If you are a year round golfer, then you are probably familiar with something called ‘winter rules’. They are a special set of rules that give golfers preferred lies, due to all of the inclement conditions that most golf courses have during the winter (wet ground, dead patches of grass, etc.). With special rules for winter golf, you probably asked yourself if there are special rules for summer golf, in other words, summer rules.
Most golf courses don’t have any information on what summer rules are or if they even exist, so I dug into some of the USGA’s rules to figure out what the main differences between winter and summer rules are.
What are Summer Rules in golf? Summer rules just means that the golf course is no longer allowing preferred lies. In other words, the conditions on the golf course are much better in the summer than they are in the winter, so golf courses take away a player’s ability to give themselves a preferred lie during the summer.
In most cases during the summer, golf courses will remove any signage that indicates preferred lies. This means that players are not able to pick their ball up and give themselves a better lie. To be clear, there are no rules specifically coined ‘summer rules’, it is just the removal of winter rules that people believe are called ‘summer rules’.
Summer Rules vs Winter Rules in Golf
As mentioned above, the main difference between summer rules and winter rules in golf is that winter rules allow players to get preferred lies due to the bad conditions on the course caused by the winter weather.
Simply put, winter rules allow for preferred lies and summer rules do not.
Once the summer rolls around, those bad conditions mostly go away, which means that players are no longer given the privilege of getting preferred lies.
How To Enact A Preferred Lie
- Place ball marker next to ball
- Pick up your ball (clean it if necessary)
- Place it down within 6 inches of its original position (however its new placement may not be any closer to the pin)
A preferred lie occurs when a player’s ball is inhibited by the terrain in some way (stuck in mud or wet area, covered in mud, etc.) The player is allowed to pick up the ball and place it within 6 inches (or a club’s length depending on the local club rules) from the original position of the ball.
It should be noted that the ball is not allowed to be placed any closer to the hole than its original position.
As you can see from this image, the green area is the allowable area for a golf ball to be placed in a situation with preferred lie. The area in front of the ball (that is not green) is in the direction of the hole, so players are not allowed to place the ball in the area that is not green.
Can You Play With Winter Rules During Summer?
Even though they are called winter rules, you might be wondering if you can use the preferred lies during the summer. The answer is, it depends on what your local club says. In most cases, the answer is probably no, but if the weather is bad enough, the course might allow for preferred lies during summer (meaning that winter rules apply during summer).
That is probably the only situation where winter rules would apply during the summer.