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<\/p>\nTrue story: An amateur golfer had his son clean his golf clubs the night before a round. The son, not a golfer, wanted to do a really good job and make them nice and shiny.<\/p>\n
He used Armor All on the grips.<\/p>\n
Whoops.<\/p>\n
Pro tip: Windex helps remove it. But setting that well intentioned disaster aside, today\u2019s topic is something you might have seen over the weekend at the Barracuda Championship near Lake Tahoe. If you didn\u2019t get your golf fill after Scottie Scheffler\u2019s performance in the Open Championship, you might have noticed one golfer repeatedly using powder to keep his hands dry on the grips of his clubs.<\/p>\n
His name is Jacques Kruyswijk (above, right), and he\u2019s done this at more than one event to avoid a slip that could lead to a bogey or worse. With the money that pros play for, it\u2019s certainly understandable that he would want to leave nothing to chance.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve never seen anyone do that, you might wonder what the Rules of Golf has to say about whether that gives a player an illegal advantage. Turning to Rule 4.3, you\u2019ll find it says it\u2019s against the rules to use \u201cequipment (other than a club or a ball) that artificially eliminates or reduces the need for a skill or judgment that is essential to the challenge of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
When you watch players battle the elements on a rainy Irish afternoon, you might notice that they can\u2019t hit shots while their caddie holds an umbrella over their heads. Staying dry while other players are getting wet would definitely be an advantage. So how is powder on the hands any different?<\/p>\n
Well, it is according to the rules, Rule 4.3(a)5 to be specific. You can use resin, powders and other moisturizing or drying agents, or even wrap a towel or handkerchief around the grip. If the answer to why this is allowed isn\u2019t obvious, you must have forgotten about Judge Smails throwing a golf club in \u201cCaddyshack\u201d and nearly killing a nearby member having lunch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Believe it or not, safety does play an important part in how the rule book has evolved. It\u2019s why you don\u2019t have to hit a shot next to a sleeping alligator and it\u2019s why you don\u2019t have to swing a club that might turn into a javelin. Getting back to Kruyswijk, he used the powder at the Magical Kenya Open on the DP World Tour and still managed to drop the club!<\/p>\n
MORE GOLF DIGEST RULES REVIEWS <\/p>\n
What do I do if my ball just hit another ball on the green?<\/p>\n
What happens if my three-minute search for a lost ball gets interrupted?<\/p>\n
I hit myself with my own ball. Is that a penalty anymore?<\/p>\n
What exactly is an embedded ball?<\/p>\n
Touching the green to see if it\u2019s wet: Penalty or no?<\/p>\n
I hit a horrible shot. I\u2019m way better off if I don\u2019t find it. Can I just declare it lost?<\/p>\n
Does a ball have to be unplayable to declare it unplayable?<\/p>\n
I accidentally hit my ball with a practice stroke \u2026 does it count?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m on the green. My opponent is not. Who\u2019s away?<\/p>\n
I bent my putter and it actually works better. Can I still use it?<\/p>\n
Somebody just picked up my golf ball! Now what?<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"True story: An amateur golfer had his son clean his golf clubs the night before a round. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-20121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}