Can You Play Music From A Speaker During A Golf Competition?

I bet this is one that golf’s early rulemakers never thought they’d have to consider, with the unwieldiness and immobility of the gramophones of old making such a notion a non-starter regardless of legality or otherwise.

But, as is so often the case, the advance of technology makes it a question that could well need addressing these days, following the arrival of Bluetooth earbuds and, more pertinently to our headline question, the best portable golf Bluetooth speakers, some of which really dress themselves up in golf clothing by also offering yardage information and distances.

We’re not generally addressing here whether you should play music from a speaker during a golf competition from an etiquette perspective, but whether or not you can from a Rules perspective. We’ll all have our own views on the former, and mine remains in the ‘thanks, but no thanks’ camp. Among the many reasons I play golf, getting away from the noise of everyday life would sit pretty near the top of the list, so the last thing I want to hear on the golf course is someone else’s music.

But what about the legality of it from a Rules perspective? Well, essentially, they say no problem subject to a couple of things you can’t use music to assist you with. It’s probably easiest if I simply cut and paste the relevant Rule here relating to audio and video – Rule 4.3a(4) – which states:

Allowed
Listening to audio or watching video on matters unrelated to the competition being played (such as a news report or background music). But in doing so, consideration should be shown to others (see Rule 1.2).
Not Allowed
Listening to music or other audio to eliminate distractions or to help with swing tempo.

There’s then an additional element about video in the ‘not allowed’ section, but it’s not really relevant to our question here.

If we then cross-reference with Rule 1.2, which addresses standards of player conduct, what does this have to say on the matter? Well, the relevant wording for us in that Rule is about showing consideration to others “by not distracting the play of another player”.

This, of course, makes it a bit of a judgement call and takes us into that slightly uncomfortable realm of one person’s views or words against another’s. Under the Rules, there’s no penalty anyway unless the ‘offence’ is sufficient to be considered “serious misconduct”, in which case the player of the music could potentially be disqualified “for acting contrary to the spirit of the game”.

However, given that serious misconduct is “player behaviour that is so far removed from what is expected in golf that the most severe sanction of removing a player from the competition is justified”, such an outcome would seem fairly unlikely.

One would hope that golfers wouldn’t have music playing loudly if they knew it was annoying or distracting others out on the course, but we also know that people are different and there will undoubtedly me some more than happy to challenge what they see as golf’s outdated status quo.

You will have to make your own call on that, but in the meantime, some will be pleased to learn that Model Local Rule G-8 is available to committees, allowing them to prohibit or restrict the use of audio and video devices:

Model Local Rule G-8
Rule 4.3a(4) is modified in this way: During a round, a player must not listen to or watch content of any nature on a personal audio or video device.

Penalty for Breach of Local Rule – see Rule 4.3.

If we now head back to Rule 4.3, we will find that the penalty is the general penalty for a first breach and disqualification for a second breach.

This penalty would be the same if you were deemed to be “listening to music or other audio to eliminate distractions or to help with swing tempo”, so if you had found and perfected golf’s equivalent of The Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive for carrying out CPR and tried to use it in a competition, it would be two shots in stroke play or loss of hole in match play the first time, then the long walk back to the clubhouse for a repeat offence.