5 core Rules of Golf to undergo radical changes

The rules of golf are going to undergo arguably the biggest changes in the history of the game. Get Ready!

A number of revised rues will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2020 in a bid to simplify the code by which the game is played and make the game consistent with the times.

David Rickman, R&A’s executive director of rules addressed the European Tour’s players during a meeting at last week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship where he highlighted new innovations being considered for the 2020 edition of the Rules of Golf.

Among the revised rules that are under review are:

#1 Reduction in search time for lost balls from 5 minutes to 3 minutes

#2 Allowing players to repair spike marks on greens

#3 Allowing players to drop a ball from any height wwhile taking relief rather than the current norm of shoulder height

#4 More of an emphasis on using red stakes for water hazards while still allowing the use of yellow stakes in a few cases

#5 Eliminating the use of club lengths to take relief completely

The 3 minute rule will be seen as a means to speed up the game while the tour professionals will gladly wecome any new rule allowing spike marks to be repaired. Professional’s have complained for a number of years at the unfairness of earlier groups playing on perfect greens while the leaders have to putt through marks left by the rest of the field.

The European Tour even defied the R&A by allowing members to fix spike marks for the season of 1976.

Previous R&A chief Peter Dawson had earlier revealed during his tenure that the USGA and R&A were mutually combining their efforts to bring more clarity to the game.

In 2013, he said, “This whole issue of complexity of the rules is important. We are actually doing a study at the moment with the USGA and the professional game to see if we feel the rules can be materially simplified. The group working on that is just about to come to a conclusion about whether we can go forward with that, and there is a lot of excitement about it.”

It has taken over 3 years for the governing bodies of the USGA and R&A to complete this process of review. The two bodies of control for golf will reveal the full extent of changes shortly.