The new Rule Book. Opinions?

TheCityGame · March 21, 2017

In case you haven't seen it, the USGA is looking into something call the "Player's Edition" of the rule book. It uses second person (you), kind of orders the rules by importance, and is trying to be less wordy.

http://www.usga.org/...ers-edition.pdf

For instance, it doesn't have the same ring to it, but Old Faithful 13-1 is now rule 1.1.

Basically, we've gotten to "you play the course as you find it and you play the ball as it lies."

From. . .

(and I snipped some)

The new one looks nice. Right. Good and simple. I'm trying to actually find something that might be worse.

Say you're out playing one morning and you see a guy walk up to his ball in the rough and swipe some dew away from behind the ball. And you go, "I wonder if that was allowed?"

If you stick together all the clauses, 13-1 gets to something like, "a player must not improve or allow to be improved" (SCAN A LIST) "the area of his intended stance or swing" (SKIP BULLETS TO) "by any of the following actions" by (SCAN A LIST) "removing dew, frost or water" (WAIT THERE'S MORE) "however the player incurs no penalty if the action occurs" (SCAN A LIST) "on the tee blah blah blah".

Now, those of us who read the rule book have gotten used to parsing it, and can determine things like that quickly.

How do we deal with that in the new rule book?

New rule 1-1 says nothing about that. This doesn't seem right.

But, wait a minute. . .there's actually a section "Rule 8 -- Course Played As It's Found".

And, it's really nice. It basically says, "These are the things you can't improve (stance, lie, line, etc.)" and then "these are the things you can't do (remove dew, bend things, etc" except in the situations we'll mention later (tee ground, putting green, etc.)

At first glance, I think I really like this. I always thought that the people who thought the rule book was too complicated were just complaining. And they probably were, but it doesn't mean it can't be put together better.

I still don't trust Joe Sandwedge to be very familiar with it just because they changed it, but it seems pretty nice at first blush.

Sawgrass · March 21, 2017

I'm still trying to adjust to the idea of four separate "books." Player's Edition, Rules of Golf, Guidance Handbook, Committee Procedures.

I was quite comfortable with the current Rules and Decisions books. Even comfortable carrying them around. Now, well, I'm worried about myself!

dormie1360 · March 22, 2017

I'm feeling similar to Sawgrass. Having become familiar with the current publications over the years I'm not sure how I'll react to the new "books". As many golfers don't really know the rules in the first place, a change will not result in a big learning curve. Not so sure with me, as my brain is not getting any younger.

Edit: Not to mention I will have to change my Avatar!

SNIPERBBB · March 22, 2017

Sounds kinda like the Illustrated amd simplified rules for NFHS sports or the Dummies guide or most states hunting/trapping/fishing regulation books where they give you the overview but tell you to check the real rule book if you want to avoid being cited

Sawgrass · March 22, 2017

I'm feeling similar to Sawgrass. Having become familiar with the current publications over the years I'm not sure how I'll react to the new "books". As many golfers don't really know the rules in the first place, a change will not result in a big learning curve. Not so sure with me, as my brain is not getting any younger.

Edit: Not to mention I will have to change my Avatar!

How are you going to feel when you refer a player in a Water Hazard to Rule 26, and he looks in his new Rule book and tells you there are only 24 Rules listed? And then tells you there doesn't even seem to be anything called a Water Hazard mentioned anywhere?

Halebopp · March 22, 2017

I'm all for making the rules more approachable to the average golfer. Maybe it'll even inspire some of them to study the actual rules book.

When I started playing I got one of these as a gift and I have to say it was quite a bit more useful than the actual Rules book for a beginner. After all it's more important to know what you can or can't do than to know which rule it is. Of course it also pointed out the Rules in question thus making some of the possible communication issues a non-issue "It says in your book it's Rule 26 and here's the actual Rules book and Rule 26".

https://www.amazon.com/Golf-Rules-Quick-Reference-2016/dp/3909596843

dormie1360 · March 22, 2017

I'm feeling similar to Sawgrass. Having become familiar with the current publications over the years I'm not sure how I'll react to the new "books". As many golfers don't really know the rules in the first place, a change will not result in a big learning curve. Not so sure with me, as my brain is not getting any younger.

Edit: Not to mention I will have to change my Avatar!

How are you going to feel when you refer a player in a Water Hazard to Rule 26, and he looks in his new Rule book and tells you there are only 24 Rules listed? And then tells you there doesn't even seem to be anything called a Water Hazard mentioned anywhere?

I'll bet you I mistakenly say "hazard" in 2019 more times than you. :)