Golf Etiquette for Beginners: The Unwritten Rules

Etiquette isn’t a separate rulebook. The Rules of Golf start with it: Rule 1.2 expects every player to act with integrity, show consideration for others, and take good care of the course. There’s no penalty stroke for poor etiquette, unless a competition adopts a code of conduct (and serious misconduct can get a player disqualified), but it’s how golfers judge each other.

Keep up the pace

• Be ready when it’s your turn. Pick your club, line up your shot and check the yardage while others play. The Rules recommend taking no more than 40 seconds for a stroke, and usually less.
• Play “ready golf” in a casual round: whoever’s ready hits first, safely, instead of waiting for whoever’s farthest away.
• Keep up with the group ahead, not just ahead of the group behind. If a hole opens up in front of you, you’re the slow group.
• Let faster groups play through. If the group behind is waiting on every shot, wave them on at the next tee or green.
• Limit your search to the 3 minutes the rules allow, and hit a provisional when your ball might be lost.
• Pick up when a hole goes badly in a casual round. For your handicap, a hole only counts up to net double bogey anyway. (In a stroke-play competition, you have to hole out.)
• Leave the green as soon as you’ve holed out, and write scores down at the next tee.

Look out for others

• Shout “Fore!” right away, loudly, if your ball might hit anyone. The Rules themselves ask you to warn people.
• Never hit until the group ahead is out of range. If you’re not sure, wait.
• Stand still and stay quiet while someone is swinging or putting. Stand off to the side, out of their line of sight, and not directly behind them or the hole.
• Don’t step on another player’s putting line, the path between their ball and the hole. Step over it or walk around.
• Keep your shadow off their line and their ball.
• Silence your phone.

Take care of the course

• Fix your ball mark on the green. Push the edges in toward the middle with a repair tool or tee, then tap it flat. Fix one more if you see it.
• Replace your divot on the fairway, or fill the hole with the sand mix if the cart provides it.
• Rake the bunker after you play out of it, footprints included, and leave the rake where the course asks.
• Follow the cart rules. “Cart path only,” the 90-degree rule and keeping carts away from greens and tees are course policies. They’re posted at the first tee or on the cart.
• Don’t take practice swings that tear up the tee or the fairway, and don’t lean on your putter on the green.

Around the green

• Mark your ball if it’s in someone’s line, with a coin or marker behind it.
• The flagstick: you can leave it in when you putt; there’s no penalty if the ball hits it. Agree with your group whether to leave it in or take it out, and lay it down gently off the green.
• Hole out, or ask before picking up a short putt. In a casual round, a “gimme” is a friendly custom; in stroke play, every putt counts.

Before you get there

• Arrive 20 to 30 minutes early to check in at the pro shop and warm up.
• Check the dress code. Many courses expect a collared shirt and no denim; private clubs are usually stricter than public courses. Soft-spike or spikeless golf shoes are the norm.
• Know your limits. If you’re brand new, a par-3 or short course is a friendly place to start, and quiet times like weekday afternoons take the pressure off.