Gary Moran on how a knowledge of the rules will increase your enjoyment of the game and may save a few shots

Play the ball as it lies. Play the course as you find it And if you can't do either, do what is fair. But to do what is fair, you need to know the Rules of Golf.

That little motto is printed on the back of every one of the four million or so copies of the Rules of Golf (2000) which have been distributed worldwide by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.

It encapsulates the spirit of the game, and it is so simple - except for that kick in the last line:

"you need to know the Rules of Golf".

To be a true expert you not only need to understand the rules as contained in the freely distributed books, you also need to purchase the weightier Decisions on the Rules of Golf, jointly published by the R&A and the USGA.

The latest 2002-2003 edition runs to 560 pages and is golf's case law, designed to help players, committees and governing bodies to correctly interpret and implement the Rules. It tells you how to proceed in some truly unlikely scenarios, but also draws on some high-profile cases that have occurred in professional tournaments.

To see how to really clock up a big score, imagine yourself on the last hole of a trying round. Your drive rolls into a big spit deposited by one of the uncouth threesome who have been holding you up all day.

Fortunately, Decision 25/6 states that "saliva may be treated as either an abnormal ground condition or a loose impediment at the option of the player."

So you have the dubious privilege of cleaning your ball without penalty, but your blood is boiling even before the long-hitter in the game behind tees off and his ball reaches your bag. In anger you hit it back.

Have you "played a wrong ball" or even "practised during the course of a stipulated round?" In fact, neither, but in equity (Decision 1-4/4) you are penalised two shots anyway.

Your second shot gets near the green but leaves you with a nasty chip over a bunker. The first mistake you make is to go ahead and rake some footprints in the sand. Not only does that betray your negative thinking, it also costs you another two shots (Decision 13-2/28, "Improving the Line of Play").

Rattled, you stuff the chip into the bunker where it settles near a half-eaten pear. Can you remove the offending fruit without penalty? Not according to Decision 23/3: "A pear is a natural object. When detached from a tree it is a loose impediment.

"The fact that a pear has been half-eaten and there is no pear tree in the vicinity does not alter the status of the pear."

Your first attempt gets the pear - but not the ball - out of the trap, prompting you to strike the sand in anger (two strokes).

Your next effort makes the green, but it's "one of those days" and there is a small mushroom growing on the line of your putt.

Here Decision 16-1a/15 gives you some respite, as you are entitled to "discontinue play and request the committee to remove the mushroom. The committee should comply."

Your putt rests on the lip of the hole but doesn't drop within the allowed 10 seconds, so you take your stance and prepare to tap in. Then the cursed ball drops. Not only do you have to take it out and replace it, you have to add another penalty stroke (Decision 18-2b/10).

You sign the card but, dispirited, you don't bother to enter your scores in the computer. At least until the next edition, Decision 6-6b/8 means that the committee can't disqualify you for that.

Decisions on the Rules of Golf 2002-2003 - published by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and the United States Golf Association (€22.50)