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Rules of Golf Memorization Trick
The key to memorizing the 28 basic rules of golf starts by associating the rules with a golf course that you know like the “back of your hand.” You will visualize each hole on your favorite course and the corresponding rule number will match the hole number. Yes, we will add holes 19, 20 and start another round on hole 21 (really just the first tee again), but it’s a fun mental exercise and it will help you be able to quickly reference the rule number in your USGA Rule Book to accurately determine a ruling.
Let’s get started!
Pick a course you know like the back of your hand and we can start!
Hole 1 – See yourself arrive to the first tee and you meet Wayne Gretzky in his hockey gear and Danica Patrick in her leather racing outfit. They clearly don’t know what GAME they are trying to play.
Rule 1 – The Game
Hole 2 – Once Danica and Wayne get in the correct attire and arrive on the second tee, you decide to play MATCH PLAY.
Rule 2 – Match Play
Hole 3 – All three of you quickly get tired of match play after the second hole, so you decide to play STROKE PLAY on the third hole.
Rule 3 – Stoke Play
Hole 4 – While walking up to the fourth tee you see a towering pile of golf clubs completely covering the tee box and there isn’t room for you to tee off!
Rule 4 – The Club
Hole 5 – While walking to the fifth tee, some joker has covered the entire tee area with a towering pile of golf balls!!
Rule 5 – The Ball
Hole 6 – As you approach the sixth tee, Gary Player, dressed in his Sunday “Blacks” appears from out of nowhere and introduces himself and shakes your hand.
Rule 6 – The Player
Hole 7 – When you get to the tee you are upset to find that somebody has been PRACTICING on the tee box and taken a million reckless divots!
Rule 7 – Practice
Hole 8 – While standing on the eighth tee you notice a new sign that reads, “BE ADVISED – DANGEROUS CRITTERS ADJACENT TO PUTTING GREEN!”
Rule 8 – Advice
Hole 9 – While on the ninth tee, you see a newly installed telephone to the snack bar. When you pick up the phone the attendant asks for INFORMATION about your order
Rule 9 – Information as to Strokes Taken
Hole 10 – After a great front nine, you make your way to the tenth tee and there are foursomes everywhere and there is a traffic cop helping with the ORDER OF PLAY.
Rule 10 – Order of Play
Hole 11 – While walking to the tee, you notice that the hole has been modified and the teeing box has been extended all the way to the green!
Rule 11 – The Tee Ground
Hole 12 – Your tee ball gets away from you and winds up stuck high in a tree. You SEARCH with binoculars to try and IDENTIFY YOUR BALL.
Rule 12 – Searching for and Identifying Ball
Hole 13 – Another wild tee ball results in your ball coming to rest knee-high on a dense bush. You decide to PLAY THE BALL AS IT LIES.
Rule 13 – Ball Played as it Lies
Hole 14 – While on the tee, you take a mighty swing and miss the ball and to your surprise a MLB Umpire yells out, “Steeee rrriiiike.”
Rule 14 – Striking the Ball
Hole 15 – On this tee you decide it is time for a fresh ball. You reach into your ball and tee up a tennis ball and you realize it is the WRONG BALL for golf.
Rule 15 – Wrong Ball
Hole 16 – As you walk up to the tee you notice that the green has been modified and it is the biggest green you’ve ever seen!
Rule 16 – The Putting Green
Hole 17 – Preparing for your approach shot you take a look at the green and see that they have 20 flagsticks on this green!
Rule 17 – The Flagstick
Hole 18 – You hit the best tee shot of the day and watch your ball settle nicely in the fairway. From out of nowhere, a dog runs up and snatches your ball and takes off.
Rule 18 – Ball at Rest Moved
Hole 19 – While enjoying a beer at the “19th Hole,” a ball crashes through the window and ricochets off the bar and comes to rest at your feet!
Rule 19 – Ball in Motion Stopped or Deflected
Hole 20 - The Parking Lot – While preparing to go home, you LIFT your bag into the trunk, Drop your shoes alongside and PLACE your golf hat in your back seat.
Rule 20 – Lifting, Dropping and Placing; Playing from Wrong Place
Hole (2)1 – As you were preparing to drive off, Wayne Gretzky and Danica Patrick realized the bets were not figured properly and extra holes were required so it was back to the first tee where you CLEANED YOUR BALL in preparation for overtime!
Rule 21 – Cleaning Ball
Hole (2)2 – All of you hit great tee shots on the second hole and when you walked up to play your second shots, to your amazement, all the balls were clustered, touching each other.
Rule 22 – Ball Assisting or Interfering with Play
Hole (2)3 – After great drives you approach your second shots to find that the wind has blown millions of leaves onto the fairway making your golf ball hard to find!
Rule 23 – Loose Impediments
Hole (2)4 – Sometime during when you first played the fourth hole, the maintenance crew added a cart path to the hole; right down the center of the fairway!
Rule 24 – Obstruction
Hole (2)5 – Upon arrival to the tee, you notice that the sprinkler was stuck on and find standing water and ABNORMAL GROUND CONDITIONS.
Rule 25- Abnormal Ground Conditions, Embedded Ball and Wrong Putting Green
Hole (2)6 – When you get to the tee this time, the course superintendant has added a water hazard to the hole measuring from the tee box all the way to the green!
Rule 26 – Water Hazard, Lateral Water Hazard
Hole (2)7 – You are growing weary and hit a wild ball that might be lost or out of bounds. Time to “reload” just in case.
Rule 27 – Ball Lost; or Out of Bounds. Provisional Ball
Hole (2)8 – Another bad swing and your ball winds up under and right against a big bush.
Rule 28 – Unplayable Ball
This mental exercise will really help you know where to look in "The Book" when you need to find a ruling. I teach it to all of my assistants!
Martin
The key to memorizing the 28 basic rules of golf starts by associating the rules with a golf course that you know like the “back of your hand.” You will visualize each hole on your favorite course and the corresponding rule number will match the hole number. Yes, we will add holes 19, 20 and start another round on hole 21 (really just the first tee again), but it’s a fun mental exercise and it will help you be able to quickly reference the rule number in your USGA Rule Book to accurately determine a ruling.
Let’s get started!
Pick a course you know like the back of your hand and we can start!
Hole 1 – See yourself arrive to the first tee and you meet Wayne Gretzky in his hockey gear and Danica Patrick in her leather racing outfit. They clearly don’t know what GAME they are trying to play.
Rule 1 – The Game
Hole 2 – Once Danica and Wayne get in the correct attire and arrive on the second tee, you decide to play MATCH PLAY.
Rule 2 – Match Play
Hole 3 – All three of you quickly get tired of match play after the second hole, so you decide to play STROKE PLAY on the third hole.
Rule 3 – Stoke Play
Hole 4 – While walking up to the fourth tee you see a towering pile of golf clubs completely covering the tee box and there isn’t room for you to tee off!
Rule 4 – The Club
Hole 5 – While walking to the fifth tee, some joker has covered the entire tee area with a towering pile of golf balls!!
Rule 5 – The Ball
Hole 6 – As you approach the sixth tee, Gary Player, dressed in his Sunday “Blacks” appears from out of nowhere and introduces himself and shakes your hand.
Rule 6 – The Player
Hole 7 – When you get to the tee you are upset to find that somebody has been PRACTICING on the tee box and taken a million reckless divots!
Rule 7 – Practice
Hole 8 – While standing on the eighth tee you notice a new sign that reads, “BE ADVISED – DANGEROUS CRITTERS ADJACENT TO PUTTING GREEN!”
Rule 8 – Advice
Hole 9 – While on the ninth tee, you see a newly installed telephone to the snack bar. When you pick up the phone the attendant asks for INFORMATION about your order
Rule 9 – Information as to Strokes Taken
Hole 10 – After a great front nine, you make your way to the tenth tee and there are foursomes everywhere and there is a traffic cop helping with the ORDER OF PLAY.
Rule 10 – Order of Play
Hole 11 – While walking to the tee, you notice that the hole has been modified and the teeing box has been extended all the way to the green!
Rule 11 – The Tee Ground
Hole 12 – Your tee ball gets away from you and winds up stuck high in a tree. You SEARCH with binoculars to try and IDENTIFY YOUR BALL.
Rule 12 – Searching for and Identifying Ball
Hole 13 – Another wild tee ball results in your ball coming to rest knee-high on a dense bush. You decide to PLAY THE BALL AS IT LIES.
Rule 13 – Ball Played as it Lies
Hole 14 – While on the tee, you take a mighty swing and miss the ball and to your surprise a MLB Umpire yells out, “Steeee rrriiiike.”
Rule 14 – Striking the Ball
Hole 15 – On this tee you decide it is time for a fresh ball. You reach into your ball and tee up a tennis ball and you realize it is the WRONG BALL for golf.
Rule 15 – Wrong Ball
Hole 16 – As you walk up to the tee you notice that the green has been modified and it is the biggest green you’ve ever seen!
Rule 16 – The Putting Green
Hole 17 – Preparing for your approach shot you take a look at the green and see that they have 20 flagsticks on this green!
Rule 17 – The Flagstick
Hole 18 – You hit the best tee shot of the day and watch your ball settle nicely in the fairway. From out of nowhere, a dog runs up and snatches your ball and takes off.
Rule 18 – Ball at Rest Moved
Hole 19 – While enjoying a beer at the “19th Hole,” a ball crashes through the window and ricochets off the bar and comes to rest at your feet!
Rule 19 – Ball in Motion Stopped or Deflected
Hole 20 - The Parking Lot – While preparing to go home, you LIFT your bag into the trunk, Drop your shoes alongside and PLACE your golf hat in your back seat.
Rule 20 – Lifting, Dropping and Placing; Playing from Wrong Place
Hole (2)1 – As you were preparing to drive off, Wayne Gretzky and Danica Patrick realized the bets were not figured properly and extra holes were required so it was back to the first tee where you CLEANED YOUR BALL in preparation for overtime!
Rule 21 – Cleaning Ball
Hole (2)2 – All of you hit great tee shots on the second hole and when you walked up to play your second shots, to your amazement, all the balls were clustered, touching each other.
Rule 22 – Ball Assisting or Interfering with Play
Hole (2)3 – After great drives you approach your second shots to find that the wind has blown millions of leaves onto the fairway making your golf ball hard to find!
Rule 23 – Loose Impediments
Hole (2)4 – Sometime during when you first played the fourth hole, the maintenance crew added a cart path to the hole; right down the center of the fairway!
Rule 24 – Obstruction
Hole (2)5 – Upon arrival to the tee, you notice that the sprinkler was stuck on and find standing water and ABNORMAL GROUND CONDITIONS.
Rule 25- Abnormal Ground Conditions, Embedded Ball and Wrong Putting Green
Hole (2)6 – When you get to the tee this time, the course superintendant has added a water hazard to the hole measuring from the tee box all the way to the green!
Rule 26 – Water Hazard, Lateral Water Hazard
Hole (2)7 – You are growing weary and hit a wild ball that might be lost or out of bounds. Time to “reload” just in case.
Rule 27 – Ball Lost; or Out of Bounds. Provisional Ball
Hole (2)8 – Another bad swing and your ball winds up under and right against a big bush.
Rule 28 – Unplayable Ball
This mental exercise will really help you know where to look in "The Book" when you need to find a ruling. I teach it to all of my assistants!
Martin