Be honest, how many of you have ever actually opened up the Rules of Golf? If you weren’t a lawyer, or didn’t have about eight letters after your name, they were incomprehensible and forgettable.
So let’s give credit to the rules chiefs at the R&A and USGA for realising lots of people didn’t have degrees in golf and setting about simplifying the laws that govern our great sport.
They’ve been reduced in number from 34 to 24 and a new Player’s Edition has been published to make them more accessible to everybody.
They’ve also been publicised in a campaign to rival any presidential election but, if you’ve had your head in the sand and still don’t have a clue what’s about to come in, strap yourselves in as we look at some of the key changes…
You no longer drop the ball from shoulder height
You used to drop the ball from shoulder height. You now drop it from knee height. It really is that simple.
It doesn’t matter whether you are bending over or kneeling down to do it. Just make sure you do it from knee height.
This is all made much easier if you pop a tee peg down first and establish a relief area.
Why is this important? Because when you drop, the ball must come to rest within the relief area. If it doesn’t you have to repeat the drop.
How do you know if it’s landed in that relief area if you haven’t established where that is?
Can’t be bothered to take out the flagstick? Not a problem
Hooray. We all did this when it wasn’t a competition anyway so it’s about time this has been established in the rules. Now when your playing partner is raking the bunker after flubbing one a yard out of the sand, you can just go ahead and putt.
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Are you going to go all DeChambeau and try and hole it from short range with the flagstick still in? That’s one for you to decide but it should definitely speed up play when you’re lining up a 60-footer.
You’ll also be allowed to touch the line of a putt but just don’t go improving it. That’s still not allowed.
Those pesky spike marks will no longer spoil your round
We’ve all got one less excuse for missing a putt. No longer can you blame spikemarks on your line because you are now allowed to repair them.
In fact, the new Rules of Golf say you can repair pretty much any damage to a green made by shoes, animals or almost anything else of which you can think.
Don’t get smart, though. Carrying out a bit of landscape gardening to repair the holes made by greenkeepers during their regular maintenance work is still a big no no.
Found a bunker? Relax
How many of you have lost your balance trying not to ground your club in a bunker only to stumble head over heels and plonk your sand wedge straight into the fine stuff?
Now generally touching the sand with a hand or club is allowed. You still won’t be able to start building sand castles behind your ball, or an elaborate tee, because grounding your club there is still forbidden.
Don’t start taking practice swings either to gauge the consistency of the sand.
If you find yourself in an awful plugged lie, with no hope of escape unless you make a dozen swings, the new rules provide another option for you.
You can declare your ball unplayable and take it outside the trap. Drop on a line and play on. You will, though, have to add a two-stroke penalty.
Ground your club when in a penalty area
Water hazards have been renamed penalty areas in the 2019 Rules of Golf. That doesn’t just include ponds and streams but even deserts and jungles.
Red and yellow markers still exist but when you play out of one of these you will now be able to ground your club.
That applies whether you are hitting off ground or out of the water. Make sure, though, not to improve the lie for your next shot.
And if there’s a lot of rubbish around your ball, you can even take it away. Yes, it is now possible to remove loose impediments in a penalty area. Be careful to ensure the ball doesn’t move. If it does, you’re going to be hit with a penalty.
The time allowed to search for your ball has changed
Another new rule to cheer pace of play merchants everywhere. Unless you had someone standing nearby with a stopwatch, this was probably one of the most abused rules in golf. There are two types of player here – the one who gives it a cursory look and moves on and the one who absolutely WON’T leave until they’ve combed every yard.
They’d claim they’d only been looking for a couple of minutes when, really, it had been closer to ten.
Now the five-minute search time has been reduced to three. If you can’t find your ball quickly, move on.
If your ball moves while you’re looking for it, don’t worry
You were looking for your ball in some deep cabbage, accidentally moved it during the hunt and got a one-stroke penalty for your troubles. Cue a club throwing episode and quite a lot of shouting.
That penalty is now removed in the 2019 Rules of Golf and you just replace the ball in the original spot and lie. If that isn’t known, estimate.
The only thing to worry about with a double hit is the shame
A double hit was embarrassing enough without you getting a penalty for your inadequacies.
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The stroke you used to tack on has been removed and you won’t even count it as two shots. It is just one shot – the one where you tried, and failed, to properly hit the ball.
When is a plugged lie not a plugged lie?
Did anyone really know what ‘through the green’ actually meant? That confusing term is now replaced with the more functional – and for that I mean boring – general area in the Rules of Golf.
This is basically anywhere on the course that isn’t the teeing area, bunker, penalty area or putting green.
At the moment, you can claim relief from an embedded ball anywhere in the fairway or closely mown area.
The 2019 Rules of Golf also extend that to the general area. Yes, you’ve guessed it. That also means the rough.
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