There is nothing simple about golf. Playing it can make you crazy. Playing by its hundreds of rules can be just as agonizing.
And yet we come back to play. This month, the U.S. Golf Association and R&A came back with their “modernized” rules, calling it the most significant revision in 35 years.
R&A stands for the Royal and Ancient Club, the sport’s ruling body everywhere but the U.S. and Mexico. It is located in St. Andrews, Scotland, where the iconic “Old Course” became public in 1552. The first official rules book came nearly 200 years later.
Its age shows with hundreds of rules, sub-rules and hidden rules that, in an effort to cover every possible thing that could happen on any course in the world, are often laughable.
The USGA offers a 160-page Player’s Edition for the new rules. It includes the 70 new defined terms (for example, casual water is now temporary water and burrowing animal is animal) that form the foundation of the revision.
It is small enough to go in your golf bag and provides 95 percent of what you need, according to John Morrissett, who was in on the start of this revision and worked in Rules for 17 years at the USGA. He helped at this week’s Hawaii State Women’s Golf Foundation Rules Workshop, which drew about 60 people. The HSWGA and HSGA are both running workshops on all islands.
There also is a larger rule book that covers everything and aimed more at administrators, along with the official guide of interpretations, formerly known as “decisions.”
For the sake of time, common sense and saving our sanity, the USGA and R&A put its major revision into play Jan. 1, after allowing time for folks to try and process changes and provide feedback.
When the “proposed 24 new Rules” — reduced from the previous 34 — were introduced in 2017, the R&A’s David Rickman said, “Our aim is to make the Rules easier to understand and to apply for all golfers. We have looked at every Rule to try to find ways to make them more intuitive and straightforward, and we believe we have identified many significant improvements.
“It is important that the Rules continue to evolve and remain in tune with the way the modern game is played, but we have been careful not to change the game’s longstanding principles and character.”
That means the upper-case Rules remain more like a master’s thesis than a term paper. Confusion will still be common, but at least there is now an effort to focus on common sense, emphasizing a user-friendly style, bulleted lists, diagrams, fairness and high tech.
The only way to truly learn the rules is to power through the pages (or do something wrong with someone who did), but in 2019 you can download a free app for that.
The USGA (usga.org/rules) and R&A (randa.org/rules) websites have multiple explanations, videos and graphics, which are easier to understand than any book.
Morrissett says there are 31 major changes, but 80 percent of the content is identical to the previous Rules of Golf, with a different vocabulary.
He calls it an “attempt not to simplify but to modernize” and provide a more common-sense approach and be more fair to players. For instance, drops are from knee level now (not as easy as it sounds).
Also, there is now a fourth option for getting relief in the bunker that includes dropping outside the sand, at the cost of two penalty strokes. Etiquette is now incorporated into the rules instead of being separate. You can now get relief for an embedded ball anywhere in the “general area” — everywhere but the teeing and penalty areas, bunkers and putting greens.
A LOOK AT SOME OF THE MAJOR CHANGES
No penalty for:
>> Accidentally moving your ball while searching for it;
>> When a ball hits a player or equipment;
>> A double hit;
>> Grounding a club, touching loose impediments or taking practice swings in penalty area;
>> Accidentally moving your ball or marker on green;
>> A ball putted on the green hitting the flagstick.
Common sense revisions:
>> Can remove loose impediments in a bunker;
>> Allowed to repair most damage on the putting green, including spike marks and animal damage, but not natural imperfections;
>> New fourth option for unplayable lie in bunker allows you to drop outside (no closer to hole) for two-stroke penalty;
>> Relief from animal holes.
Speed play:
>> Search for lost ball dropped from five minutes to three;
>> Drop must be from knee height;
>> Encourage “ready golf;”
>> Provisional ball can be played after you have searched for ball;
>> Ball considered “holed” if part of it is below the lip when wedged between lip and flagstick.
Miscellaneous:
>> You can no longer have someone line you up when you take your stance.
>> To take club-length relief, you must use your longest club (except for putter);
>> If ball is embedded in its own pitch mark (in soil, grass or loose impediments) you are now entitled to a free drop from anywhere in the “general area;”
>> No longer allowed to play from wrong green and must take free drop if you have to stand on wrong green;
>> If ball on green moves on its own after it has been marked it can now be replaced with no penalty;
>> A player’s “reasonable judgment” when estimating or measuring a spot, point, line, area or distance will be upheld, even if video evidence later shows it to be wrong;
>> Elimination of announcement procedures when lifting a ball to identify it or to see if it is damaged.
Source: USGA and R&A