This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write. I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf. The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie. And it is where you want to be on a golf course.
Originally, I was going to write about new golf rules for 2023, but then a couple friends of mine suggested that “new reasonable” golf rules for the masses, not PGA or LPGA pro players, also was worth a look.
So, this blog will cover both.
First, the official new rules.
The name of the official making a pronouncement on golf rule changes for 2023 will ring bells for many Oregonians.
He is Craig Winter, now the United States Golf Association’s (USGA) senior director of rules and amateur status.
Why the memory?
Before Winter headed off to the East Coast to join the USGA, he was the director of junior golf for the Oregon Golf Association (OGA) and I got to know him when he had that job, which he did very well.
To me, he now gets credit for his expanding role within the USGA.
Here is the background on the rule changes:
“Every four years, the USGA and the R&A, the two organizations that maintain the Rules of Golf, make updates and modifications to the code that establishes how the game is officially played.
“Sometimes the rule changes are significant and at other times, they are clarifications.
“Last Monday, with the announcement of rule changes that will take effect starting January 1, 2023, the USGA and the R&A’s biggest focus is on sustainability and inclusion.
“After the 2019 updates to the Rules of Golf were announced, the USGA and the R&A printed two million copies of the rule book. No more.
“The USGA and the R&A have announced that they will not be making printed copies of the Rules of Golf, forgoing the use of a half billion pieces of paper and saving the organizations significant costs. It also eliminates the costs associated with shipping and distributing the books.
“Going forward, they hope golfers will use the free Official Rules of Golf mobile app on their smartphones.
“’We feel really good about the digital means that we have created to access the rules,’ said Craig Winter, the USGA’s senior director of rules and amateur status. ‘Going forward, we’re not going to be relying on the rules book being in every bag. Everybody has a smartphone, and they can download the free app.
“’We’re continuing to move forward and modernize, as we did in 2019, and it connects us to the golfer better. The mobile app is real-time, digital and we can keep them updated.’”
Further, the USGA reports that, a year after the first U.S. Adaptive Open was held at Pinehurst, the USGA and R&A are moving the Modified Rules for Players With Disabilities into the Rules of Golf.
Some of my friends will rue the day printed rule books are not published. After all, they could say, not everyone who plays and wonders about rules, will have a phone app at the ready.
Winters reports that four specific rule changes have been announced:
Club damaged during round
Starting January 1, golfers will be allowed to replace a club that is broken during a round, provided the club was not damaged or broken due to abuse.
Back-on-the-line relief procedure
Currently, after hitting into a penalty area, golfers have three options. They can drop a ball where they played their last shot and hit another, adding a one-shot penalty. They can also choose to drop a ball within two club-lengths of the spot where the ball crossed the hazard (but not closer to the hole), play another shot, and add a one-stroke penalty. Golfers can also create a line between the hole and where the ball crossed the hazard, then extend that line away from the hole using those two reference points as far as they like and drop a ball in a relief area (defined as being one club-length in any direction from the line that is not closer to the hole).
Starting in January, instead of dropping in a relief area, golfers will have to drop their ball in back-of-the-line relief on the line, then play the ball wherever it comes to rest, as long as it remains within one club-length of the spot where the ball hit the ground.
Ball moved by natural forces
Call this the Rickie Fowler rule. At the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open, Fowler hit a chip shot onto a rain-soaked 11th green. The ball rolled across the green, down a slope and into a pond. Fowler found his point of relief on the slope that was not closer to the hole, dropped twice and each time the ball rolled back, into the penalty area (pond). At that point, he was allowed to place the ball where his second dropped ball on the hillside, which he did, adding a one-shot penalty before walking back up to the green to survey his next shot. While Fowler was on the green, his ball rolled back into the penalty area, forcing him to repeat the process and add another one-shot penalty for his second ball going into the penalty area.
Starting in 2023, a ball that is moved by natural forces must be replaced if it moves to another area of the course or comes to rest out of bounds after being dropped, placed, or replaced.
Handicap usage in stroke play
Now, players are responsible for making sure their handicap index at the start of a tournament round is accurate, which puts the onus on golfers to stay aware of handicap revisions and updates. Failing to provide an accurate handicap can result in penalties, but starting January 1, the responsibilities for accurately tracking and providing player handicap information will fall to tournament committees instead of players.
I also found time to look at what my friends suggested — “reasonable” golf rules based on a story in Golf Digest. I suppose there could be various definitions of the term “reasonable, but here are those rules:
Perspective from the 19th Hole 