There’s no excuse for being this clueless

It’s time for a confession.   

At least once a week, in the heart of the golf season, a playing partner will face some typical golf situation—a ball on a cart path, a shot that crosses a hazard line—and they’ll ask me about the rule. Remember, I am the Golf Digest guy here, so the implication is that I keep a dog-eared copy of the Rules of Golf by my nightstand.  

Yet more often than not, I’m embarrassed to say my answer is something like, “I’m not sure.”  

The point is, golf rules are tricky, and this is true even after you’ve played for years or make studying the game your career. The subject of senior editor Ron Kaspriske’s most recent story, for instance, is six commonly misunderstood rules you should know, and I’m happy to report I … well, I knew at least one of them. But now I know the other five. I can’t wait to show off the depth of my knowledge the next time it comes up.

6 commonly misunderstood rules you should know

Casual golfers aren’t expected to know the entire rules book. But there are some rule situations that happen so frequently that they are worth committing to memory

By Ron Kaspriske

What You Need to Know

Alex Myers

Imagine taking a golf swing with $10 MILLION on the line? Such will be the case Dec. 9 in South Africa ahead of the Icons Cup, an event featuring athletes from a variety sports captained by Ernie Els and Jose Maria Olazabal. On the Wednesday before the event starts, 40 golfers will get a crack at the par-3 17th hole at Montagu Course in the $10M Swing. A hole-in-one will trigger a $10 million prize that will be split between the player, a charity and a fan. So the best part is you can get rich by just watching. Here’s more on the contest. 

Christopher Powers 

This is, hands down, the greatest golf visor of all time. Last night’s World Series clinching Game 5 for the Milwuakee Brewers in Tampa (as well as the game before that and the game before that) was absolutely packed with Brewers fans. An invasion, if you will. A classic case of one club having rabid fans who travel en masse and one club having fans who can’t even be bothered to come to their team’s home games. Not only did the Brew Crew show up, they showed out, too. Check out this Green Bay Packers-style cheesehead from a Brewer fan, which has a very slight, golf-y adjustment.

I want to hate it, but I’m afraid I love it. Innovation that excites. On a crisp Wisconsin day, this thing could play on the golf course. On a hot and sunny one, though, not so much. Still, what an accessory. We our tipping our visors to this man in spirit. 

Alex Myers

Tiger Woods has more reason to play this senior event than you might realize. The 15-time major champ has accomplished just about everything possible in golf, but USGA Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer expects him to try to add at least one more notch on his résumé. That would be the U.S. Senior Open, where a win would break Woods from a tie with Bobby Jones for the most USGA championships won (nine). As Bodenhamer explains, it would also allow Woods to join Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer as the only golfers to win the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open—and that it would make Woods the only player to have won those three championships plus the U.S. Junior Amateur. “It’s important to Tiger, and I would expect him to be here at Crooked Stick in 2028,” Bodenhamer says in an interview with WISH-TV News in Indiana. Of course, the 50-year-old Woods also could make his U.S. Senior Open debut next summer at Oak Tree National. 

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