Here are MyGolfSpy, we support golf being played in any form.
Wear what you want. Play how you want. Be as informed about equipment as you want.
Consume the game in whatever form you feel is appropriate.
But it’s also worth acknowledging that when the game is played at a seriously high level—such as on the PGA Tour—the expectations for how you conduct yourself shift. Money and livelihoods are at stake. Naturally, there are unwritten rules that get followed to a higher standard than at your weekly league.
Here is an incomplete list of etiquette a Tour player follows that the average golfer (for the most part) ignores or doesn’t consider. I haven’t included any actual rules here—obviously recreational players tend to make up their own common sense rules—so all of these are in the etiquette category.
1. Not standing directly behind someone who is hitting
It’s common to see recreational golfers stand directly behind golfers. I’ve even seen some older golfers request for someone to stand behind them to help them follow the ball’s flight.
Is it a nuisance to most everyday golfers? Not really. Personally, you can stand wherever you want when I’m hitting (although I don’t recommend anything in the shank zone).
On the Tour or other high-level competition, standing directly behind someone is a no-no. The proper position for someone not hitting is to be just behind and to the right of the tee box for a right-handed player, meaning you can see their face as they are hitting.
The rationale is that the player hitting shouldn’t be able to see you at all during the swing, and being directly behind someone increases that because your vision tends to extend slightly behind on the backswing.
I went to the Players Championship last year and Brian Harman asked for a standard bearer to move—the teenage volunteer was some 10 yards behind him. Some players can be very sensitive about it and others don’t care as much—but it’s an understood rule.
2. Avoiding another player’s “through line”
One of the first rules of etiquette you learn as a golfer is to not step on another player’s line.
As of the past few years, you can fix any imperfections in the green—so this rule doesn’t hold a ton of practical weight anymore. It’s more of a respect thing. Chewing up someone’s line is a little like ripping the Velcro off your glove in the middle of someone’s backswing.
Someone’s line is generally thought of as the path the ball will travel from its start position to the hole but for high-level competition, that line extends past the hole to the possible comeback putt someone could have. It’s referred to as the “through line.”
If someone has a 40-foot putt, you aren’t going to walk on the exact opposite side of the hole within, let’s say, five feet or so. In general, Tour players avoid walking close to the hole while reading a putt. The expectation is to stay out of the way.
Again, this carried more weight back when you couldn’t fix spike marks or other bumps. It’s more about respect than anything tangible.
3. Knowing the different divot rules of a course
A reasonable number of recreational golfers follow divot rules but the majority doesn’t
In different parts of the world, divots are taken care of with a variety of methods. Some courses ask you to fill in divots with sand or some other mixture. Others want the divot to be replaced. I’ve played certain courses that don’t want you to do anything.
This is typically not much of a consideration for the average golfer. Tour caddies consider it an art form.
Some of us also consider playing out of fairway divots an art form (and everyone else is wrong).
4. Enter and exit bunkers from the (same) low point
Taking care of bunkers is a big deal in competitive golf for good reason. You should return the bunker to more or less the ideal condition. Ending up in a random footprint caused by carelessness could unfairly cost someone a stroke.
To avoid this, that means raking backwards—starting from where you hit and going back to where you originally walked into the bunker.
And where you should walk in is important, too. You don’t want to walk in on the high side of the lip because that can create a much larger mess with your footprints. You want to walk in at a low point closest to where your ball is so you can access it without building a sand castle.
5. Tapping sand out of your shoes before walking on a green
If you see any Tour player hit a bunker shot, the first thing they do upon exiting the bunker is tapping out the sand. This is so they don’t track the sand all over the green, making it more difficult to putt.
It’s commonplace to find courses with sand splashed all over the green. Sometimes this is from the bunker shot itself but most of the time it’s because people are walking with sand still lodged between their spikes.
As a side note, the Masters actually has someone remove sand from the greens after bunker shots. Between groups, a volunteer will use a tool that disperses the sand until it can’t be seen anymore.
6. Talking to someone else’s ball
I’m guilty of this one.
If I’m playing with one of my buddies and he hits a drive that is cutting towards the fairway, all of a sudden I’m saying, “Keep moving, come on.”
Rooting for someone else’s ball is sometimes seen as a nice gesture to show you are invested in someone’s round. That doesn’t fly in competitive golf.
You can give someone a thumb’s up if they’ve hit one close when you are up at the green. You can say “nice shot”, although even this doesn’t happen much in high-level competition. Players tend to stay in their own bubble when it comes to the actual performance.
Basically, competitive players want to talk to their own ball or have no one else talking to it.
7. Lack of divot pattern on the driving range
The majority of golfers I see hit balls however they want. They find a piece of suitable grass and repeat the process until it’s all over.
The problem with that is the grass has a harder time growing back when divots are scattered. The proper technique is to have divots in a row, creating vertical strips. When you can’t go forward any further, you start on a new strip of divots.
Go to any Tour event and you will see players following this method. I do feel for the rest of us who show up to a scruffy driving range that doesn’t have much grass. Sometimes there isn’t enough grass to make this work.
In general, however, that is the way to manage divots when you hit balls.
Are there any other unwritten rules you see Tour players follow that the average golfer doesn’t?
Let me know below in the comments.
Top Photo Caption: Not stepping across a player’s through line is one of the unwritten rules of etiquette that top golfers follow. (GETTY IMAGES/Tracy Wilcox)
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