Officials face crash course on sport’s new rules

Slugger White spent three weeks in Asia as the lead rules official for PGA Tour events. He is officiating in Mexico this week at the Mayakoba Classic, and then he heads to Australia the week of Thanksgiving for his final event of the year, the World Cup.

And then? He has four weeks to get up to speed on the largest overhaul of rules in golf history.

White is among hundreds of rules officials worldwide who face a crash course on the modernized Rules of Golf that take effect Jan. 1. The modernized rules, which took more than five years to develop, were announced in early March. But the majority of officials did not get a head start on studying the changes for fear they might rely on 2019 rules at 2018 tournaments.

“There’s so many differences,” White said Tuesday from Mexico. “We’ve kind of tugged along on little things, but on a weekly basis, we don’t want to confuse ourselves. The embedded ball is going to be different next year. It’s one club length. Now it’s drop as near as you can.”

Tour officials typically go to USGA rules workshops in the fall, and they’ve had half-day seminars every four years to go over any changes to the Rules of Golf. Now, however, officials from various tours plan an intensive two-day session with the USGA the second week in December. White said the USGA would be at five PGA Tour events to start next year.

The modernized rules were developed to make them easier to understand and to apply. Among the more drastic changes are penalty drops from kneehigh height (instead of shoulder height) and eliminating penalties for balls that move accidentally on the green or clubs that touch the ground in a hazard. Also, players will be allowed to leave the pin in the hole while on the green and repair spike marks.

Missy Jones on the LPGA Tour finished up the qualifying series last week and, like White, said she didn’t study the new rules sooner because “it’s hard to look at those and officiate under 2018 rules.”

She recalled one instance when a player removed a boundary stake that was impeding her swing. “I was thinking that next year she would have a chance to put it back (before hitting her shot),” Jones said. In this case, the player was docked two shots.

The toughest aspect for rules official is adapting to 24 rules instead of 36. They could recite rules by numbers, and that will make it particularly difficult on someone like White, who has been a rules official for 37 years.

“An unplayable ball is no longer (Rule) 28,” White said. Next year that falls under Rule 19.

Musical chairs: Justin Rose had reason to celebrate his second time reaching No. 1 in the world because he got there by winning the Turkish Airlines Open. But the celebration is short. Brooks Koepka replaces him at No. 1 next week with neither playing. And thus continues what amounts to musical chairs atop the world ranking in 2018, the most volatile — for now — since 1997.

Rose, Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas have taken turns at No. 1 this year, the most since Greg Norman, Tom Lehman, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els each got to No. 1 during 1997. There were eight changes at the top in 1997, and next week will be the eighth change in 2018.