I play approximately 20-25 golf tournaments per year. Many golfers play more, but even if you play in a weekly league, or only play a company tournament against your peers, there are a few things which will help you play better under tournament conditions. These are but a few tips based on my own experience. If you have any tournament tips you would like to share, please send them to me.
Know The Rules
The rules of golf are sometimes complex and confusing. I'm not saying that it's necessary to know the rules line by line, but you should know all the major rules, such as how to proceed when you hit your ball out-of-bounds or into a hazard. Pick-up a copy of the Rules of Golf (published by the USGA) and go through it when you have some time. Keep a copy in your bag and it'll always be on hand if questions should arise.
When In Doubt
Sometimes rules questions come up during a tournament and it's not possible to have a rules official settle them. When this happens, play two balls through the end of the hole, under the options you believe you have. At the conclusion of your round you can find a rules official and determine which score is valid.
Know The Course
If the course you're going to play is unfamiliar, try to get there ahead of time for a practice round. But this often isn't possible. If you know someone who has played the course before, ask them for any helpful tips they might have. Even if you can't get a look at the course or find someone who has, you still should check with the pro shop prior to your round. Often they'll have yardage books available for a small fee. In addition to yardage, these books often give you tips on playing individual holes. There's also a resource you'll have for almost every round that's often overlooked... the scorecard. It will give you any local rules (knowing these rules can often help you save a stroke or two).
Keep Your Own Score
Even if you're one of those guys who always knows his score relative to bogey, or perhaps even par, you should keep a separate scorecard. When it comes time to turn in the official scorecard at the end of your round, this gives you a way to clear up any wrong scores. I've lost strokes in a tournament because I couldn't rememember my hole-by-hole score to correct the person keeping score for my group. Don't let this happen to you.
Mark Your Balls
If your tournament follows the rules of golf, this simple step could save you strokes. You should always be able to identify your ball. I use a red pen made by Titleist to put a simple red "89" on every ball I play, so that I can avoid any question that I might be playing a wrong ball. But a laundry marker or felt pen will do fine. Most serious tournaments will insist on each player having marked his balls and will ask you to show your mark to your opponents, so save yourself a last-minute hassle and put some form of identifying mark on your balls before you go to the tee.
Etiquette
This could be an entire page all by itself. Golf etiquette is, in my opinion, the most overlooked part of golf. There are many particular items to be concerned with, but all of them have one thing in common: consideration of other golfers. Try to be ready to play at all times. Don't talk too much. Try not to move or make noise while others are hitting. Don't walk on another golfer's line on the green. Try to decide on your line of a putt before it's your turn. The list goes on, but you can avoid most etiquette problems by just trying to show common courtesy to those around you.
"Ready golf" or "Honors"?
Depending on the seriousness of the tournament, you will either be playing as soon as your are ready to hit (usually called "ready golf") or you'll be playing in a pre-determined order. Ready golf is simple, just be ready to hit and do so when it works within the flow of a round. Honors is more specific. The order of play will be determined at the first tee, usually by a coin toss. During the playing of a hole, the golfer furthest from the hole hits first. On the next hole, the teeing order is based upon score of the previous hole, with the golfer who had the lowest score going first and the order kept for any ties. One commonly overlooked honors situation is that around the green, the golfer furthest from hole hits first, whether or not they are on the green. In the interests of speed-of-play, usually all golfers off the green play before those on the green, regardless of distance, so that the flag must be tended to only once.
