08 GOLF GUIDE 2016 Manitoba
ANCHORING BAN HIGHLIGHTS RULE CHANGES BY AVI SAPER
THE RULES OF GOLF ARE CONSTANTLY EVOLVING, BUT FEW CHANGES HAVE COME WITH AS MUCH CONTROVERSY AS THE BAN ON ANCHORING THE CLUB, WHICH TOOK EFFECT ON NEW YEAR’S DAY. G olf’s two governing bodies — the United States Golf Association and the R&A — gave players plenty of notice to adjust their techniques accordingly when they announced their decision in May 2013. When the newest edition of the Rules of Golf took effect on Jan. 1, players could no longer anchor their club “directly or by use of an anchor point” in making a stroke. Techniques such as using a belly putter anchored to the player’s torso had been growing in popularity in recent years, especially in the professional ranks, where Adam Scott, Ernie Els, Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson all anchored their way to major championships. But there was never a shortage of detractors claiming that the pendulum motion was not a true golf stroke. “It basically means you can’t put your forearms or your hands on your body, or hold a club against your stomach,” explains Bob Fallis, a member of Golf Manitoba’s board of governors and the organization’s rules chair. While the anchoring ban could have a major effect on the PGA Tour, Fallis says he is hard pressed to think of any top local amateur players who had been using the technique. “There probably are one or two,” he says. “In the seniors there are a couple more, but most people have had time to change back.” Fallis says the rules for serious competitions needn’t always be followed during a friendly game with friends. “If you want to use an anchored putter at your golf club I couldn’t care less,” he says, adding he expects to see some belly putters in his own
regular group. “Other than calling them a cheater, I won’t worry about it,” he says with a laugh. While the anchoring ban has received the most attention, it isn’t the only change in the latest edition of the rules. A committee consisting of three members from the R&A, three from the USGA and one from Golf Canada are responsible for making the final decisions on any rules changes every four years. Golfers have long complained about being penalized a stroke for their ball moving after they have addressed it — even when they didn’t make contact with the ball. This will no longer be the case. If the player doesn’t cause the ball to move, they simply play their next stroke from the ball’s new location without penalty. “It used to be that you were automatically at fault,” Fallis says. “Lots of times the wind would move it. Now it’s a matter of convincing the people you’re with or the rules official that you didn’t move it.” Also new for 2016 is an easing of the penalty for submitting an incorrect scorecard. If a player signs their card and later discovers that they should have added a penalty stroke, they can now make the correction and add a two-stroke penalty. In the past, the player would have been disqualified. Finally, players now have a little more wiggle room if they use an “artificial device” — such as a training device — during competition. Instead of an immediate disqualification, the player is now penalized two strokes on the first infraction and DQ’d for a second. Decisions on the Rules of Golf , which contains some 2,500 decisions designed to clarify the game’s 34 rules, is updated every two years. This year, 29 new decisions were added while 81 were removed. “It has its own language,” says Fallis, who is one of a handful of Level 4 rules officials in the province. “Even a good golfer, if they looked at it, would be pretty confused by it.” For the average golfer playing a rare competitive round of stroke play, Fallis says the best course of action when a rules issue arises is to finish the hole playing two balls and to ask their club pro for a ruling after the round. In match play, a player should tell their opponent what they are doing and any dispute can be settled after the round.
Golfers have long complained about being penalized a stroke for their ball moving after they have addressed it — even when they didn’t make contact with the ball. This will no longer be the case. If the player doesn’t cause the ball to move, they simply play their next stroke from the ball’s new location without penalty.
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