Rules

The Basics

Governing rules

All play is governed by official USGA rules unless otherwise noted.

Tees

The orange tees at every course this year — 6,104 at the Monument, 6,501 at the Alpine, and a shade over 6,200 for either combination at Bay Harbor.

2024 Stated as a principle rather than a colour: per the Tee it Forward initiative, the tees closest to 6,000 yards.

2022 Blue was the default at both courses, and white for the three-club shamble. The group could play a shorter set by agreement, but any objection put it back to blue.

What wins it

Twenty-nine points across six rounds — five at five points each, singles at nine — and fifteen takes the cup.

The Thursday morning round that opens the cup is an exhibition and carries none of them.

Handicaps

Your Rowdy Cup Handicap is the number everything else is worked out from. It is set once and carried through the whole cup.

The Rowdy Cup Handicap

Your Grint or WHS handicap multiplied by 0.9, locked in for the rest of the tournament.

Every round is handicapped, whatever the format.

2021 and 2022 The multiplier was 0.8, not 0.9.

2021 Only best ball and singles were handicapped; the scramble and shamble were played straight up.

How often you have played

New in 2026: the multiplier can move with how much golf you have actually played, on the theory that a handicap built on four rounds is not the same number as one built on forty.

Ten or more rounds in the bank but fewer than four this year, or fewer than ten in the bank and more than four this year, takes 0.8 instead of the universal 0.9. Both at once and it is 0.7 — “The Big $”.

Nobody is on either this year: the whole field has played enough, so every man takes the universal 0.9 and the index on the Big Board is the one he plays off.

Course handicap

Your base handicap is applied to the course, then multiplied by that format’s adjustment. The formulas are on the Big Board.

Strokes

The differential is given to the higher-handicapped player, one stroke on each of the hardest holes. A 14 against a 10 strokes on the four hardest.

In best ball, all three higher-handicapped players receive strokes against the lowest in the same way.

Play

Druthers

Two shots off the first tee of each round, except in scramble and shamble.

Maximum strokes

Double par, and then pick up.

Picking up before holing out costs you your handicap strokes on that hole: hole out for 8 on a par 4 and you can record a net 7 if you stroke there, but pick up on the 8th and you cannot. If you receive more than one stroke on the hole, pick up at double par plus one.

2015 You played to 10 on a hole and then picked up, with no handicap condition attached.

Gimmees

Only if your opponents give you the putt. Do not assume.

Shotgun mulligans

Two per eighteen holes, and the price is a can.

Tee shots only. Declare it immediately, before anyone else has teed off. Shotgun a carbonated drink of your choice, hit last in the foursome, and play the mulligan ball through the hole.

2024 and earlier The price was a beer. 2026 is the first packet to say the can need not be beer, or alcoholic at all.

2015 One per nine holes rather than two per eighteen.

Trouble

Hazards

A ball in a hazard — red or yellow stakes — may be played as it lies.

Otherwise take one stroke and drop: as far back as you like on the line from the point of entry through the hole, or two club lengths from the point of entry.

2021 and earlier Only the line-back drop was offered; the two-club-length option is not in those packets.

Out of bounds

A ball out of bounds — white stakes — cannot be played as it lies, even if you find it.

One stroke, then drop as far back as you like on the line from the point of entry through the hole, or two club lengths from the point of entry.

Lost ball

One stroke, and drop as far back as you like on the line from the point of entry through the hole.

Relief

Scramble and shamble: one club length from where the ball comes to rest, within the same cut. Propping it up inside that is fine.

Best ball and match play: lift, clean and place anywhere in the fairway, rolling the ball six inches either way. In the rough it is played as it lies.

Obstructions

Relief from anything man-made that is not a permanent, intentional feature of the course — a sprinkler, a temporary sign, grounds equipment, ground under repair.

A bridge, a permanent stake, a divot, a tree or a sign is not relief. Play it as it lies.

Cart paths

Play it as it lies, or drop within one club length of the nearest point of relief, no nearer the hole.

Running the Cup

Pace of play

The cup is always on the host course’s standard tee sheet, so keeping pace is on us. Stay with the group in front.

“If you’re good, play fast. If you’re struggling, play faster.”

2024 Put less kindly: “If you’re good, play fast. If you stink, play faster.”

Pairings

Captains decide pairings for every round before each day. The draft specifics and the order are theirs to settle.

The next day’s two rounds are drawn and announced at nine the night before.

2015 to 2021 Captains placed players into slots in a snaking order for the first round, and between rounds the team that was losing chose whether to place first or second.

The Odd Pair

Eighteen men do not divide into pairs, so every round but the last carries one singles match alongside them — one point, your own ball through the hole, low net wins it.

The Odd Pair goes on the draft board with every other slot, and nobody plays it twice.

Substitutions

After the first round of a day, each team has up to two individual substitutions.

The trailing team may substitute for the second round of the day, and the leading team then has a right of rebuttal — either following that switch or making a different one. A trailing team that wants a switch left alone can spend both substitutions on one man to protect him, and the leading team can then only make two separate substitutions of its own.

2026 The current packet carries no substitution rule at all. This is 2024’s, and it stands until the captains say otherwise.

Tie breaker

A hockey shootout: teams alternate until every man on both sides has putted, and the most made putts takes the cup.

2022 was settled this way Tied 12–12, the Bucket Brigade won the putt-off — the only cup so far decided on it.

2021 and 2024 The same shootout, but with the count written down: ten a side in 2021, eight from 2024. A fixed number goes stale as the field changes, so it is every man on the card now.

2015 A three-hole match-play playoff, every player playing one hole for a point, with low combined team score in the singles as the backup if the light went.