Irish Independent

R&A and USGA to announce big changes to rulebook

- James Corrigan

THE R&A and the USGA, golf ’s two governing bodies, will today announce the first amendments in the highly anticipate­d modernisat­ion of the rulebook.

Martin Slumbers, the R&A chief executive, has called it “the biggest change for our generation”.

Profession­als on both the PGA Tour and European Tour have been briefed on the alteration­s, which include cutting the time allotted to find a ball from five minutes to three and allowing spike marks to be repaired on greens.

This will merely be the start of a raft of changes, aiming to simplify the Rules of Golf.

“The feedback so far is very positive,” Slumbers said. “They like the way that we’re thinking about modernisin­g the game, and they like the way that we’ve sort of codified it and brought things into what you call more logical groups of rulings.

WELCOME

“I would expect that most of the people will welcome the proposals.

“Will somebody have a different view? Of course they will, and that’s fine, that’s why we’re going into consultati­on for eight to nine months.”

The R&A and USGA hope to bring the rules into effect on January 1, 2019.

Players will also be permitted to drop a ball from any height when taking relief rather than the current stipulatio­n of shoulder height and the use of club lengths for taking relief will be eliminated.

This is an overhaul that has been four years in the making as it seeks to update the image of golf as a stuffy sport with ludicrousl­y complicate­d rules.

John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director of rules, told Golf Digest that “everything had been on the table”.

He added: “Every aspect of the rules, from the content to how they’re delivered, to how they’re written, to what they look like in writing, is all going to be different,” he said.

Mike Davis, the USGA’s executive director, revealed his vision. “How come we can’t have an instance where someone can [take their phone and] say ‘Siri, I hit my ball into a water hazard. What are my options?’ ” Davis said.

Meanwhile, Rickie Fowler secured a return to the top 10 after winning the Honda Classic at Palm Beach.

The 28-year-old American carded a one-over-par 71 to finish four shots clear of the chasing pack on 12 under and claim a fourth PGA Tour title – his first in 18 months.

It was an eventful round for the Ryder Cup winner as he putted into a sprinkler head on the way to a bogey at the fourth and followed it up with a double bogey two holes later.

He recovered on the back nine, firing three birdies, and already had the tournament won by the time he bogeyed the final two holes.

PUTTER

Fowler, who moves up to ninth in the world rankings, told pgatour.com: “My putter saved me, I made some good putts. It was tough out there,

“I fought as hard as I could. A few of those putts that I made, if I don’t make them I’ve got a pretty tight race.

“Moving forward, this is something I needed going into Augusta and I like where I’m at at the moment.”

Americans Morgan Hoffman and Gary Woodland were tied for second on eight under while Jhonattan Vegas had a day to remember as he climbed 46 places up the leaderboar­d with a six-under-par 64, which included a hole in one on the 15th.

Vegas was one of six men to finish on seven under as was England’s Tyrrell Hatton, who had designs on a first PGA Tour win at the start of the day as he was second place, four shots behind Fowler.

However, three bogeys in the first seven holes killed off any hopes of a win and he eventually signed for a 72. © Daily Telegraph, London.

 ?? JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES ?? Rory McIlroy plays a chip during a practice round yesterday ahead of the WGC Mexico Championsh­ip
JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES Rory McIlroy plays a chip during a practice round yesterday ahead of the WGC Mexico Championsh­ip

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Ireland