Dear Golf Nut, my regular golf foursome normally plays ready golf. I recently played with a couple of guys who said it was a penalty stroke for hitting out of turn. I didn’t think this was the case, is it?

It really depends on what format you were playing. In stroke play, there is no penalty for playing out of turn. So if you were playing regular stroke play, in a competitive golf match or not, there is no penalty.

I personally am a big believer of “ready golf”. It speeds up play and just makes sense. We normally play that way, otherwise some or our rounds would take forever. Some of the guys that I sometimes play with would look for their golf ball forever and we would never finish. “Ready golf” puts the pressure on to find that golf ball or move on.

As a side note, I read an interesting story about the opposite of “ready golf”, i.e. the golfer who is away goes first. Supposedly in a tournament, Lee Trevino was in a tough duel with another golfer. When they got to the green on a particular golf hole, Lee was on the opposite end of the green from the flag and his competitor was in a sand trap right next to the hole. Most golfers, if everyone else is on the green, let the person in the trap take the next shot.

Trevino, who was technically the next up based on being away, putted. His competitor was getting ready to use his sand wedge and was oblivious to what Lee was doing. As the story goes, Trevino sank the putt and his opponent looked up in surprise and shock and ended up so rattled that Trevino won going away. Something you might want to tuck away for a day when the golf clubs are failing you and you need an edge.