Junior Golf Etiquette Before the First Competitive Round

Each line in bold is written to be read to a child. The label after it says what the item is: a Rule of Golf, The R&A’s own guidance, or a courtesy. A penalty is given only where the Rule itself states one. The general penalty, which several items mention, is defined in the Rules as “Loss of hole in match play or two penalty strokes in stroke play”.

Before the round

• Read the event's code of conduct and its pace of play policy with a parent. Rules 1.2b and 5.6b. A committee may adopt each one as a Local Rule, with its own penalties. The R&A's guidance says copies “should be available to players before the competition begins”.
• Be at your starting hole, ready to play, at your starting time. Rule 5.3a. The Rule's penalty is disqualification, with three exceptions. One is for a player who arrives ready to play no more than five minutes late, who gets the general penalty on the first hole instead.

On the tee

• Say hello, find out who is marking your card, and tell the group which ball you are playing. Rules 3.3b and 6.3a, and courtesy. In stroke play a marker keeps each player's score. Rule 6.3a says a player “should put an identifying mark on the ball to be played”. Saying hello and telling the group are courtesy.
• On the first tee, play in the order you are given. After that, the lowest score on the last hole goes first. Rule 6.4. The Rules call the right to play first the “honour”. In match play it goes to the player who won the last hole.
• Stand still and stay quiet while anyone is playing. Stand to the side and well back, never ahead of the ball. Rule 1.2a, and courtesy. Rule 1.2a expects players to show consideration by “not distracting the play of another player”. Exactly where to stand is courtesy, with a safety reason.
• Look around before you swing. Wait until the group in front is out of range. If your ball might hit someone, shout fore. Rule 1.2a and The R&A's safety guidance. Rule 1.2a says a player whose ball might hit someone “should immediately shout a warning”. The R&A's Spirit of the Game page says: “Wait until the players in front are out of range.”

On the course

• Walk to your ball, plan your shot while others play, and be ready when it is your turn. Rule 5.6. Rule 5.6b recommends making a stroke “in no more than 40 seconds” once you are able to play. Rule 5.6a penalizes unreasonable delay: one penalty stroke for a first breach, the general penalty for a second, disqualification for a third.
• In stroke play, if you are ready and it is safe, you may play before someone who is not ready. In match play, wait for your turn. Rule 6.4. In stroke play “there is no penalty for playing out of turn”. In match play the opponent may cancel a stroke played out of turn.
• Play the course as you find it. Do not press down grass, break a branch or flatten the ground to make your shot easier. Rule 8.1a. The Rule lists what a player must not do to improve the lie, the stance, the swing or the line of play. “Penalty for Breach of Rule 8.1a: General Penalty.”
• After your shot, put your divot back. After a shot from the sand, rake it smooth. Rule 1.2a. The Rule's examples of taking good care of the course include “replacing divots, smoothing bunkers, repairing ball-marks”. The Rules give no penalty stroke for forgetting. An event's code of conduct can.
• Do not ask another player which club they used, and do not tell anyone what to hit. For a Rules question, ask an official. Rules 10.2a and 1.3b. “Penalty for Breach of Rule 10.2a: General Penalty.” Asking about the Rules, a distance or where the hole is does not count as advice.

On the green

• Mark your ball before you lift it, and put it back on the same spot. Rules 13.1b and 14.1a. Rule 14.1a: “If the player lifts the ball without marking its spot, marks its spot in a wrong way or makes a stroke with a ball-marker left in place, the player gets one penalty stroke.”
• Repair the mark your ball made. Walk around other players' lines, and keep your shadow off them. Rule 1.2a, and courtesy. Repairing ball-marks is one of Rule 1.2a's examples of caring for the course, and Rule 13.1c lets a player repair damage on the green without penalty. Staying off a line and minding a shadow are courtesy.
• In stroke play the ball farthest from the hole normally goes first, but you may finish a short one if you are ready. In match play the farther ball goes first. Rule 6.4. Rule 6.4b says the farthest ball “should be played first” and allows a player to hole out from “a very short distance”. Rule 6.4a says the farther ball “is to be played first”.
• In stroke play, finish every hole. The ball has to go in. Rule 3.3c. “A player must hole out at each hole in a round.” A player who does not correct that before starting the next hole, or on the last hole before returning the card, is disqualified. Some other formats differ.
• Stay by the green until everyone has finished. Then move on, and write the scores down at the next tee. The R&A's guidance. The R&A's Pace of Play Manual says: “Mark score cards on the way to or at the next tee.”

After the round

• Go straight to the scoring area. Check every hole on your card, see that your marker has signed it, sign it yourself, and hand it in. Rule 3.3b. This is the stroke-play Rule, and its word for signing is certify. “If the player breaches any of these requirements in Rule 3.3b, the player is disqualified.” A hole score returned lower than the real one also means disqualification, with one exception for a penalty the player did not know about.
• If you had a Rules question during the round, tell the committee before you hand in your card. Rule 20.1c. “A player should raise any Rules issues with the Committee before returning their scorecard.” This is the stroke-play Rule. In match play the time limits are different and earlier: see Rule 20.1b.
• Thank the players in your group. Courtesy. Nothing in the Rules pages we read requires it.

The Rules behind the card are on The R&A’s site: Rule 1, Rule 3, Rule 5, Rule 6, Rule 8, Rule 10, Rule 13, Rule 14 and Rule 20. The safety line is from its Spirit of the Game page, and the scoring line from its Pace of Play Manual.

Etiquette is not one thing. Part of it is written into the Rules of Golf, part of it is advice The R&A gives, and part of it is custom that players pass on to each other.

• Rule. The item is in the Rules of Golf. Where the Rule states a penalty, the card gives it. Where the Rule only recommends, as it does for the 40 seconds, there is no penalty in that sentence.
• The R&A’s guidance. The item comes from a page The R&A publishes beside the Rules. It carries no penalty of its own.
• Courtesy. The item is custom. Nothing on the pages we read requires it, and this page attaches no penalty to it.

The Rule that holds most of etiquette is Rule 1.2a. It says all players are expected to play in the spirit of the game by acting with integrity, showing consideration to others and taking good care of the course. Then it says: “There is no penalty under the Rules for failing to act in this way, except that the Committee may disqualify a player for acting contrary to the spirit of the game if it finds that the player has committed serious misconduct.”

Serious misconduct is a high bar. The Rule calls it behavior “so far removed from what is expected in golf that the most severe sanction of removing a player from the competition is justified”. The R&A’s clarification of the Rule gives examples of actions likely to count, among them:

• “Endangering the safety of others, such as by throwing a club at another player or spectator.”
• “Deliberately distracting other players while they are making strokes.”
• “Repeatedly using vulgar or offensive language.”
• “Deliberately causing serious damage to a putting green.”

The same clarification says a committee may decide a warning is more appropriate than disqualifying a player in the first instance.

Care for the course after the shot, not before it. Rule 8.1a does not let a player replace a divot or alter the ground where that improves the conditions for their own next stroke. Rule 12.2b says that once a ball played from a bunker is outside it, the player may “Smooth sand in the bunker to care for the course without penalty”.

A code of conduct can add penalties. Rule 1.2b says: “The Committee may set its own standards of player conduct in a Code of Conduct adopted as a Local Rule.” It adds: “The Code may include penalties for breach of its standards, such as a one-stroke penalty or the general penalty.” Without a code, Rule 1.2a says penalties other than disqualification may not be imposed for misconduct.

The R&A’s guidance for committees lists what a code may cover. Its examples of behavior a player may be penalized for include:

• “Failure to care for the course, such as not raking bunkers or not replacing or filling divots.”
• “Unacceptable language.”
• “Abuse of clubs or the course.”
• “Failing to show proper consideration for other players, referees or spectators.”

So a courtesy on this card can be a penalty at one event and not at another. The guidance offers committees two model penalty structures, one that starts with a warning and one that starts with a penalty stroke, and it leaves the choice to the committee. Ask the organizer for the event’s code of conduct and its pace of play policy, and read both with your child before the round. We have not read any event’s code for this page.

One line in that guidance takes its example from junior golf. It says a committee may not use a code of conduct to “Penalize a player under a Code of Conduct for a breach of a spectator code by the player’s family or supporters, such as by penalizing a player when a family member walks on the fairway in a junior competition when they are not allowed to do so.” Two things sit outside that line. Advice is covered by its own Rule. And a parent who caddies is a caddie: Rule 10.3c says “A player is responsible for their caddie’s actions” during a round. What a parent may do during the round is in our parent rules and etiquette guide.

The saying that the player farthest from the hole plays first is half the answer. Rule 6.4 treats the two main formats differently, so find out which one the event is before the first tee.

In stroke play the normal order is a should, and the Rule encourages players to depart from it:

• On the first tee the order is “decided by the order of the draw set by the Committee or, if there is no draw, by agreement or by using a random method”. After that, the player with the lowest gross score on a hole plays first on the next.
• After everyone has teed off, “The ball that is farthest from the hole should be played first.”
• “There is no penalty if a player plays out of turn”. The one exception is for players who agree to play out of turn to give one of them an advantage: each gets the general penalty.
• The Rule calls sensible out-of-turn play ready golf, and says players “are both allowed and encouraged” to play it “in a safe and responsible way”. One of its examples is when “A player’s ball comes to rest a very short distance from the hole and the player wishes to hole out”.
• It also keeps a courtesy inside the Rule: if the player whose turn it is “is ready and able to play and indicates that they want to play first, other players should generally wait until that player has played”.

The R&A’s Pace of Play Manual lists examples of ready golf in action. Four that a child can use:

• “Hitting a tee shot if the person with the honour is delayed in being ready to play”
• “Shorter hitters playing first from the tee or fairway if longer hitters have to wait”
• “Hitting a shot before helping someone to look for a lost ball”
• “Putting out even if it means standing close to someone else’s line”

In match play the order is part of the contest. The Rule says: “In match play, the order of play is fundamental; if a player plays out of turn, the opponent may cancel that stroke and make the player play again.”

• The player who won the last hole plays first on the next tee. If the hole was tied, the player who had the honor keeps it.
• After both have teed off, “The ball that is farther from the hole is to be played first.”
• A stroke played out of turn carries no penalty stroke, but the opponent may cancel it. To save time, the two players may agree that one of them plays out of turn.

The Pace of Play Manual puts it plainly: “‘Ready golf’ is not appropriate in match play due to the strategy involved between opponents and the need to have a set method for determining which player plays first.” Our tournament formats guide compares stroke play and match play in full.

Rule 5.6b says “A round of golf is meant to be played at a prompt pace”, and that a player “should prepare in advance for the next stroke and be ready to play when it is their turn”. Its 40 seconds is a recommendation, and the Rule adds that a player “should usually be able to play more quickly than that”.

The R&A’s Pace of Play Manual reports what its own survey found: “The main criticism levelled against slow players in The R&A’s pace of play survey was that such players were not ready to play when it was their turn.” It lists three things to do while waiting for others, taking care not to distract them:

• “Walk efficiently to the ball putting their glove on in the process”
• “Assess the shot, including any calculation of distance the player wants to make, or line up the putt”
• “Make a decision on club selection”

It gives a way to tell whether a group is in position: “if a group keeps up with the group in front, the players in that group will rarely be accused of slow play”. And it asks everyone in a group to watch each other’s shots, which it says results in less searching time and fewer lost balls.

Two penalties sit behind pace. One is Rule 5.6a, on the card. The other is the event’s own: Rule 5.6b says a committee “should adopt a Local Rule setting a Pace of Play Policy”, which “may set penalties for not following the Policy”. Read the event’s policy for its times and penalties. Our pace of play guide covers the habits in more detail.

These are our suggestion, not anybody’s rule. Each takes a minute in the yard or the living room. The parent plays another player in the group, and the answers come from the Rules quoted above.

1. “I am about to play.” The parent sets up to an imaginary ball. The child shows where to stand: to the side, well back, never ahead, still and quiet until the ball has gone. Then swap, and have the child look around before swinging.
2. “Your ball is going toward that group.” The child shouts fore, loudly, at once. Rehearse it until it is not embarrassing.
3. “I am farther away, but I am not ready.” Ask what the child does in stroke play: plays, if it is safe. Then ask again for match play: waits. If the child is unsure which format the event is, that is the first thing to find out.
4. “I wrote down a 5 for you.” The child made a 6. The answer is to say so now, before either of you signs the card. A score returned lower than the real one means disqualification under Rule 3.3b. A higher one stands.
5. “Hit the 7.” The parent calls it from the side. The child does not use it and says, politely, that advice is not allowed. The R&A’s clarification of Rule 10.2a says that when a player gets advice without asking for it “they get no penalty”, but that if it continues “the player must try to stop that person from giving advice”. A player who does not is treated as asking for it and gets the penalty under Rule 10.2a.

One more line is worth rehearsing because a child will not guess it: “I am not sure what to do here. Can we ask an official?” Rule 1.3b lets a player ask a referee or the committee for help with the Rules. If help is not available in a reasonable time, the player must play on and raise it when they become available.

The card is about how to behave among other players. It leaves these out on purpose:

• What to pack and when to arrive. That is in your first golf tournament checklist.
• Rain, a horn or lightning. When to stop and when to resume is in our rain delays guide.
• A lost ball, a drop, a wrong score. Those are in tournament rules scenarios.
• What a parent may do during the round. That is in the parent rules and etiquette guide.