Section 5: Rules of Play
Format
- Regular-season tournaments: typically 54-72 hole stroke play; team scoring
- Conference championship: same stroke-play format, with conference-defined scoring
- NCAA Championship: 4-day stroke play (72 holes) reduces to top 8 teams + top individuals; the top 8 teams advance to match play bracket
Ball Moved at Rest (updated for 2026)
Rule 9.4b now distinguishes penalty severity by the player's awareness. If a player causes their ball at rest to move and fails to replace it before their next stroke, but was neither aware nor should reasonably have been aware that the ball had moved or might have moved, the player incurs only the one-stroke penalty under Rule 9.4b if it later becomes known that they caused the movement — they are not treated as having played from a wrong place. If the player was aware their ball at rest might have moved and still failed to replace it before their next stroke, the general penalty (two strokes / loss of hole) for playing from a wrong place under Rule 14.7a applies instead once it becomes known they caused the movement.
Pace of Play
- NCAA pace-of-play policy similar to USGA: each group has a timing par; bad-time accumulation triggers stroke penalties
Suspension of Play
- 1-tone air horn: normal suspension; 3-tone: immediate suspension (lightning); short+steady: resumption