RAFGA members should familiarise themselves with the newly proposed Exceptions to the Rules of Golf:

Adjustment of Lie Prior to Bold Play

If a player declares his intention to hit his ball between, through, around, or over any obstructing objects, he is entitled, by reason of his dauntless and venturesome play, to improve his lie, without penalty, by rolling or tapping his ball to a perfect lie within two club lengths of his original ball position, but once having done so, he is obligated to attempt the shot he has designated, and he may not then make a safe play from his newly improved lie.

Agreement to Re-tee

If all of the members of a playing group hit truly horrendous drives from the tee of the same hole, they may unanimously agree to replay their shots without assessing any strokes or incurring any penalties, but the determination to participate in a joint re-tee must not be taken lightly, and the shots that precipitated the decision must be so abominable as to constitute an actual catastrophe, making continued play of the hole a burdensome, time-consuming, or fruitless exercise. However, under no circumstances may this exception be invoked for the purpose of improving upon mediocre but playable shots, or of endeavouring to obtain by repetition a favourable outcome that could not be achieved through skill alone.

Audible Interference with Swing

A player may replay his shot without assessing a stroke if at any time during his backswing or downswing, and prior to the moment when he strikes his ball, he shall hear a distracting sound or noise, including, but not limited to (a) a horn, siren, bell, gong, or chime, (b) a backfire, tyre squeal, or engine whine, (c) a cheer, shout, groan, or whoop; (d) a bang, clap, crack, crash, slam, or snap; (e) a blast, rumble, or roar; (f) a thud, click, clunk, rattle, or clatter; (g) a bark, bellow, whinny, bleat, or howl; (h) a squawk, quack, cackle, cluck, chirp, honk, mew, or coo; (i) a cough, hiccup, fart, sniffle, snort, or sneeze; or (j) a giggle, chuckle, chortle, snicker, or guffaw.

Autonomous Concession

If a player misses an unconceded tap-in putt of four feet or less, he may retroactively give himself that putt, provided at least one of the following conditions has been met:

1. He played out of turn following a fellow player's suggestion that he putt out.

2. He adopted an awkward putting stance in an effort to avoid standing in the line of a fellow player's putt.

3. He made the attempt while a fellow player's putt was rolling toward the hole.

4. Another playing group was waiting in the fairway to hit up to the green.

5. He putted last and all of his fellow players had already left the green.

6. He putted with a club other than the putter.

7. He really, really needed the putt.

Ball Teed Up Ahead of the Markers

A player is permitted to tee up his ball in front of the tee markers defining the forward limits of the teeing ground as follows:

1. If the encroachment is so slight that a complaint about the transgression voiced by another player would constitute an instance of unsportsmanlike conduct considerably more grave than the infraction itself.

2. If the markers have been placed far to the rear of the official yardage marker indicating the stated distance to the green and the hole has thus been lengthened improperly.

3. If the markers have been placed so close to the blue tee markers that players who have not elected to engage in championship play are nonetheless compelled to do so without even being able to enjoy the approbation that would have accrued to them had they teed up on the back tees voluntarily.

4. If the markers have recently been moved back from a significantly more advanced position and a player is thus being arbitrarily penalised by being denied the opportunity to play the hole from an advantageous tee placement that countless other golfers were permitted to use.

5. If the turf within the area of the designated teeing ground has been so damaged by the taking of divots that in teeing up his ball slightly in front of the markers a player merely rectifies an unfair playing condition, and the tiny real advantage he thereby gains is more than offset by the huge potential disadvantage he would have suffered had he been obliged to tee up on the remaining playable turf well to the rear of the markers.

Ball Hiding from Player

If a player cannot find a ball that has been hit in plain sight into a reasonably playable area of the course where there is an accumulation of dead leaves, seasonal debris, grass clippings, or other forms of incidental camouflage in which a furtive ball could improperly conceal itself, the ball shall be deemed to be hiding, but not lost, and another ball may be dropped without penalty as close as possible to the place where the original ball is believed to be lurking.

Ball Hit Perfectly Straight

If, in fairly taking his stance on the teeing ground of any hole, a player intentionally lines up well to the left or well to the right of his desired target in order to compensate for a chronic hook or slice and proceeds to hit a straight and flawless shot directly into unplayable terrain along the margins of the hole, he may replay that shot without assessing a stroke or incurring any penalty. However, if he thereupon deliberately readjusts his customary corrective alignment to a square stance in the belief that his long-established directional error has been unexpectedly and inexplicably cured, and then hooks or slices his second ball, he must play that shot from wherever it lies, no matter how unfavourable its position, even if he can clearly and convincingly demonstrate to his fellow players that if he had adopted his habitual preventive posture, his ball would have come to rest in the middle of the fairway.

Ball Hit Slightly Out-of-Bounds

A ball that comes to rest beyond the stakes, fencing, or lines marking ground out-of-bounds may be moved back within bounds and played without penalty of either stroke or distance under the following circumstances:

1. If the ball lies just beyond the line of the out-of-bounds stakes and can be tapped, pulled, dragged, or spooned back into bounds with any conforming golf club by a player standing within bounds.

2. If the ball did not travel directly out-of-bounds but bounced off or touched down safely on ground or some fixed natural feature lying within bounds at least once before crossing the out-of-bounds line.

3. If the ball landed out-of-bounds but was clearly attempting to return within bounds when its progress was improperly blocked by an impediment or obstacle located out-of-bounds and hence not a legal part of the course.

4. If the ball has crossed an out-of-bounds line that is not a true course boundary but rather an administrative division of the ground lying between two adjacent holes drawn so as to discourage play from an adjoining fairway, and the player states that it was not his intention to engage in such play.

5. If the ball lies within a portion of the out-of-bounds area that juts or bulges outward from the general line of the out-of-bounds stakes in such a way that if one or two of the stakes were removed, the remaining stakes would form a much straighter line that would leave the place where the ball came to rest well within bounds.

Ball Hit Under Pressure

A player is entitled to relief when anxiety-producing conditions exist, as follows:

1. If a player hits his ball into an adjacent fairway, and players on that hole require him to make his next shot under their observation before they continue their play of that hole, and he then hit his ball, he may either play it again from the place where it comes to rest without assessing a stroke, or he may wait until those players have vacated the fairway, then return to the approximate spot where his ball originally lay, place it in an equally favourable lie, and replay the stroke.

2. If a player is playing through another group of players on any hole, or has been waved up to hit on a par-three hole by a playing group that then stands aside on the edge of the green and watches, and he proceeds to grossly misplay the hole, his score shall be reduced to whatever score he honestly believes and forcefully asserts that he would have achieved had he not been subjected to stressful conditions of play.

3. If a player is obliged to hit a shot on any hole where groundskeepers are operating grass-cutting machinery, or tending to greens or bunkers, or repairing or reseed-ing damaged turf, or are otherwise engaged in the grooming of the course, and that player makes an unsatisfactory shot, he may replay it once without assessing a stroke, regardless of whether he mis-hit his original ball as a result of his nervous concern for the well-being of the course maintenance personnel or his morbid fear of their ridicule.

Ball Missing in Fairway but Obviously Not Lost

When a player cannot find a ball that he has clearly and unmistakably hit into the fairway, he may declare his ball to be "missing but obviously not lost" and drop another ball in the approximate place where his original ball must have come to rest, and play that second ball, without penalty of stroke or distance, provided that he is absolutely and positively convinced beyond all reasonable doubt that his original ball did in fact come to rest in the fairway and that his failure to find it is the result of the unobserved action of an outside agency, the effects of an unexplained phenomenon, the intervention of a sinister force, or the occurrence of a supernatural event.

Ball Playable in Water Hazard, but Just Not Worth It

If a player's ball comes to rest within the margins of a water hazard in a highly playable lie from which he is certain he could, if he so desired, hit a successful recovery shot with no difficulty whatsoever, but the marshy, muddy, swampy, or boggy state of the surrounding terrain makes it inevitable that in the execution of such a stroke, he himself, his clothing, or his equipment would be extensively soiled and/or soaked, or that he would be obliged to assume a stance requiring the time-consuming removal of his footgear or other elaborate preparations, he may move his ball, without penalty, to the nearest equally favourable lie inside the hazard where conditions are sufficiently dry to permit prudent, sensible, and reasonable play.

Ball Renounced in Flight

A player who hits a long, high drive that immediately travels in a clearly undesired direction may disown the ball while it is still in flight and instantly tee up and hit another without assessing a stroke for the first wayward shot, but he must begin his swing at the second ball before the first ball hits the ground, and he must remain in continuous motion throughout this procedure, thereby establishing that both shots took place during a single unbroken period of ball-striking during which he hit duplicate balls concurrently using a dual movement and a double-action swing, rather than hitting a pair of individual balls consecutively with two separate and distinct swings.

Ball Striking Flagstick

If a player's ball audibly or visibly strikes any part of a flagstick properly inserted into the cup on a green, and the ball was hit from anywhere off the putting surface with a club other than a putter, and in spite of having squarely struck the pin the ball fails to enter the hole, that player is deemed to have holed out on the next stroke if his ball has come to rest reasonably near the hole, or in two strokes if it has come to rest in the fringe or grass surrounding the green, or on the green but a considerable distance from the hole.

Ball Striking Rake

If a player's ball should strike, be obstructed by, or come to rest against a rake, whether it lies within a bunker or outside it, he may proceed as follows:

1. If his ball audibly or visibly strikes or rebounds off a rake that is subsequently found to have been negligently left on ground outside the margins of a bunker, and the ball then comes to rest inside the bunker, it may be removed without penalty and dropped in the place where the player reasonably believes his ball would have come to rest had it not been unduly interfered with, but even if the original path of his ball was in a direct line with the pin, he may not drop it in the hole.

2. If his ball comes to rest inside a bunker but is lodged against or rebounded off a rake carelessly dropped in the sand at an angle even slightly perpendicular to the natural line of play of the hole, and the player states that in his judgement the ball had sufficient velocity or momentum to have rolled through and out of the bunker had it not been improperly obstructed, he may drop his ball in the place where he believes it would have come to rest, provided the bunker is not so deep or steep-sided as to make such a claim unworthy of serious consideration.

Concession of Putts

A player is conceded to have holed out on his next stroke, and his putt is "given," only as follows:

1. A first putt shall be conceded if it is so extraordinarily short that any player requiring that it be putted would be held up to more ridicule for doing so than the player to whom the ball belongs would be if he putted and failed to sink it.

2. A second putt shall be conceded if it is no farther from the hole than the distance from the head to the beginning of the grip of a typical putter, or if the player's first putt skirted, ringed, lipped, lapped, looped, circled, rimmed, or curled around the hole, or hopped out of it after striking its interior.

3. A third putt shall be conceded if it can be reached and picked up within one giant step by a player standing by the hole, or if that player reached the green in regulation but failed to sink his second putt for par.

4. A fourth putt shall be conceded if it lies anywhere on the putting surface unless the player took a practice putt on that green.

Cruel and Unusual Hazards

The following extreme water hazards and improper bunkers are deemed to constitute an unwarranted and impermissible interference with due and rightful play, and a player may replay a shot that is hit into any such water hazard, or throw his ball out of any such bunker, without assessing a stroke or incurring any penalty:

1. Any water hazard that, in order to be cleared, requires a ball to carry over it in the air for a distance of 150 yards or more with no possibility of a lay-up shot or safe play.

2. Any lateral water hazard toward which a fairway has been purposely graded or sloped so that a ball will roll or bounce into it even if, as a result of a benign spin or favourable curve applied to the ball at the time it was struck, it should have easily avoided the hazard.

3. Any bunker so situated in a fairway that no part of it is visible from the teeing ground, regardless of whether the bunker was accurately depicted in a schematic diagram of the hole on a scorecard or sign.

4. Any bunker having a lip of overhanging earth, turf, or greensward a foot or more in thickness, or a retaining wall of stone or wood a club length or more in height, or stairs or a ladder for entry or exit, or an overall depth such that the surface of the putting green is above the eye level of a player standing on the sand within it.

5. Any bunker that has been formally given or is generally referred to by an ominous or intimidating name.

Deniable Ball

If, owing to the unreasonable proximity of condominiums or other occupied dwellings along the boundaries of a course, a player shall, upon making a wayward tee shot, hear a splintering, cracking, or shattering sound, or some similarly alarming or worrisome noise, he may at once declare his ball to be "inadvisable to play" and immediately tee up and put into play in its place an "expedient ball" without assessing a stroke or incurring a penalty. However, during the remainder of his play on that hole, the player must behave as if his earlier misdirected shot never took place, and if he sees the affected homeowner or is confronted by him and betrays any awareness whatsoever that the mishap occurred, either by a verbal expression of apology or regret or a physical gesture indicating frustration, embarrassment, or discomfiture, then the stroke for his original errant drive shall be counted and all applicable penalties shall be assessed.

Environmental Hazard

If a player's ball comes to rest in ground within the margins of a hazard that has been deliberately left in a wild and natural state, whether or not that area has been officially designated as an environmentally sensitive zone from which play is prohibited, and the player in question has reason to believe that in making a swing he might damage rare, threatened, or delicate species of plants, or unduly disturb or traumatise endangered forms of animal life, he may drop his ball without penalty into an adjacent area of the course with limited biodiversity, such as a stretch of fairway with a mono-cultural planting of heavily fertilise hybridised turf grasses, where any moderate incidental destruction of normative vegetation that may occur during his shot is unlikely to have a significant negative impact on the global ecosystem.

Expendable Ball

On the teeing ground of any hole with a clearly defined dogleg layout, a player who wishes to attempt to hit a shot that takes a "shortcut" across unplayable ground and into the fairway may select and put into play a lower-priced or less desirable ball and declare that ball to be "expendable." If his drive then safely clears the hazards or obstacles occupying the intervening area of the bend in the hole, he may lift and replace it with a better ball and continue play. If, however, his shot fails to carry through to playable terrain, he may proceed at once to play a second ball without assessing a stroke or incurring any penalty, but he may not spend any time whatsoever searching for his first ball, and if he makes another unsuccessful attempt to "go for it" with his second tee shot, he must play that ball subject to whatever rules would normally apply and shall, in addition, count the stroke and all penalties waived on his original tee shot.

Experimental Shot

When a ball comes to rest in a lie that precludes the execution of a conventional golf stroke, a player may elect to attempt an experimental shot incorporating an innovative manner of gripping or swinging the club or a novel means of addressing the ball. If as a result of this inventive and enterprising play the ball fails to move at all, or comes to rest in a position substantially worse than the one it previously occupied, he may then declare his ball unplayable and proceed to drop it in the nearest playable lie without assessing an additional stroke, provided he clearly states before commencing his swing that his sole motivation in undertaking what appears to be a greedy and idiotic shot is an unselfish desire to add a hitherto unknown method of striking the ball to the general body of golfing knowledge for the ultimate benefit of players everywhere.

Ground in Need of Repair

If a player's ball comes to rest in a worn, eroded, or otherwise deteriorated area of a heavily played course, which, in his judgement, is clearly eligible for designation as "ground under repair" but has not been so marked due to an obvious oversight by the course maintenance staff, and where he feels that additional play would be likely to further degrade the already deplorable conditions, he may, without penalty, tap his ball to a playable lie in the nearest intact ground, provided that this action is not taken for the purposes of improving his lie but solely as part of a sincere attempt to protect damaged portions of the course from fresh injury.

Negotiated Concessions

Two or more players may at any time mutually agree among themselves to a joint concession of their putts, even if the putts to be conceded are not of an equivalent length or degree of difficulty, and thus, for example, a 2-foot putt one player needs for a par may be exchanged for a 50-foot putt another player has to have to save a double-bogey. However, insofar as possible, all players in a playing group should be included in the arrangement and derive some benefit from it, and if a player who is not a party to the proposed transaction shall raise an objection to its terms and he cannot then be mollifed by his subsequent inclusion in the compact or by the promise of some future accommodation, the contemplated agreement is thereby nullified and rendered void.

Nonchalant Putts

A player confronted with an unconceded putt of three feet or less may elect to approach the ball in a deliberately casual and unstudied manner and hit it toward the hole with a one-handed putting stroke using either of two approved perfunctory putting methods:

1. He may knock the ball toward the hole with a one-handed putting stroke using either the front or back of the putter. If the ball fails to enter the hole but the player is able to sink the putt with no more than two additional rapid "taps" made while the ball is still in motion, the putt is deemed to have been sunk with a single continuous multipart stroke executed in a staccato fashion rather than multiple separate attempts.

2. He may adopt a putting posture in which he crouches over the hole with his hand behind the cup and drags the ball back toward it with a one-handed pulling stroke. Once the ball touches his palm, it is deemed to have been holed out, even if the ball never actually enters the cup and the player is obliged to move his hand a short distance away from the hole in the direction of the oncoming ball to ensure solid contact.

Preposterous Shot

If a player who has been goaded, egged on, or otherwise incited by a fellow player into attempting a hopelessly difficult, plainly impossible, or clearly counterproductive shot proceeds against his own better judgement to engage in the recommended reckless and foolish play, and his effort goes awry, he is entitled to a single repetition of the stroke, without penalty, but if the execution of the ill-advised shot was the subject of, or was occasioned by, a wager between himself and the instigating player, then the terms of that wager, no matter how onerous, shall take precedence over the provisions of this exception.

Protection Against Double Penalty

If a brand-new, high-quality ball just removed from a sleeve, box, or carton is struck by a player from the teeing ground of any hole directly into water, deep woods, impassable terrain, or ground out-of-bounds under circumstances that appear to foreclose the possibility of its recovery, the loss of that ball shall be deemed good and sufficient punishment for any infraction of the rules, and the player may hit a second ball without assessing a stroke or incurring any further penalty.

Providential Ball

If during an unsuccessful search for his ball a player shall find another ball that does not belong to him or to one of his fellow players and that does not appear to be currently in play from an adjacent hole, he may treat that ball as a "providential ball" and substitute it for his own ball if (a) it lies reasonably close to the point where he believes his own ball came to rest, (b) it is not an obviously different colour, and (c) it is not a range ball.

Provisional Provisional Ball

If a player hits a ball that he is confident he will be able to find or that he is certain remained within bounds, and he therefore decides not to hit a provisional ball, but then upon reaching the place where he knows it must lie he is nevertheless unable to find his ball or discovers to his surprise and consternation that his ball has gone deeply, totally, and indisputably out-of-bounds, that player may elect to avoid the delay of returning to the tee or some other distant point to hit a second ball from the spot where his original ball was played and instead make a powered drop and throw a ball, without any additional penalty, into whatever part of the fairway he reasonably believes a provisional ball would have come to rest had he hit one in the first place.

Recent Instruction

If a player who has taken a formal lesson from a licensed golf teacher or club professional on the same day that he commences a stipulated round of golf approaches his ball in an oddly studied manner prior to hitting it, or addresses it with exaggerated concentration, or aligns himself along his target line with elaborate care, or waggles his club an excessive number of times, or interrupts his practice swing to examine the position of his elbows, arms, or upper body, or obsessively and repeatedly shifts the placement of his hands or feet, or noticeably alters the speed, plane, or length of his swing, or makes any other visible modifications in his characteristic style of play, and he then hits an unsatisfactory shot, he may replay it without assessing a stroke, provided that he clearly attributes the mis-hit to ineffective and inappropriate instruction and immediately abandons all of his recent innovations and returns to his traditional game.

Stolen Ball

If a player hits his ball into the fairway of an adjacent hole and is then unable to find it, but during his search he encounters other golfers playing that same hole in close proximity to the place where he believes his own ball came to rest, he may assume that one of them absconded with it, and he may drop another ball, without penalty, even if he receives explicit assurances from one or more members of the suspect playing group that they did not in fact pick up his ball, provided he can later cite some evidence, no matter how flimsy, of incriminating behaviour on their part, such as their failure to make eye contact, the preoccupied or reticent manner in which they responded to inquiries, or their excessive eagerness to proceed with their play, on which to base a reasonable presumption of their guilt.

Suicidal Shot

If a ball comes to rest in a playable but inherently perilous lie, such as on or among roots and rocks, on hardpan, in poison ivy or oak, up against the lip of a bunker, in uncommonly thick, wet, or tangled grass, on an unusually steep slope, or in a particularly deep divot hole, a player who sincerely believes that an attempt to play it as it lies could result in substantial physical harm may take advantage of his right to a therapeutic drop and move the ball without penalty to the nearest safely playable lie. However, before doing so, he must, in a clear and convincing fashion, and using appropriate medical terminology whenever possible, specify the particular portions of his anatomy that he feels would be subject to damage, and the nature and severity of the anticipated injury.

Unfairway

If a player hits a long, straight drive that comes to rest on closely-mown turf in the middle of a fairway, but in a severe uphill, downhill, or sidehill lie, or on a knoll, knob, mound, or mogul, or in a bowl, scoop, hollow, dell, or gully, or among any other artificially shaped terrain features created for the sole purpose of improperly penalising an impeccable shot, that player may kick or tap his ball, without penalty, to the nearest lie whose quality is more in keeping with the excellence of his shot. However, no ball, no matter how purely hit or foully punished, shall be deemed eligible for placement upon a tee.

Unreasonable Searches

If a player hits his ball into a deep ravine, a steep gully, or any other wild or inhospitable terrain that appears likely to contain noxious or injurious plants or to conceal menacing animals, insects, or reptiles, he need not search for that ball, and he may, without penalty of stroke or distance, drop another ball in the nearest playable lie on an adjacent stretch of safe ground from which he can clearly see and point out to any fellow players the precise spot where he knows his original ball must have come to rest.

Unsolicited Advice as to Choice of Club or Method of Play

Any player who, as a result of unwillingly receiving and reluctantly acting upon an unasked-for tip, pointer, or suggestion from a fellow player, selects a club other than the one he intended to use, or changes his set-up, grip, stance, or swing, and then proceeds to hit a ball that falls far short of or carries well over his target, or that sharply hooks or slices, is entitled to replay that one shot without assessing a stroke or incurring any penalty, but he must at once cease applying the unsought advice to his game, and any additional shot he makes shall be counted in his score unless they are the result of new and separate instances of gratuitously offered guidance.

Wrongful Lie

If a ball lands within a fairway but unfairly comes to rest in a divot hole, pitch mark, tyre track, or other concavity, or in any similar sunken, indented, or depressed lie more likely to be encountered in uneven or broken ground along the margins of a hole where terrain has been deliberately and appropriately designed to penalise errant play, that ball may be moved without penalty to the nearest adjacent lie where the condition of the playing surface is more nearly representative of the overall state of the turf generally prevailing throughout the majority of the fairway, when considered as a whole.