Rules & Etiquette
Tournament Rules
* As of January 2026, your 9-Hole Score counts towards your Handicap Index.
- Please enter all scores even if only 9 holes in the system.
* Pace of Play Rule 5:
- When it is your turn to play, it is recommended that you make the stroke in no more than 40 seconds,
- Play continuously and at a prompt pace during each hole,
- You should prepare in advance for your next stroke and be ready to play when it is your turn, and
- Play READY golf.
USGA rules apply at all times.
In light of the recently adopted New Rules of Golf, please review the following helpful resources to better understand the new changes:
1. Website: Link to 2019 USGA Rules and Interpretations
2. Video: 20 Most Important USGA Rule Changes
Significant DC Stroker Rule Changes
Tiebreaker on Events
New Rule: Go to scorecard, use gross score starting with the hardest handicap hole
Pace of Play
New Rule: 30 seconds each person
Membership Play
New Rule: Members must play 30% of events to qualify for a major award and maintain membership status
Club Championship
New Rule: To play in club championship, you must pay and play in both events.
Significant Rule Changes
Ball at rest Ball moved Player accidentally moves his or her ball during search.
Current rule: No penalty.
Ball moved Player accidentally moves his or her ball or ball-marker on the putting green.
Current rule: No penalty.
Ball moved Standard for deciding whether the player caused his or her ball to move.
New rule: If a player is unaware their ball moved and plays it from a new spot, the penalty is reduced to 1 stroker, rather 2.
Current rule: The player will be found to be the cause only when it is known or virtually certain (meaning at least 95%) to be the case.
Ball replaced How to replace a ball lying off the putting green when it moves, and its exact original spot isn’t known.
Current rule: Replace the ball on its estimated spot; if that spot was on, under or against attached natural objects, replace the ball on that spot on, under or against those objects.
Accidental deflection Player’s ball in motion accidentally hits the player, his or her caddie, the person attending the flagstick or the attended or removed flagstick.
Current rule: No penalty.
Double hit Player accidentally hits the ball more than one during a stroke.
Current rule: No penalty.
Taking relief Dropping procedure Where a ball must be dropped.
Current rule: Drop in a defined relief area.
Where a dropped ball must come to rest.
Current rule: The ball must come to rest in the relief area where it was dropped. If the ball comes to rest outside of the relief area, the player will drop a second time in the relief area. If the ball again comes to rest outside the relief area, the player will place it where the ball first touched the ground on the second drop.
Dropping procedure Measuring the size of the relief area where a ball must be dropped and played.
Current rule: The relief area is measured by measuring 1 or 2 club lengths (which is defined as the longest club the player has during the round, other than a putter).
Dropping procedure.
How to drop a ball New rule: The ball must be dropped straight down from knee height (the height of the player’s knee when in a standing position).
Current rule: Stand erect, hold the ball at shoulder height and arm’s length.
Lost ball Time allowed for a ball search.
Current rule: A ball is lost if not found in three minutes.
Substituting ball Substituting ball when taking relief.
Current rule: A player may always substitute a ball when taking relief.
Embedded ball Taking relief for a ball embedded in its own pitch-mark.
New rule: Players receive full relief for a ball embedded in any pitch-mark in closely mowed areas, (fairway height or less), not just those made by their own ball.
Current rule: A player may take relief without penalty for an embedded ball anywhere in the “general area” (new term for “through the green”), unless a Local Rule has been adopted restricting relief only to areas cut to fairway height or less. The general area is the new term for “through the green”.
Replacing a ball on the putting green when it moves from its spot after it already had been already had been lifted and replaced.
Current rule: The ball must be replaced on its original spot, even if it was blown by the wind or moved for no clear reason.
Preferred lies modification.
Current rule: The relief area for a preferred lies has been reduced from a club length (about 46 inches) to scorecard length (11 inches).
Putting green Repairing damage on the putting green.
Current rule: A player may repair almost any damage (including spike marks and animal damage but not including natural imperfections) on the putting green.
Putting green Player touches the line of putt or touches the putting green in pointing out a target.
Current rule: No penalty, so long as doing so does not improve the conditions for the player’s stroke.
Putting green Putting with an unattended flagstick left in the hole.
Current rule: No penalty if a ball played from the putting green (or anywhere else) hits the unattended flagstick in hole.
Penalty areas Areas the Committee may mark as a penalty area (where relief with 1-stroke penalty is allowed).
Current rule: Red- and yellow-marked “penalty areas” may now cover areas of desert, jungle, lava rock, etc, in addition to areas of water.
Penalty areas Player moves loose impediments, touches the ground with hand or club or grounds the club in a penalty area when the ball is in the penalty area.
Current rule: No penalty.
Penalty areas Expanded use of red-marked penalty areas.
Current rule: Committees are given the discretion to mark all penalty areas as red so that lateral relief is always allowed (but they may still mark penalty areas as yellow where they consider it appropriate).
Penalty areas Elimination of the opposite side relief option for red penalty areas.
Current rule: A player is no longer allowed to take relief from a red penalty area on the opposite side from where the ball last entered that penalty area, unless the Committee adopts a Local Rule allowing it.
Bunkers Player moves or touches a loose impediment in a bunker when the ball is in the bunker.
Current rule: No penalty.
Bunkers Player touches sand in a bunker with his or her hand or a club when the ball is in the bunker.
Current rule: No penalty except when a player touches sand (1) with his or her hand or club to test the conditions of the bunker, (2) in making a practice swing, (3) with the club in the area right behind or in front of the ball or (4) in making the backswing for the stroke.
Bunkers Unplayable ball relief options.
Current rule: A player may take relief outside the bunker back on the line from the hole through where ball was at rest for 2 penalty strokes.
Equipment Damaged clubs Use of clubs damaged during round.
New rule: A player may keep using any damaged club, no matter the nature or cause of the damage, even if the player damaged it in anger.
Current rule: A player may use the damaged club only if it was damaged in the “normal course of play.”
Damaged clubs Adding clubs to replace a club damaged during round.
New rule: A club damaged during the round can be replaced, even if damaged in anger, provided the player was not responsible for the damage.
Current rule: A player may replace a damaged club if it is “unfit for play” and was damaged in the “normal course of play.”
Use of distance-measuring devices (DMDs).
Current rule: The use of DMDs is allowed, unless a Local Rule has been adopted prohibiting their use.
When to play during a round Pace of play Recommendations on how to play promptly.
Current rule: Rec that players make each stroke in no more than 40 seconds, and usually in less time.
Pace of play Playing out of turn in stroke play.
Current rule: No penalty (as today), and “ready golf” is encouraged when it can be done in a safe and responsible way.
Pace of play New alternative form of stroke play.
Current rule: A new “Maximum Score” form of stroke play is recognized, where a player’s score for a hole is capped at a maximum score (such as two times par, a fixed number or net double bogey) that is set by the Committee.
Player behavior Standards of conduct Playing in the spirit of the game.
Current rule: Explains and reinforces the high standards of conduct expected from players and gives Committees the discretion to disqualify players for serious misconduct.
Standards of conduct Code of player conduct.
Current rule: Committees are given authority to adopt their own code of player conduct and to set penalties for the breach of the standards in that code.
Integrity Eliminating announcement requirements before lifting a ball under certain Rules.
Current rule: When a player has good reason to mark and lift a ball to identify it, check for damage or see if it lies in a condition where relief is allowed (such as to see whether it is embedded), the player is no longer required first to announce to another player or his or her marker the intent to do so or to give that person an opportunity to observe the process.
Integrity Player’s reasonable judgment in estimating and measuring under a Rule.
Current rule: When determining a spot, point, line, area or other location under a Rule, a player’s reasonable judgment will not be second-guessed based on later evidence (such as video review) if the player did all that could be reasonably expected under the circumstances to make an accurate estimation or measurement.