If you are a right-handed player, is it legal to carry a left-handed club?
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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thank you, we have a guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book from front to back. Have a question? You have all the answers.
Is it OK to carry 13 clubs on the right and one club on the left? This will work for me more than swinging the club to get out of difficult situations. -Paul Dziengelewski, Westfield, Mass.
Knock yourself out, Paul.
There is no rule about the composition of the set, only that it has 14 clubs or less.
Seven lefties, seven righties? Of course. Fourteen putters? Have at it. As the kids like to say, he does.
For more club related tips from our guru, read on…
In a stroke play competition, Player A unknowingly removes Player B’s driver from B’s bag and makes a stroke on the teeing ground. Realizing the mistake, A hands the club to B and says it’s out of play, then plays again with his driver. He drops the first ball and ends up making 5 with the second ball. What is his score for the hole? —Johnny Williams, Tampa Bay, Fla.
The same thing happened to Rules Guy with identical twins on the tournament committee, but this is not the forum for such stories….
Even if you have fewer than 14 clubs, you are not allowed to use a club designated for play by another player on the course. Basically, you get two strokes of the punishment for a violation of Rule 4.1b.
Then, when you play again on the teeing ground, you are actually playing below the stroke and distance. Before the 4.1b penalty, that hit from your driver was actually your third shot, plus whatever else was needed to get the ball into the hole, plus the other two for the 4.1b penalty.
Review: 1 (stroke with wrong club); 2 (penalty of stroke and distance); 3 (hitting with the right club on the teeing ground); 4, 5, 6, 7 (four more strokes to complete the hole); 8, 9 (penalty strokes under 4.1b). And with that, the Rules Guy is off to take a nap. We are tired.
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Have a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your questions, confusion and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw a letter at you.
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