The golf tee times rule we ALL break – National Club Golfer

You’re all guilty of it, and so are we – but Steve Carroll and Tom Irwin have very different opinions on our lax attitude to tee times It’s one of the Rules of Golf you have almost certainly broken on a routine basis. It doesn’t matter what the watch says, if golfers reckon the group in front are far enough ahead, they’ll tee off and get their rounds under way. But starting times for competitions are used for a reason, and sticking to them can be a key part of making sure there are no early traffic jams on the course. Does your club enforce it, though? And did you know there is a pretty stiff penalty for those caught transgressing? While most players won’t face the harshest sanction – disqualification for those who get going more than five minutes ahead of their scheduled starting time – there is still the general penalty applied to the first hole (two-shots or loss of hole in match play) under Rule 5.3a for groups that try and shave a couple of minutes off the official number. The R&A’s Pace of Play manual, which offers a whole host of recommendations to help clubs and
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