to observe?

Try to stand out of the peripheral vision of the player whose turn it is. Try not to make footprints around the hole. Be ready when it’s your turn to putt, without circling as if it’s the U.S. Open. Follow your group’s preference for leaving the fagstick in, removing it, tending it. Be quiet when a player stands over a putt.

Your ball is right behind a tree (or, even, in a tree) and if you swing at it you’ll break your club?

The “foot wedge” is not appropriate if your group is playing by the Rules of Golf. You can call it an unplayable lie and move the ball two club lengths no closer to the hole, at a penalty of one stroke. But remember, there’s no rule that says you have to aim every shot at the green. Sometimes the safest way to save a stroke is sideways.

Your ball is sitting on a cart path, sprinkler head or drain?

Yay for you! Just drop within one club length of the nearest point of no interference, no closer to the hole. “If it doesn’t belong in the great outdoors of a golf course, a player will likely get ‘free’ relief,” says Robinson. “No penalty strokes. Remember where golf was born — fields of green with a hole for the ball.”

Check out the CGA’s library of rules videos for more — some of them are even entertaining.