Believe it or not the Rules of Golf are there to help you. It may seem crazy to say that because it seems like every time a rule is involved a penalty stroke or two comes along with it. But think about it, if the rules weren't there how else would you deal with a lost ball, or if your ball goes into some water, or if your second shot into the 18th ends up on top of the clubhouse (thanks Tiger).
Knowing the rules and using them to your advantage is a key part of posting good scores because the rules help you. Many times a rule will give you more than one option on how to proceed. If you don't know all the options, you may not pick the one that best suits your situation. For example, when you hit a ball into a lateral water hazard (marked red) you have five (5) options on how to proceed. And sometimes there is even more than that if a drop area has been designated. Do you know all your options? If not, how are you going to be sure you picked the one that gives you the best chance to score well on that hole?
The point is knowing the rules can help save you strokes because no matter how hard we try, eventually our golf ball will end up lost, in a water hazard, on a cart path or our club will break, etc. Luckily the USGA has a wonderful section of their website dedicated to the Rules of Golf. There are Quizzes to test your knowledge, schedules of rules seminars throughout the country for anyone to attend, access to specific rules and the many decisions that accompany them, and on and on.
The IGA also conducts a series of seminars on the Rules of Golf each spring that is open to anyone to attend. We will be putting that schedule together over the winter and will post the information to our website once everything is finalized.
So this winter when you are thinking about game improvement drills and equipment, don't forget that increasing your knowledge of the rules is one easy way to save yourself some strokes on the course this summer.