Every four years, the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews come up with some changes to the Rules of Golf.  This is a good thing.  The game evolves and during any four year period, situations arise on golf courses all over the world where people get caught up in cases where the rules appear to be unclear, unfair, or just confusing.  The USGA and the R&A spend more time in Committee meetings than you can imagine, trying to sort out ways which will improve the Rules of the Game without sacrificing its basic strengths and principles.  It is also a good thing that this only happens every 4 years so we don't have to get familiar with the changes on a yearly basis.  But, being 2004, this is the year to learn about a few new things.  Some of the Rules changes are fairly esoteric; they will arise only in rare instances and the average player should not be too concerned about them.  But others are more likely to arise in everyday play, and I have collected some of those changes below.

The first thing to do in 2004 is to study the Etiquette section of the Rules book.  This has been completely re-written for 2004 and should be the guide to how you play the game.

One changed rule, especially for those of you who play at Shoreline, makes it permissible to remove loose impediments on the putting green (such as goose droppings) by any means provided that nothing is pressed down or the line of putt otherwise improved.   The restriction requiring you to use only your hand or a club has been removed from Rule 16-1/a.  If you saw the US Open in 2003 on TV, Jim Furyk's caddy had to get special help from a Rules Official because he didn't want to use his hand, but did want to get rid of the bird droppings on Furyk's line of putt.  Now he can just proceed under Rule 23-1.

Another significant change regarding loose impediments is the removal of Rule 18-2c.  This was the rule which stated that, if a player removed a loose impediment from within a club length of the ball through the green, any subsequent movement of the ball was deemed to have been caused by the player and a penalty of one stroke was assessed.  In 2004, any movement of the ball after a loose impediment has been removed must be "directly attributable' to the removal of the loose impediment in order for a penalty to be assessed.  You still need to be careful when you remove loose impediments that are close to the ball, but you do not have to worry about the ball rolling off a precarious lie and then being penalized just because you moved a leaf several feet away.

It may be hard to believe, but the Definition of a Lost Ball has been changed for 2004.  The old definition stated, in part, that a ball was lost if the player put another ball into play under the Rules.  That statement has been changed to read that a ball is lost if "The player has made a stroke at a substituted ball".   Think of the case where the player gives up a search in less than the five minutes allowed, goes back and drops a ball to hit again, only to have someone up ahead call back and say the ball has been found (and the five minute search limit has not been exceeded).  In 2003 it was too late since a ball had been put into play; in 2004 it is not too late because the player had not yet made a stroke with the substituted ball.  (I suspect there was a lot of evidence that, in the past,  many players played as though the new rule was already in effect.)

Rule 3-3 allows a player to play a second ball when there is any doubt as to the procedure to be followed.  In 2003, there was no requirement that a player who invoked this rule had to report the incident to the Committee if the same score was made with both balls.  In 2004, all invocations of Rule 3-3 must be reported to the Committee prior to turning in the scorecard.  I believe that all of our players should take a long hard look at Rule 3-3 and be ready to use it on the course.  If followed properly it can save a lot of grief later on.  (But remember that Rule 3-3 applies only to stroke play; don't try to use it in our Match Play tournament.)

Another change involved Rule 17 and the flagstick.  In 2003, if a player removed an unattended flagstick while a ball was still in motion, that player received a two stroke penalty (or loss of hole in Match Play).  In 2004, that act is only penalized if the removal of the flagstick might influence the ball in motion.  So, in order to speed up play, one can remove the flagstick when there is no longer any possibility that the moving ball will strike it.  (Once again, I suspect that the old rule was enforced infrequently in normal play, but it was a good candidate for questions on a rules test.)

For those of you converting to huge drivers, this is the year that the Rules have set up some maximum dimensions.  Only putters can exceed a maximum length of 48 inches and no clubhead can exceed 470cc (460 + a 10 cc tolerance).  If you have a driver that exceeds these limits, you may use it until the end of 2004 (and by that time you probably will have gotten tired of it anyway).

And finally, although it certainly doesn't affect our tournaments, the maximum allowable prize in a tournament (fpr amateurs) has been raised from $500 to $750.  This allows you to receive one of those big, soon-to-be illegal, drivers.

Last Updated on 01/19/2004