How well do you know golf maths?
Q: You make a 4 on the fourth hole, but your playing partner writes down a 5. You sign and turn in the scorecard. What score did you make?
A: 5 (rule 6-6d). But if your playing partner put down a score lower than your 4, and you didn’t correct it, you would be disqualified.
Q: In strokeplay, you tee up a ball outside the teeing ground and hit a ball out-of-bounds. You then realise your error and re-tee inside the teeing ground and hit another shot O.B. What do you lie?
A: 4 (decision 11-4b/6). It’s irrelevant that the first ball wound up out-of-bounds because it was played from outside the teeing ground. But you do get penalised two strokes. Then, when you hit it out-of-bounds from the teeing ground, that’s a stroke-and-distance penalty.
Q: You hit your third shot from off the green, and it hits your opponent’s ball at rest near the hole and trickles into the cup. Did you just make a 3?
A: Yes (rule 19-5). A ball played from off the putting green is holed if it caroms off another ball at rest and into the cup.
Q: You’re not sure if your tee shot is out-of-bounds, so you announce and play a provisional. That shot also might be O.B. and you play another provisional. That shot is in play, but as you reach the out-of-bounds area, you find your original ball. What do you lie?
A: 1 (rule 27-2). If the original is found within five minutes after you began to search for it, the two provisionals must be abandoned and the original ball is in play.
Q: You’re just off the green in 3 and attempt a chip. Your club strikes the ball twice during the stroke, but the ball falls into the hole. What score did you make?
A: 5 (rule 14-4). Count the first stroke and add a penalty stroke (making two strokes in all).
Q: Five holes into a tournament, you realise you’ve been carrying 15 clubs (one more than allowed). How many penalty strokes should you add to your score?
A: 4 (edit to rule 4-4a). Two strokes at each of the first two holes at which you carried more than 14.
Q: You verify your scores for each hole are correct, add them up and turn in your scorecard for the club strokeplay championship. You then realise you added wrong and turned in a 78 when you shot 77. What is your score?
A: 77 (rule 33-5). The tournament committee is responsible for totalling your individual hole scores.
Q: Your putt for a 5 stops on the lip of the hole. You quickly walk to the hole, address the ball within 10 seconds of reaching it, and are about to tap it in. Suddenly, the ball falls into the cup. Did you make a 5?
A: No (decision 18-2b/10). You’re given enough time to reach the hole without unreasonable delay, plus an additional 10 seconds to wait for the ball to fall into the hole without having to add an additional stroke. However, if you addressed the ball and it moves (grounding the club immediately behind or in front of it), Rule 18-2b overrides Rule 16-2. You would incur a penalty stroke, plus you must replace the ball on the lip because the ball moved after you addressed it. Assuming you then tapped in, you would have made a 6.
