Golf rules for beginners: the twelve you really need for the course permit and your first rounds

The course-permit theory has 40 questions, and most of them turn on a dozen situations that come up on every round. The same twelve later decide your scorecard. Here they are, per the R&A and USGA Rules of Golf in the 2023 edition, which Swiss Golf applies too. The rule number is given each time so you can look it up.

1. Fourteen clubs, no more (Rule 4.1b)

More than 14 clubs in the bag cost two penalty strokes per hole, four per round at most. Count before the first tee shot. Since 2023 you may replace a club that breaks during the round.

2. Three minutes to search (Rule 18.2)

A ball is lost if it is not found three minutes after the search begins. Not five, as it used to be. The clock runs from the moment you or your caddie start looking.

3. Lost or out of bounds: stroke and distance (Rule 18.2)

If the ball is lost or out of bounds (white stakes), you play with one penalty stroke from where you made the last stroke. From the tee, that makes it your third shot. Many clubs allow a local rule (E-5): you drop instead at the edge of the fairway level with where the ball disappeared, for two penalty strokes. Whether it applies is on the course's scorecard.

4. The provisional ball (Rule 18.3)

If the ball might be lost or out of bounds, you play a second, provisional ball at once, and say so out loud. If you find the first, you play on with it; if not, the provisional is in play, under stroke and distance. It saves the walk back that everyone behind you would otherwise wait for.

5. Penalty areas: red or yellow (Rule 17)

Water and other marked ground is called a penalty area today. You may play the ball there as it lies, without penalty. If you want relief, it costs one stroke: back to the last stroke, or on the line from the hole through the point where the ball crossed the edge, as far back as you like. With red stakes also sideways, two club-lengths from the crossing point, not nearer the hole (R&A, Rule 17).

6. Unplayable: three ways, one stroke (Rule 19)

If the ball lies where you do not want to play it, you alone decide that. One penalty stroke, and then: back to the last stroke, on the line from the hole backwards, or sideways within two club-lengths. In a bunker the line backwards is also available outside the bunker, for two penalty strokes. The fourth option in a bunker and the shot itself are described in Out of the bunker.

7. Dropping: from knee height (Rule 14.3)

You drop from knee height, straight down, into the relief area. If the ball does not stay in it, you drop again, then you place. Since 2023, for back-on-the-line relief: you drop on the line, and the ball may roll up to one club-length from there, forward too.

8. Loose impediments: removable anywhere (Rule 15.1)

Leaves, twigs and stones may be removed anywhere, in bunkers and penalty areas too. If the ball moves while you do it, that costs one stroke, except on the green. Immovable obstructions such as paths and sprinklers give free relief (Rule 16.1).

9. In the bunker: do not test the sand (Rule 12.2)

Before the stroke you may not touch the sand right in front of or behind the ball with the club, make a practice swing in the sand, or touch the sand on the backswing. Leaning on the club and touching the sand with your hand or foot is allowed, as long as you are not testing its condition.

10. Embedded ball (Rule 16.3)

A ball stuck in its own pitch mark may be dropped without penalty within one club-length anywhere in the general area, not only on the fairway. Not in a bunker, not in sand.

11. On the green (Rules 13.1 and 13.2)

The flagstick may stay in, even when you putt. If you move the ball on the green by accident, you replace it without penalty. If the wind moves it, you play it where it lies, unless you had already marked and replaced it; then you replace it again. Pitch marks and spike marks may be repaired.

12. Pace (Rule 5.6)

The rule recommends playing each stroke within 40 seconds once it is your turn, and ready golf: whoever is ready plays, as long as it is safe. The course permit tests this expressly. On a busy round, pace is the rule that says most about you.

The penalties at a glance

Twelve rules is eleven too many when the ball is in the water and three people are watching. This table is the short version for exactly that moment:

Situation	Penalty	Where you carry on
Ball lost or out of bounds	1 stroke	again from where you last played
Local rule E-5, if the course has it	2 strokes	at the edge of the fairway level with the ball
Penalty area, yellow	1 stroke	back to the last shot or on the line behind
Penalty area, red	1 stroke	the same, plus two club lengths to the side
Unplayable	1 stroke	back, on the line behind, or two club lengths to the side
Unplayable in a bunker, out of the sand	2 strokes	on the line behind, outside the bunker
Embedded ball in the general area	none	one club length, not nearer the hole
Path, sprinkler, immovable obstruction	none	nearest point of complete relief
Ball moved accidentally on the green	none	replace it
Sand tested in a bunker	2 strokes	play on as it lies
More than 14 clubs	2 strokes a hole, 4 at most	play on, take the club out of play

Two rows settle most arguments. The three cases in detail, with every option, are in Lost ball, out of bounds, penalty area. First: lost and out of bounds are the same rule, and it costs stroke and distance, not just a stroke. Second: whether local rule E-5 applies is decided by the course and printed on the scorecard, not by the group on the tee.

When you may pick up

In stroke play every ball has to be holed. In Stableford it does not: as soon as you can no longer score a point on a hole, you pick up and walk on (Rule 21.1). That is not surrender, it is the format, and it is why a Stableford round is quicker than a stroke-play round with the same people.

The same applies in maximum score, where the committee sets a limit per hole (Rule 21.2). And for handicap purposes it ends at net double bogey anyway: anything higher is capped before it is counted. How that is worked out is in The golf handicap explained.

Etiquette that is in no rule

The course-permit exam explicitly assesses safety, consideration, pace, priority and care of the course, and those are not paragraphs but habits. Six of them are enough to start.

• Shout “fore” the moment a ball flies towards people. Loudly, at once, without embarrassment.
• Stand still when somebody is playing, and not in their eyeline or on the extension of a putting line.
• Replace your divot or fill the hole, whichever the course asks for.
• Rake the bunker before you walk on, and leave the rake where the course wants it.
• Repair your pitch mark and one more. The green will thank you in August.
• Let them through when you have lost touch with the group in front. It costs two minutes and saves four people's round.

The phone stays silent, and the buggy stays off greens and tees. Follow that list and you will be welcome on any course, even off 54.

What is new since 2023

Four changes concern you: no handicap needs to be on the scorecard in stroke play any more; a damaged club may be replaced; a ball that rolls into another part of the course by wind or water after being dropped or placed is replaced; and back-on-the-line relief is simpler (R&A, 2023 Rules Update).

More on this: Provisional ball in golf, Dropping a ball in golf, Lifting, marking and cleaning a golf ball, Golf ball moves, Golf relief without penalty, Golf caddie rules, Golf penalty strokes at a glance, Golf with a disability.

One round in which all twelve appear

Here is how they fit together, in the order you meet them.

On the first tee you count the clubs: fourteen. Your drive leaks right towards the white stakes, so you say out loud that you are playing a provisional and hit another one straight away. At the ball you search for three minutes; if you find it out of bounds, the provisional is in play and you are lying three. The second shot runs into the red penalty area by the stream. You may play it as it lies, or take one penalty stroke and drop within two club lengths to the side, from knee height.

The next ball finds the bunker. You remove a leaf lying beside it, which is allowed, but you do not touch the sand behind the ball and take no practice swing in it. On the green you leave the flag in, repair your pitch mark and putt. And because a two-ball is waiting behind, you wave them through on the next tee. That was the whole round, and it was all twelve rules.

Anyone who knows these twelve passes the theory and plays a round without holding anyone up. What else the course permit asks is in The Swiss course permit. And for everything that hangs on the swing itself, there is the winter and the simulator. What changes in the Rules in 2026 and what does not is in What changes in the Rules of Golf in 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How long may I search for a golf ball?

Three minutes, from the moment you or your caddie start looking (Rule 18.2). After that the ball is lost and you continue under stroke and distance, one penalty stroke from the spot of the last stroke.

What is the difference between red and yellow stakes?

Both mark a penalty area. With both you may drop with one penalty stroke back at the last stroke or on the line backwards. Only with red stakes may you also drop sideways, two club-lengths from the point where the ball crossed the edge.

From what height do you drop?

From knee height, since the 2019 rules. The ball must come to rest in the relief area; otherwise you drop a second time and then place.

What does a ball out of bounds cost?

One penalty stroke, and you play again from where you last played: stroke and distance. From the tee, your next ball is therefore your third. If the course has local rule E-5 you may instead drop at the edge of the fairway for two penalty strokes; the scorecard says so.

May I pick up on a hole?

In Stableford yes, as soon as no point is possible (Rule 21.1), and in maximum score once the set limit is reached. In stroke play every ball has to be holed. For handicap purposes the score is capped at net double bogey anyway.

Sources

• R&A: Rules of Golf, Regel 17 (Penalty Areas) (rot und gelb, die drei Erleichterungen mit einem Strafschlag, Spielen wie er liegt)
• R&A: Rules of Golf, Regel 18 (verlorener Ball, Aus, provisorischer Ball) (drei Minuten Suche, Schlag und Distanz, provisorischer Ball)
• R&A und USGA: 2023 Rules of Golf Update (kein Handicap auf der Karte, beschädigter Schläger, Naturkräfte, Drop auf der Linie)
• R&A: die Golfregeln (Regeln 4.1, 5.6, 12.2, 13.1, 13.2, 14.3, 15.1, 16.1, 16.3, 19 im Wortlaut)
• Swiss Golf: Reglement Platzreife (PDF) (40 Theoriefragen, Etikette und Spieltempo als Prüfungskriterien)