After an extensive four-year review of golf's 34 playing rules – and a number of high-profile incidents – nine principal rules have been changed to improve clarity surrounding the rules and to ensure proportionate penalties. These are the most significant changes.
Ball moving after address (Rule 18-2b)
Players will no longer be penalised if their ball moves after it has been addressed when ‘it is known or virtually certain that they did not cause the ball to move’. So if you address your ball and Hurricane Toby picks it up and drops it on the highway, you won’t be penalised, but you will have to play it from its new position.
Ball in hazard (Rule 13-4)
Golfers are now permitted to smooth sand or soil in a hazard at any time, including before playing from the hazard, but only for ‘the sole purpose of caring for the course and Rule 13-2 (improving your lie) isn’t breached. So you still can’t move the sand away from your ball if you submerge it in a bunker, but you can pat down mole hills for the good of the course.
Time of starting (Rule 6-3a)
This one is a small reprieve for all you latecomers – you know who you are, it’s always the same people. If you start late, but within five minutes of your starting time, you will no longer be disqualified, but you will surrender the 1st hole if you are playing matchplay, or take a two-stroke penalty on the first hole in strokeplay. If you are later than five minutes after your tee time, I can’t help you.
Amateur status
There have also been some interesting changes to the amateur rules, the most interesting of which being that there is no longer a limit on the prize an amateur can accept for a hole-in-one.
This means that if you playing in a competition which offers a car for the first golfer to sink a hole-in-one, you no longer have to consider giving up your amateur status to acquire a new set of wheels.
The rules have also been amended to allow amateur golfers to receive subsistence expenses to assist with general living costs, provided the expenses are approved and paid through the player’s national golf union.
All in all, the rule changes have received a positive response. Not unsurprisingly the most outspoken ambassador for the changes has been Padraig Harrington.
“I am delighted with the changes, in particular the ball moving after address. Every time the wind blows I am worried that my ball is going to move and I am worried about grounding my putter, distracting me from trying to hole my putt,” he said.
What do you think of golf’s new rules?
