Rules Changes Are Step in the Right Direction

Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements

AND about time too. The R&A and the USGA has finally announced a raft of proposed changes to the rules of golf, but is it enough or is it a case of too little, too late?

Some of the measures are designed to speed up play, others are meant to make the game easier.

We are being encouraged to play "ready golf". In other words, the idea of having the "honour" is to be kicked into the long grass. If you get to the tee first, you can reach for your driver and hit your shot rather than having to wait for the rest of your group. Similarly, when you get on the fairway you will no longer have to wait for the golfer who is furthest from the green to play. If you are ready, you can reach for your club and hit the ball.

Nobody is going to object to "ready golf" from the tee. But there are inherent risks in extending the policy to fairway shots. If the golfer who is furthest away from the hole is not aware that a playing partner further down the hole is getting ready to play, there is a serious danger of him getting over the ball, striking it and hitting the other golfer. There is also the very real possibility that slower players will end up losing their patience with quicker playing partners - and that could lead to rows.

The decision to allow us to putt with the flag still in the hole, without penalty if your ball strikes the flagpole, is to be applauded and will surely contribute towards speeding things up. And, lo and behold, they are finally doing away with penalty strokes for anybody who addresses a ball and inadvertently causes it to move. Remember last year's US Open, when Dustin Johnson was given exactly such a penalty when it was alleged that his golf ball moved when he put his putter on the ground behind it? No right-thinking person could possibly have agreed that he gained any advantage or that he caused the ball to move, but he was still penalised. It made golf a laughing stock.

Common sense has also prevailed at last over the repair of spikemarks. It is unfair that a golfer should be penalised by having to putt over damage caused to a putting surface by somebody else. They could always repair pitchmarks, so why not spikemarks? It was a nonsense.

Steps are also being taken by the governing bodies to end the confusion over bunkers. No longer will there will be local rules about loose impediments - if you walk into a bunker and there is a stone next to your ball you will be able to remove it. There will also no longer be a penalty for "accidentally" grounding your club in a bunker. Not sure about that one. If any player grounds a club while addressing his or her ball in the sand it makes for an easier shot.

In future, when taking a penalty drop, it will no longer be necessary to drop the ball from shoulder height - you will be able to drop it from a height of about one inch. In other words, you will be able to place the ball. The thinking behind this is that it will prevent the ball from rolling down hills, back into water hazards and the like and will thus speed things up. That all sounds fair enough, but being able to effectively place the ball in the rough is surely giving players an advantage that they are not actually entitled to?

And, hallelujah, no longer will there be a penalty for grounding your club in a hazard other than a bunker. Have you ever witnessed the agonies that club golfers go through in trying to ensure that they don't ground the club in grass that is a couple of inches long? It is not pretty and it reduces otherwise sane men and women to gibbering wrecks.

At present, you are allowed to look for a golf ball for five minutes, and the plan is to reduce that to three minutes. Again, this is a proposal to be lauded. But can it be implemented? Will club players adhere to it?Probably not. When was the last time you saw anybody take only five minutes to search for a lost ball? And when was the last time that you reminded a playing partner or opponent that his time was up? Hopefully, reducing the time to three minutes will focus people's minds, but don't hold your breath.

One thing that has not been addressed, however, is the issue of finding your golf ball in a divot mark in the middle of a fairway. How difficult would it have been to allow golfers a free drop if they should find themselves in this position, where they are penalised through no fault of their own?

In short, this is a step in the right direction, but it is not going to bring people flocking to the game and it is unlikely to them back to golf either. However, it just might help to stop more men and women from quitting and, for that, the R&A and the USGA are to be applauded.