Make sure to correct any mistake you made before you tee off

Welcome to 2026!  There are no USGA rules changes to report for 2026 – therefore, let’s continue to look at the five situations when a player needs to correct their mistake before they tee off on the next hole to avoid disqualification. We’ve covered items 1 through 3 listed below and this month’s article includes the 4th situation; playing from a Wrong Place.

1.      Failure to hole out (Rule 3.3c)

2.    Failure to correct having played from a Wrong Tee, or outside the Teeing Area (Rule 6.1b(2)

3.      Failure to correct having played a Wrong Ball (Rule 6.3c)

4.     Failure to correct having played from a Wrong Place with a Serious Breach (Rule 14.7)

5.     Failure to correct having played in the Wrong order in Foursome Play (Alternate Shot Rule 22.3)

Admittedly, Wrong Place rulings can sometimes be confusing because there are two standards for Wrong Place penalties. The first is when playing from a Wrong Place did not result in a serious breach, and the second is when a serious breach did occur. To differentiate between the two situations, you first need to understand what defines a serious breach, and what constitutes a Wrong Place.

A Wrong Place is any place on the golf course other than where the player is required or allowed to play their ball.  Some examples are:

1.     Playing a ball from in a No Play Zone

2.      Playing a ball that was dropped outside the required relief area, or playing ball that was dropped inside the relief area, but came to rest outside the relief area

3.       Playing a ball that was replaced on a wrong spot or playing a ball that a player failed to replace when required by the Rules

4.       Playing a ball from a Wrong Green

A serious breach occurs when a player gains a significant advantage over other players by playing from the Wrong Place. At first, this may seem difficult to know as there is no wording in the Rules of Golf that tells players exactly what significant advantage means. In my experience, the advantage gained must be clearly remarkable before the USGA would lean toward labeling a situation as a serious breach.  The penalty for playing from a Wrong Place (without a serious breach) in stroke play is two penalty strokes and in match play a loss of hole penalty. For a Wrong Place to be a serious breach, I would ask you to consider if by playing from the Wrong Place, that the player gained more than a two strokes advantage (for stroke play).  If your answer is clearly yes, then a Wrong Place serious breach penalty is likely in order. Keep in mind that playing from a Wrong Place in match play is a loss of hole penalty—which pretty much makes a Wrong Place serious breach in match play irrelevant. The player loses the hole as soon as they play from the wrong place, (that seems punishment enough to me) and that hole is over.

Some situations I would consider not be a serious breach would be:

Paul moved his ball marker one putter head to the left because his ball marker was in Bill’s line of play on the green, But Paul forgot to move it back and played from the new spot. Or, Mike took free relief from an animal hole—measuring two club lengths instead of one which allowed him to drop in the fairway and play his ball from the fairway instead of the first cut of rough. Rusty played her ball from a wrong green (even though she used a putter so she wouldn’t damage the green) instead of taking free relief from the Wrong Green.

I would consider the following to be Wrong Place serious breach:

Terry played his tee shot that landed out of bounds instead of returning to the tee under stroke and distance. Ken took two club length lateral relief on the green side of a yellow Penalty Area, instead of going back on the line relief on the fairway side of the yellow penalty area. Lorraine created her own Drop Zone, then dropped and played a ball from her created zone when she couldn’t find her ball.

Now that you have a clearer understanding of Wrong Place, and Wrong Place with a serious breach, keep in mind that playing from a Wrong Place without a serious breach means you play out the hole and for your Wrong Place mistake in stroke play, add two penalty strokes to your score.  In match play, you’ve lost the hole as soon as you played from the wrong place. 

If you have made a serious breach in stroke play, that error must be corrected prior to teeing off on the next hole, or before turning in your scorecard of the last hole to avoid disqualification.