Golf's Rule 24 Applies to Team Competitions

Two golfers, part of a team competition, celebrate a good putt.

stockstudioX/E+/Getty Images

 

By
Brent Kelley
Updated January 25, 2019

In the Official Rules of Golf, jointly written and maintained by the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Rule 24 is titled "Team Competitions."

The purpose of the rule, as explained in the rule book, is this:

Rule 24 covers team competitions (played in either match play or stroke play), where multiple players or sides compete as a team with the results of their rounds or matches combined to produce an overall team score.

It is the responsibility of golfers to know the rules, and the USGA and R&A have tons of resources on their respective websites to help us learn and understand.

To that end, these are links directly to the text of Rule 24 that is found on the governing bodies' websites:

Summarizing Rule 24: Team Competitions

There are four sections within Rule 24. These are the names of those sections, plus links directly to each section:

The overview of team competitions begins with these statements:

A “team” is a group of players who play as individuals or as sides to compete against other teams.
Their play in the team event may also be part of another competition (such as individual stroke play) that takes place at the same time.

Of the team captain Rule 24.3 states:

Each team may name a team captain to lead the team and make decisions for it, such as which players on the team will play in which rounds or matches, in what order they will play and who will play together as partners. The team captain may be a player in the competition.

Rule 24.4 goes over scenarios in team competitions in which players on a team are and are not allowed to give advice to one another.

Be sure to read the full Rule 24, interpretations of Rule 24, and definitions of important terms either on USGA.org or RandA.org.