New Rules (of golf) to Live By
Better make sure that is your ball in the bunker before you hit it!

The Rules Changes that You Need to Know

In this space I want to address those rules modifications that are very likely to impact your round of golf.  The first and most significant are changes to rules 12-2 and 15-3 involving hitting a golf ball lying in a bunker or water hazard.  Previously, you could not be penalized for hitting the wrong golf ball in one of these situations.  If you struck a golf ball that was buried in a sand bunker and then discovered it was not your golf ball there was no penalty, you simply located your golf ball and played it.  The modification now requires that you identify the golf ball as being yours before playing the stroke.  Penalty for hitting the wrong golf ball from a hazard is now 2-strokes in medal (stroke) play and a loss of hole in match play.

With this change comes some new procedures.  If your golf ball is buried in a sand bunker then you may wipe away the sand to identify that the golf ball belongs to you. You may have to even lift the ball from its position to make identification.  If this is the case, then following confirmation of identification, you must return the golf ball to the same condition. The same is true if the golf ball lies in a water hazard and you want to try to hit.  You must first confirm it is your golf ball and are allowed to take any steps needed to do so.

Remember that if you lift or move the golf ball for identification you are required to return it to its “same condition”. This is a major change to the rules and my best advice is do as the tour players, clearly mark your golf ball with bold identifying marks. 

The next most commonly confronted situation that has been modified for 2008 is Rule 19-2. Previously, if following your stroke your golf ball was accidently deflected by your partner, either of your caddies or equipment or hit you, the penalty was 2–strokes in medal play and loss of hole in match play.  Beginning this year the penalty is only 1-stroke in both medal and match play.

Many of us now carry distance measuring devices to give us the exact yardage from our golf ball to the pin or to hazards we want to avoid.  Prior to 2008, it was a rules violation to ask your playing partner for distances on the golf course, referred to as giving “advice”.  In 2008, the definition of advice was changed so that information on distance can be exchanged without penalty. 

Lastly, and it is about time, you may now try even harder to make that hole-in-one in those charity events, social days and club events that reward your perfect golf shot with a shiny new car or even cash.  Previously, making that miracle ace and accepting the cash prizes or the title to a new auto meant that you would lose your amateur status.  Finally the USGA and R&A have realized that a 22-handicapper that makes a hole-in-one should not also be rewarded with being forced to be reclassified as a professional golfer.  Just goes to show that the stuffed shirts in the ivory towers of golf, while it takes time, have come to the conclusion that this is a game and playing golf has to be, for almost all of us, just fun.

Enjoy the greatest of games,

John W. Boykin, PGA