Rules Guy: Is it a penalty to hit a ball that falls off the tee during your backswing?
Golfer in backswing with driver.

What do the rules say about hitting a ball that falls off a tee mid-swing?

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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.

In a recent match-play competition, my opponent addressed his ball and started his swing. Mid-swing, his ball rolled forward off the tee, and he wound up hitting the moving ball. (The shot even found the fairway.) I know the rules penalize a player who strikes a ball in motion. What’s the story here? I’m hoping you say two-stroke penalty or loss of hole. — Erik Morrison, via email

Not exactly the soul of generosity, Erik, but at least you’re honest.

The general principle in golf, as laid out in Rule 10.1(d), is that you must play the ball at rest and can’t make a stroke at a moving ball, lest you indeed incur the general penalty of two strokes in stroke play and loss of hole in match play.

However — and this is where your disappointment will kick in — there is a carve-out where, if the ball starts moving during one’s backswing, and you hit the ball while it’s moving, there is no penalty.

That’s true as it relates specifically to a ball falling off a tee, per Rule 6.2(b)/5 — yes, the rules contemplate almost everything — and everywhere else, per Rule 9.1(b). In these scenarios, the stroke counts and you play the next shot from where it lies.

For more tee-related guidance from our guru, read on …

The other day, I picked up a tee someone had left on the tee box and proceeded to use it. My friend told me this was a penalty, for using someone else’s equipment. He said that if I wanted to use it, I needed to put it in my pocket first to claim it was mine. What’s the ruling? —Wade Lindren, via email

This sounds like a demented magician’s trick: “I put someone else’s tee in my pocket … say the magic words — ‘It’s mine!’ — take the tee out of my pocket … and — presto! It’s legal!”

Suffice it to say, your friend is a severely misguided stickler. The only restriction on sharing equipment relates to clubs. There is absolutely no issue with using someone else’s tee, towel, rangefinder or ball.

(If the one-ball Local Rule, Model Local Rule G-4, is in effect, you can still borrow a ball, so long as it’s the same make and model as the one you were using.)

Accidentally using someone else’s clubs is a general penalty of two strokes in stroke play or, in match play, adjusting the match with a one-hole deduction, with a maximum of two such penalties in either instance. The club must immediately be declared out of play once the player becomes aware of his or her error — otherwise, he or she is disqualified upon again using the club.

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Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to [email protected]. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.