New golf rules to be tested at PGA Tour event in Hawaii

HAWAII:A new year kicks off on the PGA Tour in Hawaii on Thursday at a tournament where the rules might get as much attention as the leaderboard.

A raft of changes came into effect on Jan 1 in the biggest rewrite of the regulations in decades and will get their first professional test at the Kapalua Plantation course on the island of Maui. Perhaps the most noticeable change is that players can now leave the pin in while putting, something that previously was not allowed.

Bryson Dechambeau, who majored in physics at university, turned some heads last year when he said his analysis had determined it was generally advantageous to leave the pin in.

The world number five has not changed his mind in the ensuing few months, though he said there would be one exception.

“It gets tricky when the flag’s waving back and forth and I’ve got a five-footer and shadows,” he said. “That’s the only time I would pull the flag out.”

Fellow American Justin Thomas, however, said he would not be putting with the flagstick in. “If I’ve got an eight-footer to win, I can’t take myself seriously if I have the pin in,” the 2017 PGA Championship winner told reporters.

While the option of removing the pin is easy to understand, other rule changes are more complicated, and Thomas said he expected players would err on the side of caution at first.