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Definition: Serious Breach

In stroke play, when playing from a wrong place could give the player a significant advantage compared to the stroke to be made from the right place.

In making this comparison to decide if there was a serious breach, the factors to be taken into account include:

• The difficulty of the stroke,
• The distance of the ball from the hole,
• The effect of obstacles on the line of play, and
• The conditions affecting the stroke.

The concept of a serious breach does not apply in match play, because a player loses the hole if he or she plays from a wrong place.

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