Rules experts trying to simplify the complex game of golf

For the last five years, the top rules experts in golf have come together from around the world to study a jigsaw puzzle.

That’s what Thomas Pagel of the USGA refers to as the book more commonly known as the Rules of Golf.

The purpose of these private meetings essentially is to break up the puzzle and start over so the rules make more sense, without losing sight of the tradition or ethos of a game with six centuries behind it. Sessions can last at least eight hours. The singular goal is to make the rules less complicated. It has not been easy. “Everyone wants the game to be simple, but it’s a complex game,” Pagel, the USGA’s senior director of rules, said in an interview at the Olympics. “You have a little white ball that can and will go anywhere, and the rules try to handle all those situations. There’s always going to be a level of complexity. But how can we modernize the rules so they’re easier to understand and easier to apply so golfers can play confidently that they at least understand the basics?”

The group is closing in on its first draft.

Pagel declined to give a timetable, though USGA executive director Mike Davis said it could be released next year. A modern set of rules is still years away. The development was welcomed by top players who have loads of experience and still can’t confidently handle a rules issue without calling an official.

“I’d be behind it 100 percent,” Kevin Kisner said. “The game is too slow, too hard and there’s too many rules. I wouldn’t know where to begin with how many rules there should be. I would think as minimal as possible. And we don’t need all these dashes and a’s and b’s and c’s. It’s too confusing.”

Jordan Spieth recalls getting a Rules of Golf book at a junior tournament with instructions to keep it in his bag for quick reference. “I never opened it,” he said. Neither did Dustin Johnson. He lost out on a chance to win the 2010 PGA Championship for grounding his club in sand that he didn’t realize was a bunker. And he won the U.S. Open this year at Oakmont by playing the final seven holes without knowing if he would have to add one penalty stroke to his score.