However, the USGA Handicap System doesn’t want to eliminate a round that contains seventeen holes of valid scores if a “mulligan” was played on a single hole. So, for handicap purposes, the hole score made with the mulligan is tossed out and replaced with a hole score that is not considered out of the ordinary for the player, based on his Course Handicap. The adjustment for that hole becomes par, plus any handicap strokes the player should receive, as per Section 4-2 of the USGA Handicap System Manual (‘Holes Not Played or Not Played Under the Rules of Golf’).

For example, a player with a Course Handicap of eighteen receives a stroke on every hole, so the hole in which a mulligan was used would be par plus the one stroke, or a bogey.

Important to note: A score must NOT be posted to a USGA Handicap Index if a majority of the holes are not played under the principles of the Rules of Golf. In an 18-hole round, a majority would be 10 or more holes.

You’re playing a game with your buddy, and he wants to play the back tees (course / slope rating is 72.0/135) and you want to play the middle tees (course / slope rating is 70.0/126). Let’s assume that after converting your Handicap Indexes to the respective slopes on your two tees, you both wind up with Course Handicaps of 12. You’re ready to enjoy an equitable game, right?

WRONG!

Slope by itself doesn’t equalize the game when two sets of tees are in play. Because your buddy is playing a harder set of tees, and in essence a different golf course, as indicated by the course rating of 72.0, you will need to do one more adjustment, which is to give him – yes, as hard as it might be to accept, it’s a fact – TWO STROKES (the difference in the ratings, which is 72.0 – 70.0 = 2).

This procedure, described in Section 3-5 of the USGA Handicap System, must be completed for men vs. men from two different sets of tees, women vs. women from two different sets of tees, and women vs. men from the same set of tees. It is a Rule of Golf and cannot be waived.

20-2c/1 Dropped Ball Rolling Out of Prescribed Dropping Area
Q. A player taking relief under the Rules sometimes appears to obtain more relief than he is entitled to because the relevant Rule allows him some latitude within which to drop and the dropped ball then rolls some distance from the place where it was dropped. When a Rule prescribes an area within which a ball must be dropped, e.g., within one or two club-lengths of a particular point, should it be re-dropped if it rolls outside the area so prescribed?
A. No, not necessarily. Provided the ball has been correctly dropped (Rule 20-2a) and does not roll into any of the positions listed in Rule 20-2c, it is in play and must not be re-dropped.  In particular, under Rule 20-2c(vi), the ball may roll up to two club-lengths from the point where it first struck a part of the course when dropped, and this may result in its coming to rest an appreciable distance farther from the condition from which relief is being taken. For example:
(a) a ball dropped within two club-lengths of the margin of a lateral water hazard may come to rest almost four club-lengths from the hazard margin without the player being required to re-drop it under Rule 20-2c; and
(b) a ball dropped away from an immovable obstruction within one club-length of the nearest point of relief may come to rest almost three club-lengths from the nearest point of relief without the player being required to re-drop it under Rule 20-2c.

My question is, what is the penalty if the player chooses to re-drop the ball (or then possibly even placing it) even if the ball hasn’t rolled the required 2 club lengths from the initial ground contact spot, and then he/she plays out the hole having taken a re-drop that was not allowed under the rules? 

John S.