Dear Golf Nut, I play in a men's league and one golfer I play with always lays a club down on the tee box and uses it to line up toward the tee before he actually hits the golf ball with his driver. After teeing off he picks up the club and puts it back in his bag. Is this legal? Thanks for all the golf help.

An interesting question because I have also seen this done before. You see it a lot on the driving range, but what about on the golf course during an actual round? Well, yes I have seen it done on tee boxes and I didn't think anything about it the first few times that I saw golfers doing this.

But here is what the Rules of Golf say about this. Rule 8 deals with Advice: Indicating line of play. Now if you look specifically at Rule 8-2a, here is what it says: Except on the putting green, a player may have the line of play indicated to him by anyone, but no one may be positioned by the player on or close to the line or an extension of the line beyond the hole while the stroke is being made. Any mark placed by the player or with his knowledge to indicate the line must be removed before the stroke is made.

Now when I read this, it doesn't seem to talk about a golf club laying on the ground. It says that no "one", I assume meaning a person, can be positioned by the golfer during the stroke and any mark must be removed. So what is the problem with a golf club lying on the ground. This rule seem to indicate that you are ok.

But you also have to look a little deeper in the rules and look at Decision 8-2a/1. This decision says that the golfer can lay the club on the ground to help with his alignment as long as he picks it up before playing his stroke. Otherwise it is a violation of Rule 8-2a noted above. Now it doesn't explain exactly why it is a violation, but it clearly states what you can or cannot do.

So it is not legal to do what your buddy is doing. Hope you won the bet!

Good golfing.