11 NEW RULES YOU NEED TO KNOW
1 The three-minute warning
Your search party has three minutes (down from five) to find a lost ball. However, there’s no penalty for accidentally moving the ball while searching for it.
2 Taking relief
No announcement is necessary when lifting a ball to identify it or to see if it’s damaged. Players may also select the longest club in the bag – but not the putter – when determining where a drop is taken.
3 Plugged lies
Free relief is granted if your ball is embedded anywhere (except bunkers) in the “general area” – the new term for through the green.
4 Double-hits
Accidentally hitting the ball twice will now count as one stroke, rather than two. Hooray!
5 An alternative to stroke and distance
At club level, a new Local Rule offers the option of taking a drop in the vicinity of where the original ball is lost or out of bounds, including the nearest fairway area, under a twostroke penalty.
6 Trusting player integrity
A golfer’s “reasonable judgment” when estimating or measuring a spot, point, line, area or distance will be upheld, even if video evidence later shows it to be wrong.
7 Relaxed ‘penalty area’ rules
● Red and yellow-marked penalty areas (new term for water hazards) may cover areas of desert, jungle, lava rock etc, in addition to areas of water. ● Committees are given the discretion to mark all penalty areas as red so lateral relief is always allowed. ● No penalty for moving loose impediments or touching the ground or water in a penalty area.
8 Relaxed putting green rules
● Players may putt with the flag in or out.
● Spike marks and other damage made by shoes or animals may be repaired without penalty.
● No penalty for touching the line of a putt or accidentally moving a ball or ball marker.
9 Relaxed bunker rules
● No penalty for moving loose impediments or for generally touching the sand with a hand or club (grounding the club right next to the ball will still incur a penalty).
● An extra relief option is added for an unplayable lie, allowing the ball to be played from outside the bunker under a two-stroke penalty.
10 Knee-high drops
Forget about dropping from shoulder height. Players must go lower and drop the ball from knee height.
11 Maximum score
A new strokeplay format means your score on a hole can be capped at a maximum by the committee.