RULES OF GOLF - ADVICE

Darin Green, Senior Director of Rules & Competitions

The Masters this past April was nothing short of exciting. Jon Rahm played some impressive golf and ultimately won by four strokes over Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson. During the first round, there was an interesting ruling that took place involving Koepka, Koepka’s caddie, Gary Woodland, and Woodland’s caddie.

On The Masters’ website and phone app, there was a video feed exclusively of holes 15 and 16. Koepka and Woodland were playing in the same group, and after Koepka hit a long approach shot into the 15th green, the video feed appeared to show Koepka’s caddie saying “five” twice to Woodland’s caddie. Many people that saw the video assumed Koepka’s caddie was telling Woodland’s caddie what club was just used to help Woodland decide which club he should use (he was a few yards in front of Koepka).

If Koepka’s caddie purposely informed Woodland’s caddie which club they just used, that would be a breach of Rule 10.2 and Koepka would receive a two-stroke penalty. If Woodland’s caddie asked Koepka’s caddie what club was just used, then Woodland would receive a two-stroke penalty also. After the round, the Rules Committee spoke with the parties involved and determined it was not a breach of the Rules.

This situation can be explained under rules for advice.

First, what is advice?

Advice is any verbal comment or action (such as showing what club was just used to make a stroke) that is intended to influence a player in:

- Choosing a club,

- Making a stroke, or

- Deciding how to play during a hole or round

But advice does not include public information, such as:

- The location of things on the course such as the hole, the putting green, the fairway, penalty areas, bunkers, or another player’s ball,

- The distance from one point to another,

- Wind direction, or

- The Rules

How do you breach the advice rule?

During a round, a player or caddie must not:

- Give advice to anyone in the competition who is playing on the course

- Ask anyone for advice, other than a caddie or partner, or

- Touch another player’s equipment to learn information that would be advice if given by or asked of the other player (such as moving a towel to see what club is being used).

The penalty for breaching the advice rule is a two-stroke penalty in stroke play or loss of hole in match play.