As a rule, you play better by the book

I must stress that despite being a PGA Golf Professional I am not an expert on this week’s topic by any stretch of your imagination.

The rules of golf are arguably the most thorough and complex governing legislation you will ever come across in sport – well, second to, perhaps, Formula 1.

There are not many people on the planet today that could boast to be a rules guru and this is clear when you watch professional golf when tournament referees regularly consult the rule book.

Although complex and written in the language of a Philadelphia lawyer, the rules as laid out by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews have governed this game for centuries.

The set of rules is what makes this game great. They can offer solace to the golfers that know them and can punish the naïve ones that don’t. I remember the great golf coach Bob Torrance once saying to me many years ago: "The rules are there to help you out when all seems lost, not the other way around – so do yourself a favour and make sure you know them."

For those keen enthusiasts that have had the good fortune to have taken the R&A rules exam (it’s easier to get invited to the New Year’s Eve Ball at Buckingham Palace than to get on the list) then you will know just what it takes to be able to call yourself a rules expert.

Every couple of years the R&A publish a new Rules of Golf book, available free to all registered golfers in the world. They are generally distributed by golf clubs to members or are available through the R&A website www.randa.org. The new Rules of Golf is due out around now and is eagerly awaited. Some of the more interesting changes are:

There are other changes that I won’t bore you with now but, suffice to say, it will be very worth your while to make sure you get a copy of the new Rules of Golf and look up the changes on the R&A website.

Happy research!

• Giving distances to other players or asking for distances is no longer deemed to be "asking for advice" and will carry no penalty.
• A player may now lift his/her ball in a hazard to identify his/her ball when previously you would have had to play it and identify it later.
• The term "reasonable evidence" has been replaced by the term "known or virtually certain" when determining whether a ball that has not been found may be treated as a ball lost in an obstruction, an abnormal ground condition or a hazard.
• Intervention relief from a temporary immovable obstruction can only be granted if the item is on the player’s line of play.
• A ball in motion that has been deflected or stopped by a player, partner, caddie or equipment has now been amended to reduce the penalty to only one stroke in both matchplay and strokeplay.