Did You Address the Ball?

Address The Ball

Do you know what it means to Address the Ball? The USGA says “A player has “addressed the ball” when he has grounded his club immediately in front of or immediately behind the ball, whether or not he has taken his stance.”

This means you can take a stroke and strike the ball without ever actually addressing the ball. There are already a few times that you may have done this without ever knowing it. For example, while hitting the ball out of the bunker, or hitting the ball out of a lateral or water hazard.

This can come in handy in a situation when you think that the ball may move by grounding the club or by other circumstances. If you prepare to strike the ball by hovering your club behind the ball instead of grounding it you are not addressing the ball. If the ball moves you would not incur a one stroke penalty.  Under rule 18-2b “If a player’s ball in play moves after he has addressed it (other than as a result of a stroke), the player is deemed to have moved the ball and incurs a penalty of one stroke.”

Some other instances where you may not want to addredss the ball (ground the club) include: a) putting from the putting green when it is very windy. b) playing a pitch or chip from a severe uphill or downhill slope.

If you know the rules you can save yourself some strokes during your matches.