rules of golf consist of a standard set of regulations and procedures by which the sport

of golf should be played and prescribe penalties for rule infractions. They are jointly
written and administered by the R&A (spun off from The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St
Andrews) the governing body of golf worldwide except in the United States and Mexico,
which are the responsibility of the United States Golf Association (USGA). The rule book,
entitled Rules of Golf, is published on a regular basis and also includes rules
governing amateur status.
A central principle, although not one of the numbered rules, is found in the R&A rule book's
inside front cover:[1] "Play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it, and if you cannot
do either, do what is fair. But to do what is fair, you need to know the Rules of Golf."
In addition to the rules, golf adheres to a code of conduct known as etiquette, which
generally means playing the game with due respect for the golf course and other players.
Etiquette is often seen as being as important to the sport as the rules themselves.

Contents

HistoryEdit
Before the rules of golf were standardised golf clubs commonly had their own set of rules,
which while broadly the same had subtle differences, such as allowing for the removal of
loose impediments, e.g. leaves and small stones. In the late 19th century, most clubs began
to align themselves with either the Society of St. Andrews Golfers, later the R&A, or the
Gentlemen Golfers of Leith, later the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.
The earliest surviving written rules of golf were produced by the Gentlemen Golfers
of Leith on March 7, 1744, for a tournament played on April 2. They were entitled "Articles
and Laws in Playing at Golf" and consisted of 13 rules.[2][3] The original manuscript of the
rules is in the collection of the National Library of Scotland [4]
1. You must Tee your Ball, within a Club's length of the Hole.
2. Your Tee must be upon the Ground.
3. You are not to change the Ball which you Strike off the Tee.
4. You are not to remove Stones, Bones or any Break Club, for the sake of playing your Ball, Except
upon the fair Green, & that only within a Club's length of your Ball.
5. If your Ball come among Water, or any wattery filth, you are at liberty to take out your Ball &
bringing it behind the hazard and Teeing it, you may play it with any Club and allow your Adversary
a Stroke for so getting out your Ball.
6. If your Balls be found anywhere touching one another, You are to lift the first Ball, till you play the
last.
7. At Holling, you are to play your Ball honestly for the Hole, and, not to play upon your Adversary's
Ball, not lying in your way to the Hole.
8. If you should lose your Ball, by its being taken up, or any other way, you are to go back to the Spot,
where you struck last, & drop another Ball, And allow your adversary a Stroke for the misfortune.
9. No man at Holling his Ball, is to be allowed, to mark his way to the Hole with his Club or any thing
else.
10. If a Ball be stopp'd by any person, Horse, Dog, or any thing else, The Ball so stop'd must be play'd
where it lyes.
11. If you draw your Club in order to Strike & proceed so far in the Stroke, as to be bringing down your
Club; If then, your Club shall break, in any way, it is to be Accounted a Stroke.
12. He whose Ball lyes farthest from the Hole is obliged to play first.
13. Neither Trench, Ditch or Dyke, made for the preservation of the Links, nor the Scholar's Holes or the
Soldier's Lines, shall be accounted a Hazard; But the Ball is to be taken out Teed and playd with any
Iron Club.

Debate surrounds the authorship of these regulations, which were signed by John
Rattray and which—on matters of order of play, outside interference, water hazards, holing
out, making a stroke, and the stroke and distance penalty for the loss of a ball—remain an
integral part of the modern game. Rattray's sole signature does not guarantee that he was
wholly responsible for them, though his prominence within the company and Edinburgh
society at large makes him the most likely candidate. Under these rules he went on to win
the silver club for a second time in April 1745.