We all have those days on the golf course when things just aren’t working properly. For some reason, you just can’t get the ball going in the right direction.
Playing in a stroke play event, you’ve tried all sorts of fixes: Strengthening your grip, changing your target line, ball position, shoulder angle… Nothing is working. The ball just won’t do what you want it to and you’re becoming increasingly exasperated.
Then, as you’re walking off yet another tee from which you’ve sent your drive deep into the trees, out of nowhere, you’re playing partner pipes up – “You’re just taking it away too much on the inside.”
‘Oh right,’ you think… That makes sense – It’s a problem you’ve had in the past and it would account for all the pulls and slices you’ve been producing. You’re probably looping it round and coming over the top, slashing across the ball.
‘That could well fix it,’ you think next. But, at the same time, you have a niggle in the back of your head that something isn’t quite right. It was well-meaning of your playing partner to give you a tip. But you’re pretty sure it’s not allowed… Have The Rules been broken? Are you in line to face a penalty?
The good news is – No, you will not face a penalty for gaining an unsolicited piece of advice. But your playing partner will face a penalty for giving it!
It’s covered by Rule 10.2a. It says that during a round a player must not give advice to anyone in the competition who is playing on the course. If a player does give advice with or without being asked for it, they receive the general penalty of two strokes in stroke play. In match play, it would be loss of hole.
In this instance, you have not asked for advice so do not face a penalty yourself for receiving it without asking.
If you had said to your playing partner walking off the tee, “Can you see what I’m doing wrong?” and They had said, “You’re taking it away too much on the inside,” then you would both receive a general penalty.
If you received unsolicited advice from someone not playing in the event (other than your caddie) – maybe a spectator following your group – you would also not incur a penalty.
However, if you continue to receive unasked for advice from that same person, you must try to prevent that person giving further advice. If you don’t try to stop them, you will have been deemed to have broken Rule 10.2a and receive a general penalty.
So, in answer to the question – When your playing partner gave you advice when you didn’t ask for it – the Rules were indeed breached. You were not penalised but he or she incurred a general penalty for breaking Rule 10.2a.
