The calendar can get cluttered in the summer sun and golfers can find ingenious solutions. But are they allowed to be innovative? Here’s what the Rules of Golf say.
I’ll bet it’s getting quite crowded at your club right now. The competition season is getting into top gear – with weekends, and now midweeks, full of medals, Stablefords, and team events.
Add in members who enthusiastically sign up for all your match play competitions – singles, pairs and mixed – and it can be a stretch to get all that golf in to meet round deadlines.
Golfers might try a variety of solutions to relieve the traffic jam: from conceding a match (that’s allowed) to agreeing to concede holes to shorten a match (that’s not allowed).
But one method that sometimes comes up is for players drawn together in a match to book a tee time for a competition and play both that event and their game at the same time.
What should you do if you learn golfers are doubling up? Is it allowed? What if the players need a ruling?
Fortunately, this situation is covered in the Committee Procedures put together by the R&A and USGA to help clubs run competitions.
Can golfers combine match play and stroke play?
It is discouraged. There are good reasons to try and encourage players to avoid mixing the two disciplines. Many rules are different for stroke play and match play – the most obvious being order of play and concession of putts.
But if players ask to combine the two forms or have already done so and you’re just learning about it because they’ve asked for a ruling, the Committee Procedure guidance says competition committees should make “best efforts to support the players”.
What if players ask to do it?
If you’re going to allow players to compete in a match and play in stroke play competition simultaneously, you should tell them to use the Rules for stroke play.
“For example, no concessions are allowed and if one player plays out of turn, the other does not have the option of recalling the stroke”.
What if players need a ruling?
The guidance says Committees should apply the rules “as they would to each of match play and stroke play, where that is possible”.
For example, “if one player did not complete a hole for whatever reason then they are disqualified from the stroke play competition for a breach of Rule 3.3c.
“But for Stableford, Maximum Score and Par/Bogey see Rules 21.1c, 21.2c and 21.3c respectively.”
Key Takeaways
- Clubs should discourage players from combining match play with a stroke play competition, because key Rules differ between the two formats.
- Where the Committee allows players to double up, the stroke play Rules should take priority, including no conceded putts and no option to recall shots played out of turn.
- If a ruling is needed afterwards, the Committee should support the players where possible and apply the relevant Rules to each format, including the correct penalty if a player fails to complete a hole.
