Learning the rules has its advantages. Not only can it help you avoid costly penalties, but it can also give you tools to use to your benefit in certain situations.

In this episode of Rules School, we’ll be looking at four rules found in the Official Rules of Disc Golf (ORDG) that may help during your next round.

Optional Relief with No Penalty

Nobody likes adding out-of-bounds strokes to their score, but if you do go OB, the last thing you want is a difficult lie or awkward angle to make your scramble to save par even more difficult.

Consider taking advantage of the rule (ORDG 803.02) that allows you to move back as far as you’d like along the line of play, especially if there is a spot that makes your next throw more manageable.

If you have received a penalty throw, either because you have landed Out-of-bounds, or because the two-meter rule was in-effect (ORDG 805.02) and your disc landed more than two meters above the playing surface, you may take optional relief from your new lie without an additional penalty.

To do this, mark your new lie from where the disc went out of bounds (up to a meter from the OB line, see Rules School Episode 6: Out-of-Bounds), or below your disc that is stuck above two meters, and then mark another new lie anywhere along the line of play as far back as you care to go.

Abandoned Throw

The abandoned throw rule (ORDG 809.01) allows you to abandon your most recent throw by declaring your intention to the group and re-throwing from your previous lie with a one-throw penalty.

Penalty throws incurred by the abandoned throw are disregarded, so if you choose to abandon a throw that has gone out of bounds, missed a mandatory, or been penalized for any other reason, you are not penalized twice.

Only the abandoned throw and one penalty throw are counted in your score.

Approximate Lie

If you do decide to abandon your throw but have already removed your previous mark, don’t worry - there is never a penalty for accidentally moving your mark before a shot is thrown. Your group will need to decide on an approximate lie, and you can play from there with no added strokes.

Provisional Throw

One of the most useful rules for players to understand and utilize is the provisional throw rule (ORDG 809.02).

A provisional throw is an extra throw that is not added to a player’s score if it is not ultimately used in the completion of the hole.

Provisional throws can be used to either save time, if, for example, the status of your previous throw cannot be readily determined because it may be lost, out-of-bounds, or have missed the mandatory, or to appeal a ruling when there are different resulting lies.

Saving Time: Let’s say you’re playing to an island green, and the course rules say that if you miss the island you are to play from a drop zone halfway up the fairway. You throw your tee shot, and it is unclear whether you landed safe on the island.

Rather than walking all the way to the island, you may choose to throw a provisional shot from the drop zone and then walk up to the island to see if your initial throw landed safe. If the throw was, in-fact, safe, then the provisional throw is disregarded and you would proceed to complete the hole from the lie behind your initial throw.

Appeal a Ruling: A set of provisional throws may be taken to complete a hole as part of an appeal when a player in the group disagrees with a group decision and an Official is not readily available, or if a player in the group wishes to appeal the decision of an Official.

Let’s say that your disc lands on a concrete slab next to a lake. The caddy book says that the lake is out-of-bounds, but your group is not sure if the concrete is OB as well. In this case, you can call a provisional and proceed to play from both lies: behind your marker disc on the concrete as well as from the lie marked where the disc last crossed OB (if the slab is considered out-of-bounds).

You should then proceed to complete the hole from both lies using two completely separate sets of throws. The scores from both sets of throws are recorded. Once the appeal has been resolved, only the score from the correct set of throws is counted.

Note: You must declare your intention to throw a provisional to the group before throwing!

Class Dismissed!

For more information visit the Official Rules of Disc Golf and be sure to check back next Thursday for the final installment of PDGA Rules School.

See you out on the course!