The Rules
The Rules allow you to ask for advice from a few
select people before you take your shot, including
your four-ball partner, as Tim Pemberton and
Nathan Dean show at the VSGA Multi-Format
Team Championship.
The Rules do allow you to ask for advice
from a few select people: your caddie and,
in partner forms of play, your partner and
his or her caddie. Additionally, in a team
competition, a committee may choose to
put a Local Rule into effect that would allow
teams to designate one or two advice givers.
RESTRICTIONS ON HELP
The Rules of Golf also have limitations
on what you may do in preparing for and
making a stroke, and in how your caddie (or,
when applicable, your partner and partner’s
caddie) may help you.
You must independently take your stance
and aim at the target. The Rules protect this
challenge by not allowing you to deliber-
ately set down an object to help in taking
your stance (such as by placing a club on
the ground along your feet to make sure you
are lined up correctly). This would be fine
to do while on the driving range, but is not
allowed when taking your stance to make
a stroke during a round. Once you have
placed an object on the ground and taken
a stance for your stroke with the object in
place, you cannot avoid penalty by backing
away and removing the object.
Another way the Rules ensure that you
independently take your stance is by not
allowing your caddie to deliberately stand
behind you on or near an extension of your
line of play. Once you have begun to take your
stance for the stroke, whether on or off the
putting green, you must not have your caddie
deliberately standing behind you. However,
you can avoid penalty by backing out of your
stance, having your caddie move out from the
extension of your line of play, and then taking
your stance again. For more information, see
the Clarifications for Rule 10.2b(4).
Additionally, the Rules do not allow a
caddie (or any other person) to physically
help you or provide you protection from
the elements during a stroke. This means
that you must not make a stroke while get-
ting physical help from another person or
have another person or object positioned
to provide protection for you from things
like sunlight, wind, and rain. But, this Rule
does not prohibit you from taking actions to
vsga.org
protect yourself from the elements, so feel
free to break out the shades, put on your rain
suit, or even hold an umbrella over your own
head while making a one-handed stroke!
POINTING OUT LINE OF PLAY
The Rules treat pointing out the line of play
differently depending on whether your ball
is on the putting green or somewhere else
on the course.
• BALL ANYWHERE OTHER THAN
ON THE PUTTING GREEN: You may
have your line of play pointed out to you
by having any person stand on your line
of play or by having an object set down on
the course. In both cases, the person or
object must be moved before the stroke
is made.
• BALL ON THE PUTTING GREEN:
One of the notable changes in the 2019
Rules of Golf is that there is no restriction
on touching your line of play on the put-
ting green. With this change, players and
caddies may touch the line of play with a
hand, foot, flagstick, or anything else he or
she is holding, so long as the action does
not improve the conditions affecting the
stroke. However, it is important to note
that your caddie must not stand on or near
your line of play or point out your line
of play while you are making the stroke.
Additionally, when your ball is on the
putting green, you are not allowed to set
an object down on or off the putting green
to show the line of play, even if that object
is moved before you make the stroke.
Knowing these Rules about help and advice
can help you make the most of your round
and maintain the integrity of this chal-
lenging game. A round of golf can put you
in some tricky spots, but learning how to
independently make decisions about your
game will help you master it!
Kendall Dunovant works in the USGA
Rules Department.
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