Category: USGA Rules

September 16, 2020 by JeffG

[VIDEOS] New Rules per USGA [2019]

Watch the video –> Have fun Learning the new rules

Any area not designated as a bunker is now called a penalty area. Red and yellow staked areas are treated the same. The 3 options are 1) playing it as it lies, 2) replaying the ball from the last spot with a 1 stroke penalty (plus that distance makes it a 2 stroke penalty), 3) Line of flight backwards as far as you want from where the ball crossed the penalty line 1 stroke penalty, 4) drop within 2 club lengths under 1 stroke penalty

Ball Lost or Out of bounds. –> Ball Lost or OB

New local rule for taking relief –> Alternative to Stroke & Distance

The alternative is different than what our club does now. We would need to vote on replacing our current procedure with the USGA Local rule option

January 8, 2020 by JeffG

New Rules Reminder

To keep you on top of your game in the off-season, here are nine changes to the new rules you should know compliments of Golf Digest.

I. Accidents happen
The controversy over Dustin Johnson’s ball moving on the green during the final round of the 2016 U.S. Open exposed the old rules for being too harsh when it came to what many considered tickytack infractions. New language, first adopted through Local Rules since 2017, states there is no penalty if you accidentally move your ball (or ball marker) on the green. Put the ball back, and you’re good to go. The same applies if you’re searching for a lost ball and mistakenly move it.

II. The fix is in
Golfers often complained about the silliness of letting players fix a ball mark on the green, but not a spike mark. What’s the difference? With no good answer, officials now will let you fix everything without a penalty. You can also touch the line of your putt with your hand or club so long as you’re not improving it.

III. A lost cause
To improve pace of play, golfers now have just three minutes to search for a missing ball rather than five. Admit it, if you hadn’t found it in three minutes, you weren’t finding it anyway.

IV. Knee is the new shoulder
The process for dropping a ball back in play is revamped in the new rules. Instead of letting go from shoulder height, players will drop from around their knee. This is a compromise from an original proposal that would have let golfers drop from just inches above the ground. To preserve some randomness with the drop, officials went with knee height instead. Why change at all? Primarily to speed up play by increasing the chances your ball stays within the two-club-length drop area on the first try.

V. No longer a touchy subject
Hitting a ball into a water hazard (now defined as “penalty area”) should come with consequences. But golfers don’t have to be nervous about incurring an additional penalty for a minor rules breach while playing their next shot. You’re free to touch/move loose impediments and ground your club, eliminating any unnecessary worry. The only caveat: You still can’t put your club down and use it to improve the conditions for the stroke. You can remove loose impediments in bunkers, too, although touching the sand in a bunker in front of or behind the ball is still prohibited.

VI. Damaged goods
We all get mad on the course, and sometimes that anger is taken out on an unsuspecting driver or putter. Previously, the rules were confusing on when or if you could play a club you damaged during a round, and it led to instances where some players were disqualified for playing clubs with a shaft slightly bent or some other damage they didn’t realize the club had. Now you can play a club that has become damaged in any fashion. If you caused the damage, however, you can’t replace the club with a new one.

VII. Twice is … OK
A double hit is almost always accidental, and the outcome so random as to hardly be beneficial. So golfers are now spared the ignominy of adding a penalty for hitting a ball twice with one swing. It counts as only one stroke. Somewhere T.C. Chen is smiling.

VIII. The end of flagstick folly
Another nod to common sense eliminates a penalty for hitting a flagstick left in the hole while putting on a green. Taking out and then placing back in flagsticks can often cause undue delay in the round, and the flagstick is as likely to keep your ball out of the cup as it would help it fall in.

IX. O.B. option
Courses may implement a Local Rule (not for competition) that offers an alternative to the stroke-and-distance penalty for lost balls or shots hit out-of-bounds. A player may drop a ball anywhere between where the original ball was believed to come to rest (or went out-of-bounds) and just into the edge of the fairway, but no nearer the hole. The golfer takes a two-stroke penalty and plays on instead of returning to the tee. This way, the Local Rule mimics your score if you had played a decent provisional ball.

April 19, 2019April 19, 2019 by JeffG

USGA Rules: Nearest point of relief (NPR)

Nearest point of relief (NPR) is only used in relation to three relief scenarios, all of which provide relief without penalty. These include interference with your lie, stance or swing by:

an immovable obstruction (cart path, ball washer, sprinkler head, etc.)
an abnormal ground condition (casual water, ground under repair, burrowing animal hole, etc.)
a wrong putting green (any putting green on the course other than the putting green of the hole being played)

While there are only three scenarios listed above, you will notice that they include situations that occur fairly often during a round of golf (ball on a cart path, ball in casual water, ball in ground under repair, etc.). So if you are a golfer, you have mostly likely attempted to find and use your nearest point of relief.

Let’s say you hit your drive to the right and end up on a cart path. Your nearest point of relief will be the spot on the golf course nearest to where your ball lies is that is not nearer to the hole and that gives you complete relief from the cart path. To determine that spot, you should use the club that you would have used if the cart path was not there.

So if your ball on the cart path is 150 yards from the hole and you would normally hit a 7-iron, that is the club that you should use to determine your nearest point of relief. The NPR will always be to the left, the right or behind where your ball lies (it can’t be in front because that would be closer to the hole).

If you want to be extra thorough, try marking your nearest spot to the left of the cart path and then also the nearest spot right of it and behind it. Unfortunately, you do not get a choice about which spot to use. You have to use the one that is nearest to your ball, even if it positions you directly behind a tree or in any other unfavorable situation. Remember, it’s the nearest point, not the nicest point!

It is important to note that the NPR is not the same for every player, even if the ball lies in the exact same spot. Differences in height, how far a player stands away from the ball at address, and playing right-handed vs. left-handed can change the NPR, sometimes significantly. See the video above for some good examples of this.

After you have successfully determined your NPR, you must then drop your ball anywhere within one club-length of that spot, not nearer the hole.

If any of the concepts mentioned in this article are confusing, take another look at the video as it shows all of them with helpful visuals.

If you have a Rules question that comes up in a tournament this spring or that happened during a past round, feel free to send it in to us at gregg@collegiategolf.com and perhaps we will address it in a future newsletter. If you have any questions about the topics discussed here, or have any other Rules of Golf questions, please feel free to contact the USGA Rules department at 908-326-1850 (available seven days a week) or rules@usga.org.

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