Last weekend the CGA held the annual Parent/Child Championship at beautiful Frost Creek in Eagle, CO. This tournament provides one of the only times the CGA plays the Foursomes stroke play format. Other than seeing it at the President’s Cup and the Ryder Cup, this format is not one you will likely see during a competitive event. In this format, the side (2 players/team) plays only one ball at each hole. Partners rotate teeing off from each teeing ground and then play alternately until the ball is holed.
During the event, a player was to hit a shot that was very close to an area of thick, waist-high native grass, and as a left-hander, his stance would be completely obstructed by the native grass. His father and partner, a right-handed player, called for Ruling to ask if his partner could use his right handed 7-iron to play the shot. Our answer was that was, per Rule 4, a player must only play with the 14 clubs he has selected for play in that round. Even though they were partners, neither player could use a club that had been selected by his partner for that round.
However, in Rule 4 it does go on to say that partners may share clubs, if the total number they share and have access to is no greater than 14 clubs. A good example is that if a you are playing a match and your partner shows up to the golf course and forgot his golf clubs, you can share out of your own bag as long as each of you only has access to 14 clubs.
If the Rules of Golf did allowed partners to share clubs without restriction, then instead of a player having access to only the 14 clubs selected for play, he could have access to 28 clubs.
