We’ll have to wait little longer for new rules

What you need to know:

  • Next week, all golfers and non-golfers need not understand the Rules of Golf to enjoy the great competition at the Barclays Kenya Open.
  • All they need to do is come ready to enjoy the great spectacle that will be on display by all the great golfers that will be present.
  • As for the Rules, leave that to the players and we who will be refereeing.

Last week I met a lady who despite holding membership in a golf club, does not play the game. She enjoys playing a number of other sports but not golf.

“I have nothing against golf, but I have never really fancied it. Other than the walk on the golf course, nothing else about the game seems interesting!” she said.

That statement led to a conversation on the merits of golf. I have since found a very apt statement from John Henry Taylor, a co-founder of the Professional Golfer Association and a five-time winner of The Open Championship:

“Golf, to the man or woman who regards it simply as a game, will remain forever insoluble and an enigma: and it will retain its greatness because it contains something which lifts it higher than that of a mere pastime. Golf is more exacting than racing, cards, speculation or matrimony. Golf gives no margin, either you win or you fail. One chance is given you and you hit or miss. There is nothing more rigid in life and it is this extreme rigidity which makes golf so intensely interesting.”

VERY STRANGE QUESTION

Talking of rigidity, there is nothing more rigid than the Rules of Golf. These are cast in stone and there is no wiggle room. If we are going to play the game of golf, we have to apply all Rules of Golf and cannot select which ones to apply and which not to.

This week the R&A and USGA officially announced the changes to the Rules of Golf that will be in use come January 1, 2019. Within a few hours of the announcement, there were many links to websites showing the changes being circulated by golfers.

Then I got one very strange question from a golfer: “Are you going to apply the new Rules at the Barclays Kenya Open next week?”

I thought that this was just one golfer who had failed to see that the Rules take effect on January 1, 2019. I, however, received a few more questions relating to the implementation of these Rules.

In as much as I find the new Rules very practical and easy to apply, the answer to the question on using the new Rules of Golf next week at the Barclays Kenya Open is a resounding “No!”.

If one of the top players at the Barclays Kenya Open next week as much as brushes his club against a leaf in bunker with his backswing, while his ball still lies within the same bunker, he will incur a two-stroke penalty. Next year, the player may remove all the leaves and even lean on his club inside the bunker without attracting a penalty.

Some years back, Phillip Price, the Welsh golfer who famously beat Phil Mickelson in the 2002 Ryder Cup to help Europe win over the USA, received a two-stroke penalty for a Rule that is going to change.

In a stroke play competition, on a par five hole, he played his second shot to the edge of the putting green.

Most of the ball was lying off the putting green but just a tiny fraction was over it. He putted his ball for eagle without removing the flagstick. He holed the ball alright, but it was not for eagle.

He received a two-stroke penalty and ended up with a par instead. The definitions of the Rules of Golf state that if any part of the ball touches the putting green, then the ball is on the putting green.

The Rules currently prohibit the ball, when struck from anywhere on the putting green, to strike the flagstick whether attended, removed or held up. However, come next year, it will be perfectly fine for golfers to putt with the flagstick still in the hole.

ONE-STROKE PENALTY

I believe that this will speed up the pace of play significantly although it may feel awkward for many of us for some time.

The one change that I believe will make a major difference in the pace of play, is one that will allow golfers, for a two-stroke penalty, to drop a ball at a point on the fairway nearest to where the original ball may be lost or out of bounds.

This will, however, not be a Rule of Golf but a Local Rule and clubs must include it for it to be in use. It will save many golfers the trouble of walking back to where they played the previous stroke.

This option will be an addition to the usual provision of a one-stroke penalty and having to go back to the place where one had taken the previous shot.

There is one caveat though, this Local Rule must not be used in major competitions. It will, therefore, not be an option at next year’s Barclays Kenya Open.

Next week, all golfers and non-golfers need not understand the Rules of Golf to enjoy the great competition at the Barclays Kenya Open.

All they need to do is come ready to enjoy the great spectacle that will be on display by all the great golfers that will be present. As for the Rules, leave that to the players and we who will be refereeing.