Some of the proposed Rules of Golf changes are long overdue – others, not so much. Here’s my take.
This week the USGA and R&A announced a significant number of proposed changes to the Rules of Golf. Some are actually sensible.
As more of a casual than serious golfer, I have never been a rules aficionado, although I’m happy to play with one.
Serious golfers, I’ve found, take the rules seriously. So during 10 years of producing a golf television program, we had a rules segment nearly every time and utilized PGA Tour rules experts and tournament footage to demonstrate a rules problem and solution. People loved it because it was an explanation from an expert.
For rules geeks, some of the changes in this week’s announcements were likely as shocking as if aliens had landed from another planet (versus from another country, if you know what I mean.). However, some of these possible modifications are looooong overdue. Others, frankly aren’t much of an improvement. A couple should be kicked aside.
- The most notable and memorable rule in recent memory for most of us is what I call the Dustin Johnson and 2016 U.S. Open Greens rule. You remember. Dustin Johnson was getting ready to putt, and before he soled his club, the ball moved. He didn’t touch the ball, and yet he got penalized, even though other competitors on other holes who had the same situation didn’t. It took them a half hour to figure it how to penalize him and why to penalize him. If ever there was an immaculate violation, that was it.
What this means for you in the future is there’s a chance that if you are on a green with a slope that only a goat could balance on and your ball moves, you might not get a penalty for that. About time, USGA. About time. The only time there would be a penalty is if you 99.9% caused it to move. You know, like when you use that foot mashie to nudge the ball toward the hole.
Opinion: Two Thumbs Up
- There’s a new change that I call the Unfortunate Unintended Consequences Rule. In the future, you may be able to repair spike marks on the green and what the USGA calls “other damage made by shoes.”
Also, the USGA may remove the penalty for touching the putting line. In theory this rules relaxation is not supposed to be used for improving the conditions of play.
Someone was up too late when they considered this change. It has trouble written all over it.
You know that guy at your course who always insists that he got lipped out due to a spike mark? Well, with this proposed rule change, he’s going to practically tamp down a path from the ball to the hole, even if he has to walk in his putting line to make spike marks before he then tamps them down. And because he thinks he’s a putting genius and entitled to do this under the rules, he’s going to do it on every putt. Meanwhile, you wait while he tamps down fake spike marks on virtually unmakable 30 footers, followed by the same procedure for his second putts, unmakable 12 footers, and then the subsequent unmakable four-footers.
Opinion: Best way EVER to slow play.
- There’s a new flagstick rule proposal, which I call Welcome Back to the 1960s. Some baby boomers will remember when this was the way golf was played. If adopted, you’ll be able to leave the flagstick in the hole and play. You can hit it, graze it or bounce off of it any number of times and not be penalized. Nobody has to tend it. It doesn’t have to be removed. It’s the best idea the USGA has had in decades. Can you imagine if the PGA Tour adopted it? Hmmm.
Opinion: Start your engines! This will definitely speed up play.
- Ball dropping, not the New Year’s Eve kind, is also coming under review. I call this the Phil Mickelson Vertical Liftoff Rule. Instead of dropping from theoretical shoulder level, you may soon be able to drop it from as low as an inch above the ground, like Phil’s Masters leap. Why? Who knows.
Opinion: People are going to get a lot of very good drops because how bad a lie can you give yourself if you drop from an inch?
- Here’s one I call the Paul Azinger at Doral Rule because Azinger was DQed from the tournament for signing for an incorrect score after he moved his foot in a water hazard because there was some gravel under it and he was trying to get good footing. What? It wasn’t bad enough that he had to hit out of water? Apparently not.
Basically, this change eliminates a penalty for moving a loose impediment in any hazard, and in Azinger’s case, his foot moved loose impediments in the water, otherwise known as a hazard.
Opinion: Probably long overdue.
Those are not the only changes. There are plenty more. See them here: http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/test-item-graphics/
If we are lucky, next time around the USGA and R&A will bring back the anchored putting stroke, although I’m sure that will be shortly after you see pigs circling your house.
Next: Golf Rules That Aren't in the Book
What’s your take on the Rules of Golf changes that are being considered by the USGA and the R&A? Let’s hear from you on this one. Good move or bad?