Golf Rules Every Junior Golfer Should Know
The dozen rules that cover almost every situation a junior will meet in a round, plus what to do when something unusual happens.
The Rules of Golf run to a substantial book, and nobody expects a junior to have read it. What a young golfer does need is the handful of rules that come up in nearly every round, because knowing them is the difference between playing confidently and standing in the rough waiting for an adult to tell them what to do.
Everything below is standard across the world - the rules are written jointly by the R&A and the USGA and are the same in a club competition in regional Victoria as at a major championship.
The quick reference
| Situation | What to do | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Ball lost, or out of bounds | Return to where you last played from and play again | One penalty stroke, plus the distance |
| Ball might be lost - before walking forward | Announce a provisional and play a second ball | Nothing if the original is found |
| Ball in a penalty area (red or yellow stakes) | Play it as it lies, or take relief under the options for that colour | One penalty stroke if you take relief |
| Ball unplayable anywhere except a penalty area | Choose one of three relief options - back to where you played from, back on a line, or two club-lengths sideways | One penalty stroke |
| Ball in casual water, on a cart path, or in ground under repair | Take free relief at the nearest point of complete relief, within one club-length | No penalty |
| Ball moves accidentally while you search for it | Replace it where it was | No penalty |
| Ball moves accidentally on the putting green | Replace it where it was | No penalty |
| Damage on your line on the green | Repair ball marks, shoe damage and old hole plugs | No penalty |
A summary of the Rules of Golf for the situations juniors meet most often, not a substitute for the rulebook. Committees also add local rules for a specific course or competition - always check the card or the notice board.
Before the round: the fourteen-club rule
A player may carry no more than fourteen clubs. This almost never troubles a junior, whose set is usually well under that, but it is worth knowing before a first competition - and worth checking that a borrowed club has not been left in the bag from a practice session.
On the tee
- Tee the ball inside the teeing area: between the two markers, and no more than two club-lengths behind them
- If a ball falls off the tee before you make a stroke at it, simply re-tee it - no penalty
- Order of play is the honour system in principle, but ready golf is encouraged in most social and club play - if you are ready and it is safe, hit
Play it as it lies
The foundational rule of golf: play the course as you find it and the ball as it lies. You may not improve your lie, the area of your intended swing, or your line of play by moving, bending or breaking anything growing.
Two exceptions juniors should know. Loose impediments - natural loose things like leaves, twigs and stones - may be moved anywhere on the course, including in a bunker, as long as the ball does not move as a result. Movable obstructions - artificial things like a rake, a bin or a bunker rake - may be moved anywhere, and if the ball moves as a direct result, it is simply replaced with no penalty.
Lost ball and out of bounds
You have three minutes to search for a ball, timed from when you start looking. If it is not found in that time, or if it is found out of bounds, the ball is played again from where you last played it, with one penalty stroke added. That is called stroke and distance.
The way to avoid a long walk back is the provisional ball, which most juniors have never had explained - see what is a provisional ball.
Penalty areas: red and yellow
Water hazards and other marked trouble are now called penalty areas, and the stakes tell you what relief is available. You can always play the ball as it lies if you can, and you may ground the club and remove loose impediments inside a penalty area.
- Yellow: play again from where you last played, or drop back on a line keeping the point where the ball crossed the edge between you and the hole
- Red: both yellow options, plus lateral relief within two club-lengths of where the ball last crossed the edge, no nearer the hole
- Either way, taking relief costs one penalty stroke
Boundaries and penalty areas are explained more fully in penalty areas and out of bounds explained.
Unplayable lies
A player may declare a ball unplayable anywhere on the course except in a penalty area, and they are the sole judge of that. There are three options, all costing one stroke: go back to where you last played, drop back on a line from the hole through the ball, or drop within two club-lengths no nearer the hole.
In a bunker, all three of those options keep the ball in the bunker. Since 2019 there is a fourth option for a bunker: drop back on the line outside the bunker for a total of two penalty strokes. That is a genuinely useful escape route for a junior facing a plugged lie under a steep face.
Free relief situations
Some conditions are considered unfair rather than part of the challenge, and relief from them is free.
- Temporary water (a puddle after rain, visible before or after you take your stance)
- Ground under repair, usually marked with white lines or a sign
- Immovable obstructions - cart paths, sprinkler heads, staked young trees, buildings
- Holes made by burrowing animals
The procedure is the same each time: find the nearest point of complete relief no nearer the hole, then drop within one club-length of it. Since 2019, drops are made from knee height rather than shoulder height.
The full dropping procedure, which juniors get wrong more often than the relief itself, is in what is a legal drop in golf.
On the putting green
- You may mark, lift and clean your ball on the green - mark it before lifting
- You may repair almost any damage on the green, including ball marks, shoe damage and old hole plugs, but not natural imperfections
- The flagstick may be left in the hole while you putt, taken out, or attended - the choice is yours
- If your ball accidentally moves on the green, replace it with no penalty
- Hitting an unattended flagstick with a putt from on the green is no longer a penalty
Scoring and the card
In a stroke play competition each player is responsible for the accuracy of their own score for each hole, and usually marks a playing partner's card as well as watching their own. The card must be checked and returned as the competition requires. Returning a score lower than actually taken is serious; returning one higher simply stands.
Many junior and social competitions also set a maximum score per hole, after which a player picks up. This keeps pace of play sensible and stops a single disastrous hole ruining a round.
How the card itself works, column by column, is covered in how to read a golf scorecard.
Advice, and who you can ask
During a round you may not give or ask for advice from anyone except your caddie or, in a team format, your partner. Public information is fine: how far it is to the front of the green, where the boundary runs, what the local rules say. The distinction that matters to a junior is that asking a playing partner what club they hit is advice, and asking how far away the flag is, is not.
Do junior golfers need to know every rule of golf?
No. Even experienced adult golfers regularly check a rules app or ask an official for anything unusual. Playing order, lost ball and out of bounds, unplayable lies, free relief and basic etiquette cover the vast majority of situations a junior will run into, and the more detailed rules can be learned gradually as they play more competitive golf.
The habit worth building is not memorisation but process: if you are not sure, say so, take your best guess at the fair outcome, and check afterwards. In stroke play a player who is genuinely unsure may play two balls and let the Committee decide which one counts, provided they announce it first and report it before returning the card.
A rules clinic at a club is the easiest way for a junior to pick all this up - see what happens at a junior golf rules clinic.
And for who writes the rules and who decides the local ones, see who writes the rules of golf.