It is official! The new golf rules have been ratified and published by R & A and USGA. You now have three months to familiarize yourself with 24 rules and 300 interpretations. For the first time, a printed and digital version of the Player's Edition has been introduced as a shorter, more user-friendly version of the rules that will serve as the main publication for all golfers.
Of course, any Rule Anorak can still get lost in the intricacies of the full Rules of Golf book, which has been updated to be next to the Modified Rules of Golf for players with disabilities. But why bother when the Player's Edition presents everything in easy-to-understand charts, diagrams, and 10 thematic groupings? Regardless of your preferences, each release, including a new Official Guide to the Golf Rules, can be accessed through the R & A website and app. There is no excuse for not receiving your copy before 1 January 2019.
To prepare, we exclusively talked to David Rickman, Executive Director - Governance at The R & A, to find out what the biggest changes in golf rules have been to you over the last 60 years.
What was the motivation for such a drastic change of rules? Was it simply because the current list was too complex?
I think that's a fair summary. Looking back on the history of golf, we have not had such a retrospective since 1952. Over time, we tend to expand the rules layer by layer, and the result of revisions is that they get more complicated. Sometimes you have to take a step back, and we've done so in the last six years. It was not about transforming golf into another form. We have stayed true to the important foundations, but at the same time have recognized that there are technical disadvantages that we can eliminate, complex situations that we simplify and results that we can improve.
Therefore, the main task has been to make changes where we can, to simplify and modernize where we can, and then focus on how the rules are presented and written. After all, golf is a self-regulating game, so we need millions of our players to understand the rules as much as possible. It is our job to help them.
Why now?
Everything goes back to April 2012, so that the new rules will take a long time to come. One of the factors that contributed to this was that golf should be admitted to the Olympics, and this brought a new audience into our sport. It also turned out that the rules had become intimidating and needed to be simplified. About every 30 years, we did a similar review, and we were aware that we made the rules much more complex, according to a decision book that today contains up to 1,200 numbers. As part of this process, we not only reduced the 34 rules to 24, but also changed the 1,200 decisions in 300 interpretations.
How much work has been put into the revision of the rules?
In my 30 years at The R & A, this was the biggest project we've done. It has been a tremendous time-consuming and collaborative effort involving not only ourselves, but also the USGA, the professional tours, and our Rule Golf Committee, which includes advisory members from around the world.
In the world of rules, this is about as exciting as it gets. It's about making the rules more intuitive. The answer should mostly match what a golfer thinks. While the rules have changed, many basic philosophies have remained the same but have been clarified. We believe the rulebook is now less intimidating and will help golfers understand why certain rules apply.
How can golfers refresh all changes?
We have already published a lot of this information, in particular the full rules that will be published in March of this year. What we are doing now is the release of the Player's Edition, which is something new to us. We want to make the rules much easier and more understandable. Our website is now live and the app has also been updated. We believe that this is an important tool for all future golfers.
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