Some important golf game information given in this post including golf rules and regulations, penalties, equipment, history, formats, basic forms.
Golf game information
Golf is mainly played by club and ball. Club is a long thin stick like a hockey stick, a golf ball is made of hard material. Golf course or ground cannot have a standardised area, the course (ground) typically contains 9 or 18 holes. The ground is usually lush green having some obstacles like sand, water, tall grass, trees, fairways, rough, sand filled bunkers, rocks and pits etc.
The area near the hole is called “Tea” and each hole contains a teeing ground. Players usually start the first shot from the tea point.
The player who plays the lowest number of strokes to put the ball in holes is called the stroke play in golf. The other form of golf is match play in which the lowest score of most holes in a complete tournament or round is achieved by individual or team.
Golf rules and regulations formation
Golf rules are International standardised. They are jointly governed by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) and the United States Golf Association (USGA).
USGA and R&A rewrote the golf rules and the new rule book came into effect in January 2019.
Golf penalties
- As per rule 18.2 a ball hit out of boundaries or lost is counted as one stroke and distance penalty.
- According to rule 9.4 if a player causes their ball to move one stroke penalty occurs.
- According to rule 17 if a player takes relief when their ball is within a red or yellow penalty area.
- As per rule 6.3c if a player hits the wrong ball two stroke penalty occurs.
- As per rule 11.1a if both balls lay on the green before the stroke and golfer hits a fellow player’s ball two stroke penalty incurred.
- Cheating, signing, lower score, failing 1 or more rules results in disqualification.
Other formats
Basic pair formats
According to rule 22 it is played in pairs by 2 players hitting the ball one by one. Both have to play with only one ball. For example ‘A’ and ‘B’ are in the same team A plays the first shot towards tea and B plays the second shot, A will play third shot and again B will play the next shot like this the game will continue until the ball goes into the tea.
Basic forms of golf
Match play and stroke play up to basic forms of golf, stroke play form is more popular.
Match play
Two players are two teams playing on a different hole against each other. The team or player who puts the golf ball more times in the hole wins the game. If the score is equal then the hole is “halved” or tied.
Stroke play
It is more popular and mostly played by professional golfers. Every hole score is added and after calculating total score the player with the lowest score wins in stroke play golf form.
Golf equipments
Golf club
- Woods – Type of golf club having larger rounder heads than other clubs.
- Iron – Shorter shafts and smaller clubheads than woods.
- Putter – Used to play low speed strokes, used for rolling the ball slowly to short distance.
- Hybrid – Type of club design borrowing from iron clubs and wood clubs.
Other equipment
- Golf ball – A hard material rough ball often hit by the club.
- Golf shoes – Used to play the sport of golf.
- Golf bags – Various golf items such as clubs, balls, club cleaner, shoes, golf vehicle tools etc.
- Golf cart – A small vehicle designed for golf players to cover the long distance while reaching the ball went far after hitting the shot.
Some important equipment are given above do you know all the important golf equipments used for playing.
Golf history
- The modern golf game originated in the 15th century in Scotland.
- The 18 hole round was created in 1764 at Old Course, St Andrew.
- The Open Championship or British Open is the world’s oldest golf tournament.
- The Open Championship or British Open was first played in 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club, Ayrshire, Scotland.
- Open Championship is one of the four major championships in men’s professional golf.
- Masters, US Open and PGA Championship are other 3 championships being played in the USA.