Not the rulebook. The rulebook translated — what you actually do when your ball is gone, plugged, in the water, or under a cart path, and which of the things your foursome believes are simply not true.
You have to say the word. And there is a moment where it quietly stops being provisional whether you noticed or not.
One penalty stroke buys three options anywhere but a penalty area — and there is a fourth in a bunker that saves rounds.
Your group already plays a version of this. The official one is more generous in one direction and much stricter in another.
Yellow gives you two ways out, red gives you three, and the drop on the far side is not one of them unless your course says so.
Cart paths, sprinklers, casual water, gopher holes. The relief is free. Finding the right spot is where everybody goes wrong.
This got much better in 2019 and plenty of golfers still play the old version. You no longer need to be on the fairway.
Knee height, not shoulder height. And when it rolls out twice, there is a specific thing you do next — most golfers guess.
Spike marks: repair them. Aeration holes: leave them. Plus the two-stroke penalty on the green nobody has heard of.
Leave the pin in from anywhere and there is no penalty for hitting it. The ball leaning against it has a slightly odd answer.
Legal by default now. Measuring elevation is not. And the one everybody argues about has no official ruling either way.
The penalty is per hole and it caps. Which means the worst thing you can do is keep quiet about it.
The Rules do not just permit playing out of turn in stroke play — they encourage it. Match play is a different animal.
Join the Clubhouse free and we'll send your Break 100 starter guide, then a weekly note — a rule worth knowing, gear worth a look, and what we're pouring.
Join the Clubhouse