See below for the quiz questions for the "Playing the Course As You Find It" edition of the Short Course on the Rules. The first 9 questions (the "front nine") are easier questions and the second 9 questions (the "back nine") are more difficult. If you would like these questions in PDF form, they are available below.
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THE FRONT NINE
1) In stroke play, a stake supporting a small tree interferes with your swing. It cannot be readily removed, so you break it. What is the ruling?
(a) There is no penalty.
(b) You get one penalty stroke.
(c) You get the general penalty.
2) Which one of the following does not result in you getting a penalty when doing so improves the conditions affecting the stroke?
(a) Scooping a small amount of temporary water from the hole with a paper cup without touching the hole.
(b) Before playing a stroke from the general area near the putting green, you remove a small amount of dew from just in front of your ball on the line of play.
(c) Moving a natural object to see if it is loose so long as you return it as nearly as possible to its original position if found not to be loose.
3) You may take reasonable actions to mark the spot of your ball even if doing so improves the conditions affecting the stroke.
(a) True
(b) False
4) Before taking your stance, you remove a stake defining out of bounds that interferes with your line of play. You replace the stake before your stroke. What is the ruling?
(a) There is no penalty.
(b) You get one penalty stroke.
(c) You get the general penalty.
5) Before playing an approach shot over a greenside bunker to a tucked hole location, you walk 30 yards from your ball and into a greenside bunker to assess your line of play. While you are returning to your ball, your caddie rakes your footprints. What is the ruling?
(a) There is no penalty.
(b) You get one penalty stroke.
(c) You get the general penalty.
6) In Four-Ball stroke play, you take an action in relation to your partner’s ball that improves your partner’s conditions affecting the stroke. The action taken does not improve your conditions. What is the ruling?
(a) Your partner gets the general penalty; you get no penalty.
(b) You get the general penalty; your partner gets no penalty.
(c) You and your partner both get the general penalty.
7) Which one of the following statements is false?
(a) In a penalty area, you may improve the area of your intended swing in fairly taking your stance.
(b) In the general area, you may improve the lie of your ball in pressing down a replaced divot.
(c) Within the teeing area, you may remove a weed growing in the teeing area to prevent it from interfering with your backswing.
8) You intend to take relief for a ball that lies in ground under repair on a slope. Before taking relief, you break off a branch from a bush that is located a few yards from the relief area and down the slope because you are concerned your ball might roll down the hill after taking relief. Which one of the following is true?
(a) There is no penalty. You have not improved the conditions affecting your stroke.
(b) You can avoid penalty, but only if you decide not to take relief and play your ball as it lies in the ground under repair.
(c) You get the general penalty.
9) After your ball came to rest in the general area near a bunker, your conditions affecting the stroke are worsened by a dog that ran through the bunker and kicked up some sand. Which one of the following is false?
(a) You may restore the original conditions as nearly as possible.
(b) If sand ended up on the ball when the conditions were worsened, you may mark the spot of the ball and lift, clean and replace the ball on its original spot.
(c) If the worsened conditions cannot be easily restored, you may place the original ball or another ball in the nearest spot that is not nearer the hole and within one club-length of the original spot where the conditions affecting the stroke are most similar.
THE BACK NINE
10) Before playing your ball from under a tree, you hook one tree branch that interfered with the backswing underneath another branch, improving the area of intended swing. Before the stroke, another player questions your actions. What is the ruling in stroke play?
(a) There is no penalty so long as the branch returns on its own when it is unhooked or it is returned as nearly as possible to its original position and, in doing so, the improvement created by moving the branch in breach of Rule 8.1a is eliminated before you make the stroke.
(b) You get no penalty so long as you eliminate the improvement by returning the branch to its exact original position. If you do not return the branch to its exact original position before making the stroke, you get the general penalty.
(c) You get the general penalty and cannot avoid that penalty.
11) In which one of the following situations are you not allowed to restore the original conditions under Rule 8.1d?
(a) Your stance is worsened when another player makes a stroke that creates a large divot hole.
(b) Your line of play is worsened by a cart driving across it.
(c) Your lie is worsened by another player’s stroke after you lifted your ball under Rule 15.3b (Ball Anywhere on Course Interfering with Play).
(d) Your area of intended swing is worsened by a branch that became partially detached when a spectator walked through the same area while searching for another player’s ball.
12) You attempt to lay up short of a penalty area fronting the green. While you are walking toward the penalty area, your caddie is lagging a bit behind and notices two large divot holes in the fairway and quickly repairs both by returning the divots that were left nearby into the divot holes. When your caddie catches up, you have learned the approach shot took an unfortunate bounce off a sprinkler head and ended up in the penalty area, so you decide to take penalty area relief under Rule 17.1d(2) (Back-on-the-Line Relief). You drop a ball near the reference line and it rolls back and to the left about two feet, coming to rest within the relief area established by where the ball hit the ground. You play the next stroke, and in doing so are standing on one of the large divots that your caddie had recently replaced. How many total penalty strokes do you get, if any?
(a) 0
(b) 1
(c) 2
(d) 3
13) Your ball comes to rest in bounds but very close to a large boundary stake. Before playing, you remove the stake from behind your ball, improving the area of intended swing. When you removed the stake, the stake broke into two pieces (one piece is about a foot long and the other is about 3 feet long). Before the stroke, another player questions your actions. What is the ruling in stroke play?
(a) There is no penalty so long as you tape together the two parts of the boundary stake and replace it back to its original position.
(b) There is no penalty so long as you can and do eliminate the improvement before making the stroke. If this can be done by replacing either piece of the broken stake, then either piece may be used to do so.
(c) There is no penalty if you take another nearby full-length stake and place it in the hole so that the improvement is eliminated before making the stroke.
(d) Because the stake broke into two pieces, you cannot avoid getting the general penalty.
14) Before playing the ball from the general area, you notice that your left foot for the intended stance would be in a deep divot hole. You find the divot from that hole and improve the intended stance by replacing it in the hole. You then decide to play in a different direction and the new stance is unaffected by your previous actions. At that point, another player questions your actions. What is the ruling in stroke play?
(a) You get no penalty because by changing the stance you are considered to have eliminated the improvement.
(b) You could avoid penalty so long as you eliminate the original improvement by removing the divot before making the stroke. If you do not remove the divot before the stroke, you get the general penalty.
(c) You get the general penalty and cannot avoid that penalty.
15) Your ball comes to rest in a position where there are various artificial objects on your line of play. Most objects are movable obstructions but a sponsor sign has been defined as a temporary immovable obstruction by the Committee. Without any instruction, but while you are watching and waiting for the green to clear, another player removes a number of the objects believing that they are in your way, including a directional sign, some roping and staking and the sponsor sign, which you and the other player both believe to be a movable obstruction. You then make your stroke to the green. What is the ruling?
(a) You get the general penalty and the other player gets no penalty.
(b) The other player gets the general penalty and you get no penalty.
(c) You and the other player both get the general penalty.
(d) Neither of you get a penalty.
16) True or False: Your ball is embedded in its own pitch-mark in the fringe just off the putting green. After lifting the ball and before taking relief, you tap down the pitch-mark to care for the course and then realize the repair of the pitch-mark could help you if the ball came to rest in a position where you might have to play through it. The dropped ball hits and comes to rest in the relief area and you play a low running chip shot directly over the repaired pitch-mark. You get the general penalty under Rule 8.1a for improving your conditions affecting the stroke.
(a) True
(b) False
17) In Four-Ball stroke play, your ball comes to rest in the fringe between the putting green and a bunker. Your partner’s ball comes to rest in the bunker behind your ball. Your partner plays from the bunker and deposits sand on and around your ball. Which one of the following is correct?
(a) You must play the ball as it lies since the worsening of the lie was a result of your partner’s actions.
(b) Only you may restore the lie by removing the sand and lifting and cleaning the ball if necessary.
(c) Either you or your partner may restore the lie by removing the sand and lifting and cleaning the ball if necessary.
18) True or False: Your ball comes to rest in the fairway with a worm cast immediately behind the ball. Before playing the ball, you press down the cast, improving your lie and area of intended swing. You get no penalty.
(a) True
(b) False
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