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USGA publishes changes to Rules of Golf for 2019

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The USGA and R&A have this week published golf’s new rule book, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2019. The modernized Rules of Golf features over 30 changes in all, and it is said to be the most significant change to the rules in more than 60 years.

The changes to the rules will see the reduction of several penalties, looser putting green and bunker rules, and regulations that encourage improved pace of play.

According to Thomas Pagel, senior managing director, Governance for the USGA, the aim is to make the rules easier to comprehend and to improve the future of the game

“From the project’s inception, our one goal was to make the Rules easier to understand and apply for all golfers. It sets a new standard in the way we write and interpret the Rules and is central to our efforts to ensure a healthy future for golf.”

Among the significant changes that will come into effect in the new year

  • Penalty drops will now be made from knee height, rather than shoulder height
  • No penalty for an accidental double hit
  • No penalty for accidentally moving your ball or ball-marker on the putting green
  • No penalty for accidentally moving your ball during search.
  • Your ball is lost if not found in three minutes (rather than the current 5 minutes)

David Rickman, the executive director, Governance at The R&A, spoke today about his excitement to the modernized rules change that could see the sport become far more accessible

“We are delighted to be rolling out the modernized Rules of Golf today. This is the biggest set of changes to the Rules in a generation and a major step forward in our efforts to make the Rules, and the sport itself, more accessible and more in tune with the way the modern sport is played.” 

Both Dustin Johnson and Lexi Thompson suffered high profile penalties in the final round of major championships recently. Under the new rules change, neither incident that they sustained penalties for will be deemed a breach after the new rules go into effect.

The entire list of changes to the rules that will take effect Jan. 1, 2019, is available here.

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Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at [email protected].

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Shifty

    Sep 13, 2018 at 7:10 am

    “rules change that could see the sport become far more accessible” – how so?

  2. pr

    Sep 13, 2018 at 2:28 am

    I don’t like the fact that you can now touch the ground in a hazard area. That should never be allowed. Hazards are called that for a reason, they aren’t supposed to be perfectly manicured million dollar country club relief areas.

  3. Steven

    Sep 13, 2018 at 12:48 am

    Changes are coming! Not sure if this is allowed but we made a bag tag to help everyone with the rule changes. Would appreciate any support!
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1641149418/quickstarter-rules-caddy-2019-simplify-the-rules-o?ref=user_menu

  4. Rick

    Sep 13, 2018 at 12:37 am

    Lexi put her ball down an inch from the ball marker… that was the problem. How’s that solved here?

  5. Wayne Johnson

    Sep 12, 2018 at 10:57 pm

    Great changes but removing a ball from a Divot in the fairway should have been included. Hitting a good drive in the fairway should not be penalized by having to play out of someone’s divot.

    • Sean

      Sep 12, 2018 at 11:21 pm

      Don’t fool yourself mate. These changes are not about improving the game. There about speeding up the game so more revenue can be generated.

      • C

        Sep 13, 2018 at 7:56 am

        How are any of the top four bulleted rules about speeding up play?

    • Mike

      Sep 13, 2018 at 11:45 am

      I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, but I see big challenge in rulings. What is a divot? Certain depth/width? How old can the divot be? If it was taken 2 months ago, but there is still a trace amount of sand left from being filled, can I take relief? I don’t have a solution, but I think this is whats holding this back.

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Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.

This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.

Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.

The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.

Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.

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Equipment

Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

…The Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.

Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.

Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.

According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.

He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.

Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

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Equipment

Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

So, with a couple of weeks off following his latest start at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Thomas sought to re-address his driver setup with the remote help of Titleist Tour fitting expert J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. About two weeks ago, Thomas and Van Wezenbeeck reviewed his recent driver stats, and discussed via phone call some possible driver and shaft combinations for him to try.

After receiving Van Wezenbeeck’s personalized shipment of product options while at home, Thomas found significant performance improvements with Titleist’s TSR2 head, equipped with Thomas’ familiar Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

Compared to Thomas’ longtime TSR3 model, the TSR2 has a larger footprint and offers slightly higher spin and launch characteristics.

According to Van Wezenbeeck, Thomas has picked up about 2-3 mph of ball speed, to go along with 1.5 degrees higher launch and more predictable mishits.

“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas said on Tuesday in an interview with GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow Club. “I had used that style of head a couple years ago (Thomas used a TSi2 driver around 2021); I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mishits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving…

“This (TSR2) has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid, I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is, but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckle-ball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head, maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

 

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