Thank you all for attending the Bearna Club Rules Presentation.  As many of the new rules as possible were covered and here are a few additional points:

• No penalty if a ball strikes you, your partner, your caddie or equipment.  Play the ball as it lies.
• No penalty for casually leaning on a club in a bunker as long as you are not intentionally testing the condition of the sand.
• If your ball is still in the teeing area after a stroke – that is, it is at rest in the rectangular area between the tee markers and 2 club lengths behind them then the ball may be re-teed without penalty.  If it is mis-hit and comes to rest forward of the tee markers, play the ball as it lies as it is now in the general area or re-tee under penalty.
• Free relief from any abnormal course condition is for interference to stance and area of intended swing as well as to the lie of the ball
• In taking free relief from any abnormal course condition in a bunker or on the putting green you may take maximum available relief if you cannot find a spot that gives you full relief from the condition. 

In answer to a question from the floor, you are penalised one stroke if you move a loose impediment and the ball moves anywhere on the course except the putting green.  However if your ball is at rest in a penalty area, you have no intention of playing it and decide to take relief under penalty outside the penalty area then you may lift the ball and if you move loose impediments in lifting it there is no penalty as you are not playing the ball as it lies.  Had you decided to play in the penalty area and moved loose impediments around the ball then you would be penalised one stroke.

Download the 2019 Rules of Golf App to your phone for easy access to the rules while on the course.