Make your voices heard
Golf gets a bad rap from time to time over the thickness of the rule book. It can be a scary proposition to try to tackle something with the number of scenarios that can be encountered on an everchanging arena.
Imagine how many rules would have to be added to football or basketball if every place you went to play were different sizes, dimensions and allowed to be altered by Mother Nature. In an effort to strive for equality, the Rules of Golf have to be extensive.
That being said, the United States Golf Association (USGA), working with the R&A as the governing bodies of golf and the Rules across the globe have realized that it is time to modernize the laws that structure the game in an effort to keep up with the times. People have a lot of options to occupy their time these days. The golf industry is learning that throwing up unnecessary obstacles to make their game less fun probably isn’t the best idea.
In an effort to go down that road, the USGA announced an effort to “modernize” the Rules of Golf earlier this year. They have announced a multitude of changes and updates that they hope will make the game more manageable, quicker and user-friendly.
Not only can you see all of the proposed changes at usga.org, but the public is also being encouraged to submit feedback through the end of August. The USGA and R&A will then go over that feedback over the course of 2018 before implementing the “official” changes for the 2019 season.
Anyone interested in offering feedback can submit through usga. org/rules. In addition, you can share through social media using #GolfRules2019, or you can contact the USGA directly by email (rules@ usga.org) or phone (908-326-1850).