How a PIECE OF STRING got this golfer DISQUALIFIED from a competition

This golfer was unaware of an equipment rule that saw him disqualified from a club competition.

Jack Seddon's picture
Wed, 3 Feb 2021
How a PIECE OF STRING got this golfer DISQUALIFIED from a competition

With golf courses in England shut during the third national lockdown, it's been a while since the GolfMagic inbox has received any stories from our fantastic readers, but luckily our friends from across the pond can still play golf right now.

One of our American readers, Kevin, recently got in touch to tell us how he was recently disqualified from a tournament at his local golf club in California.

We have heard many DQ stories from our readers in the past, but none of them have ever involved a piece of string.

Kevin is fairly new to the game of golf and after starting to play regularly with his family members, he decided to enter his very first competition.

What Kevin was unaware of was the Use of Equipment section in the rules of golf, as it led to the 28-year-old being disqualified from the first tournament he has ever played in.

"I haven't been playing golf for that long and have spent most of my time on the course with my Grandad," said Kevin.

"He always carries a piece of string when we're playing and when the wind picks up, he would hold it to see which way the wind was blowing. I think it was to help his back by not picking up grass.

"I always assumed it was just a normal thing to do and it really helped me understand how I needed to adapt the direction of my shot when playing, so I started doing it myself.

"I recently played in my first golf competition and I had such a good time, but someone I was paired with told the club I was using string to read the wind and they disqualified me from the tournament.

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"To be honest I found it pretty funny as I had absolutely no idea that I wasn't allowed to do that, but if the guy who told on me had just informed me straight away that it wasn't legal, then I would have just learnt the rule there and then, instead he chose to wait 18 holes and rat me out."

It seems extremely petty of Kevin's playing partner to report him to the golf club, as he could have helped Kevin learn more about the rules of golf, which at times can be quite complex, especially to those who are new to the game.

Here's the R&A ruling for Kevin's incident:

4.3 Use of Equipment

A player may use equipment to help his or her play during a round, except that a player must not create a potential advantage by:

(2) Information on Wind and Other Weather Conditions.

Allowed:

- Getting any type of weather information (including wind speed) that is available from weather forecasts, or
- Measuring temperature and humidity at the course.

Not Allowed:

- Measuring wind speed at the course, or
- Using an artificial object to get other wind-related information (such as using powder to assess wind direction)

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