Rules Simplification: Be Careful What You Wish For, Pros

As we near the USGA and R&A rolling out their extensive, exciting and bold simplification of the 2019 Rules of Golf, Ryan Herrington at Golf World makes a shrewd point worth checking out: be careful what you wish for elite players.

After all, simpler rules mean you better know them!

With so many sections and subsections and sub-subsections, if you broke a Rule because you didn’t know it was a Rule to begin with, you often were forgiven for making an honest mistake. With a modernized Rules book, that defense becomes far more flimsy.

Indeed, if the Rules are going to be easier to understand, then golfers are going to be expected to genuinely understand them. In particular, golfers who make a living playing the game.

In that respect, the modernized Rules may well present a new set of challenges when they finally go online on New Year’s Day 2019.

Comments

[Colin MacGillivray]

From the USGA website:
"We will then finalize work on the new Rules code in 2018 and allow for a substantial period for education so that golfers and golf officials will have considerable time to learn the new Rules before they take effect."
Any clue as to the date when the new rules will be issued?
(The flagstick rule works well for mediocre golfers, who rarely hit the hole from over 3 metres away.)

[mark]

If they do the hazard area rule, and allow anywhere to be a hazard, It should effect the course ratings. I wonder if there will be enough time to re-rate the courses. Will be a big help while playing northern courses that are in the woods.

[Tom Morris]

Forgive them, for they know not what they do - when related to the R&A, its defined more in the following saying 'many a true word is spoken in jest'.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

The flagstick rule is still bad and could easily have the OPPOSITE effect of speeding up play, as some players will want it in (rightly so) on some putts, and others will want to remove it. That has the potential to significantly increase the number of times the flag goes in and out of all 18 holes in a round.

And simple or not, few PGA Tour players really seem to understand the Rules.

[Greg]

Yes, but they'll still be able argue that they had no intent to violate he rule. (See Lexi Thompson).

[Zimmer]

USGA back to abc?

[Colin MacGillivray]

The answer to my question was in the article-
"The end result (the final version of the new rules) is anticipated to be released around March 2018 and will go into effect Jan. 1, 2019."

Erik, it will be interesting to see how it slows down or speeds up play. It may need another rule tweak about order of play so that those who want the flag in, putt first then the flag is taken out for the rest.

The rule is good for the lazy. For the lousy social oldish players like me and my groups we take the flag out for 6 footers and under.
I play weekday mornings (only) with one other guy 3 days a week, and a 3 ball the other two days and it is definitely speedier when we are just on the green and the flag is a the back. Even from 3 metres (10 feet) we very rarely hit the flag.

[In the grip of the game]

Ryan Herrington: "Matsuyama was shown on TV tapping his wedge on the ground near where he hit the ball." The video clip clearly shows him treading on his divot/scrape.

[Herman Kaiser]

Having run over a hundred USGA qualifiers and more than 1000 additional golf association championships, I suggest it is worth noting that the USGA long ago abandoned the simplification claim and switched to modernization. The Rules remain complicated for reasons that cannot be changed - the widely varied playing fields, the many different types of participants and agents involved and the numerous forms of play, to name only some reasons. There has been widespread opposition among experts to the USGA’s antics since most of the good could have been accommodated within the existing structure of the Rules. Since the overwhelming % of golfers know little about the Rules, they are not in much of a position to evaluate the changes. The number of golfers who read the new Rules will be small and countless difficulties will arise as unanticipated consequences for many years.

Of course like DC politicians the authorities will spin the 2019 product as a brilliant offering. The absurdity of the claim is shown by the
fact that the authorities have scuttled the single greatest piece of Rules scholarship - the Decisions on the Rules of Golf. In its place is promised a mysterious handbook that is certain to provide a fraction of the previous guidance. Again, we will be left with years or decades of far greater confusion on the Rules.

Such is the result when a tiny band of true believers set out to make a memorial to themselves.

[TTB]

@Herman Kaiser +1000