I am often asked what golf rule gets broken or ignored the most by amateur golfers? We all see in our daily rounds of golf that most golfers don’t know the complicated rules very well. But what basic rule is abused the most?

My experience is that stroke and distance is the one basic rule of golf that gets ignored the most. The two most common occurrences that bring this rule into play are a shot out of bounds or a lost golf ball.

I’ve heard a lot of rationalization for not taking stroke and distance—to avoid slowing down the group, nobody does it, local rules, etc. But I see this abused so much that I really wonder if golfers really understand the rules of golf.

Many of you know this, but a quick review probably couldn’t hurt. If, during your round of golf, you hit a shot that looks like it might have gone out of bounds or looks like the ball may be tough to find, you should immediately take your golf club and hit a provisional shot before going to see what happened with your first shot.

Then go and check out your situation and see if you must play the provisional ball. A lot of amateur golfers, however, convince themselves that they can find the ball or that it really didn’t go out of bounds. Then when they get to where their shot landed, they are reluctant to go back to the original spot to hit a provisional ball.

I’m not being critical of these golfers, but if you are going to the trouble of keeping your score and turning it in for handicap purposes, shouldn’t you keep the CORRECT score?