Most Stupid Rules in Golf

FEW people would disagree that the rules of golf are complicated, and can be extremely difficult to master. Sometimes, however, they are just plain stupid.

I cannot possibly be the only person who believes that the following are examples of rules that need to be changed or, at the very least, given some further clarification.

A player hits his drive into a bush. When he reaches it he sees that the ball is resting in a rabbit scrape and calls his playing partners over. In theory, he can take his stance outside the bush and his club can reach the ball, so he claims, and is given relief. By the time he is finished, the ball is outside the bush and he has a clear shot to the green. With no penalty.

Or he takes his stance and finds that although the ball is in the bush, he is standing on a rabbit scrape. As in the example above, the player is able to take relief and once again finds himself with a decent lie and clear approach, and he has not incurred a penalty shot.

How unfair is that? If your ball finishes up in a bush, you should be penalised. Full stop. That's what it is there for.

Or what about stones in bunkers? Why on earth is it that on some golf courses you are allowed to remove stones while in others you cannot? My view on this is pretty simple - a bunker is meant to be filled with sand, so if you are unlucky enough to hit your ball into one then you should be able to clear stones out of the way if only, for no other reason, to avoid the risk of damage to your club or injury to yourself.

Oh yes, and then there are leaves. Don't get me started on leaves. During the autumn, you hit a shot into a bunker, clamber in and discover that the sand is full of leaves. You are allowed to remove any leaves resting on top of your golf ball in order to identify that it is your ball, but you cannot clear loose leaves lying around that golf ball. And yet you can remove leaves on the fairway. Does that make any sense to you? Me neither.

Similarly, if you hit your ball into a bunker and it finishes up in the footprint of somebody who hasn't had the decency to rake the sand after taking their shot then you also have to play the ball as it lies. Surely, if all your playing partners agree that the ball is sitting in marks left by another player, you should be able to lift the ball, rake the sand and then drop your ball without penalty? Of course not. You have to play it as it lies.

Then there is the case of the moving ball. You have lined up your putt and taken a couple of practice strokes, then you put the putter on the ground behind the ball and the ball moves a fraction of an inch, even though you haven't made contact with it. One-shot penalty. What?

But the most furstrating and most bonkers rule of all is the one that doesn't allow you to take a free drop when you have hit a glorious, fairway-splitting drive and you arrive at your golf ball, only to discover that it is sitting in somebody's divot. Not just a small divot, mind you, but a proper one, with most of the ball sitting below ground level. You have 170 yards to the green, with a 155-yard carry over water. Can you take a free drop? Of course you can't!

Sometimes, the law is an ass, sometimes, the rules of golf make about as much sense as an 18-month-old child. On second thoughts, that is an insult to all 18-month-old children!