One month till the new rules come in so I thought I would share with you the major ones and my thoughts on them.
Ball at rest Ball moved. Player accidentally moves his or her ball during search.
New rule: No penalty.
Current rule: 1-stroke penalty.
Yep. Fair enough, assuming the ball is replaced back to it’s original position. I mean if EMC stumbled on it by accident – it could be in the next county.
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Ball moved Player accidentally moves his or her ball or ball-marker on the putting green.
New rule: No penalty.
Current rule: 1-stroke penalty (with exceptions).
Exceptions? What exception and where is the answer? You gotta love these blokes leaving an out for themselves, but only in exceptional circumstances.
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Ball moved Standard for deciding whether the player caused his or her ball to move.
New rule: The player will be found to be the cause only when it is known or virtually certain (meaning at least 95%) to be the case.
Current rule: Weight of the evidence/more likely than not.
Love this one. “OK – we are 95.1 percent sure that the prick cheated!!”
Ball in motion. Accidental deflection. Player’s ball in motion accidentally hits the player, his or her caddie, the person attending the flagstick or the attended or removed flagstick.
New rule: No penalty.
Current rule: 1-stroke penalty (expect it is a 2-stroke penalty when the accidental deflection relates to the flagstick or the attendant).
Chi Chi will be thrilled!!
Dropping procedure.
How to drop a ball New rule: The ball must be dropped straight down from knee height (the height of the player’s knee when in a standing position).
Current rule: Stand erect, hold the ball at shoulder height and arm’s length. Wendy will be thrilled with this one.
Chevy, not so much.
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Lost ball Time allowed for a ball search New rule: A ball is lost if not found in three minutes.
Current rule: A ball is lost if not found in five minutes.
Serious question. How many of you have ever started a stopwatch when beginning your search for a ball?
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Putting green. Repairing damage on the putting green
New rule: A player may repair almost any damage (including spike marks and animal damage but not including natural imperfections) on the putting green.
Current rule: A player may only repair ball-marks or old hole plugs on the putting green.
This could take a while.
Hey – wasn’t the point to speed up play?
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Putting green Putting with an unattended flagstick left in the hole.
New rule: No penalty if a ball played from the putting green (or anywhere else) hits the unattended flagstick in hole.
Current rule: Loss of hole/2-stroke penalty if the ball is played from the putting green and hits the unattended flagstick in the hole.
This is my personal favourite. Got a real quick 15 foot downhiller? No problem – leave the flag in!!
Seriously????
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Penalty areas Areas the Committee may mark as a penalty area (where relief with 1-stroke penalty is allowed).
New rule: Red- and yellow-marked “penalty areas†may now cover areas of desert, jungle, lava rock, etc, in addition to areas of water.
Current rule: The Committee may only mark an area of water as a “water hazardâ€.
This one I like. I wonder how many OB’s will disappear because of this? Not a bad thing – especially internal OB’s.
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Playing a ball Advice and help. Caddie standing behind a player to help with that player’s alignment.
New rule: A caddie is not allowed to deliberately stand on or close to the extended line of play behind a player while the player is taking his or her stance until the stroke is made.
Current rule: A caddie is allowed to stand on a line behind a player while the player is taking a stance and preparing to play, but must not stand there while the player makes the stroke.
And about bloody time too!! This has become farcical on the LPGA Tour and even the PGA boys are not above it.
There are more, but these are the ones that I fell will impact most of us weekend warriors.
Play away folks.
Ball at rest Ball moved. Player accidentally moves his or her ball during search.
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Dropping procedure.
