Any club will do but no more than 14

What you need to know:

  • The best part of being a member of this virtual club is that they help new golfers by organizing golf lessons, tournaments in actual clubs and golfing trips.

It is a platitude, that we don’t know the value of friends and health until we lose them.

I felt the importance of this old truth when early last year, a good friend introduced me to a virtual golf club called Detour Golf.

Having been a member of Limuru Country Club for over a decade, I had long forgotten how intimidating the world of private member’s clubs had looked when I was a new golfer, learning how to swing a club at Mucheru’s Golf Land in Karen.

When I met the team from Detour Golf, they made one request; to teach their members, who are mostly beginners, the basics of the Rules of Golf.

Detour Golf has been helping new golfers find their way around the strange world of the game and has over the last couple of years attracted 855 golfers.

These are not all new golfers. There are a number of experienced golfers who are part of this group.

The best part of being a member of this virtual club is that they help new golfers by organizing golf lessons, tournaments in actual clubs and golfing trips.

When I agreed to give lessons on the Rules of Golf to some of their new members, I was quickly drawn by their passion and I have since become a sounding board for their competitions committee.

Recently, I was called to validate a decision that was made during a match play competition; a player started the round with 13 clubs.

On one of the holes, the player leaned on his putter and damaged it.

He made a phone call and on the next hole someone brought him another putter. When he got to the ninth hole, he went to the pro-shop and bought a new putter and played with it for the rest of the round. Did he break any Rules?

Since the player started the round with 13 clubs, he was allowed to add one more club as long as the addition of the club did not delay play.

If he stopped playing in order to get another putter on the next hole, then he would have lost the hole.

The first putter that he received was also subject to another caveat; the player was not allowed to add or borrow a club that was selected for play by any other person playing on the course. So, if the player did not cause any delay or use a club that had been selected for play by another player, he had not broken any Rule.

By adding a second putter to his bag, the player now had the maximum 14 clubs. For some reason, this particular player was not satisfied and he went on to add another putter after the ninth hole. A player is entitled to repair or replace a club only if:

1. It is unfit for play – if it is substantially damaged, the shaft is dented or significantly bent or breaks into pieces

2. The damage to the club happened in the normal course of play.

BROKE INTO PIECES

I believe that the club broke into pieces and this would have fulfilled the first part of the requirements. However, would leaning on a golf club be considered “normal course of play”?

While playing the 11th hole at The Masters in 2007, Tiger Woods’ tee shot was in the rough. In playing his second shot, he wrapped his four-iron round a tree and it snapped into two. This surely is damage in “normal course of play”.

However, so is leaning on a club. Whether the leaning happened when the player was trying to get his ball out of the hole or when waiting to play his next shot or even using it as a walking stick, the damage is considered to have occurred during the normal course of play.

The player had ticked the two boxes that allowed him to replace his broken putter. For this reason, the player was not in breach of any Rules of Golf when he added a third putter after the ninth hole.

Which brings to mind a myth of the rules that I have heard a few times: May a golfer play with say two drivers, two putters or two of any other club for that matter?

The Rules of Golf provide that a golfer must not start a round of golf with more than 14 clubs. They don’t give any limitations on the types of clubs. Therefore, one is perfectly in order if they have three drivers in Limuru.

One set for a draw on hole number four and six. Another set for a fade on hole number 12 and the third for straight shots on other holes.

As long as one does not start the round with more than 14 clubs, the choice of clubs is left to the player.