Golf’s newest set of rules is published and ready for you…and its commencement on Jan. 1, 2019.
As part of newest rollout, the USGA and R&A combined to create a “Player’s Edition” to make the Rules easier and quicker to understand. You can view the Player’s Edition here, where each rule is included, with purposes for each. The intuitive set of rules is grouped into 10 categories, such as Bunkers and Putting Greens, Lifting and Returning a Ball to Play, Penalty Relief, and more.
“From the project’s inception, our one goal was to make the Rules easier to understand and apply for all golfers,” said Thomas Pagel, senior managing director of Governance for the USGA. “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. We look forward to continuing that process in the years to come.”
The Rules of Golf have long been ridiculed for their strictness and ambiguity, but this stands as a positive step for clarity on how the game is governed. Also included in the Player’s Edition are colored diagrams for further context and clarification.
For those interested in the full set of Rules, those have also been updated and are available online. You can read more about the process of updating the Rules here.
