It’s something Mark and Lynn Cramer, longtime owners and operators of the Denver Golf Expo, wrestle with every year:

How to draw big crowds for their three-day consumer golf show, which takes place in mid-winter but helps whet the appetite for the golf season in Colorado.

From 2008 through 2012, the Expo attracted more than 10,000 people four times in five years, including an all-time best 11,202 in 2008.

But since 2013, the Expo has never again reached the five-figure mark. Last year, the total attendance was 8,781.

To be sure, the weather has a huge influence on attendance. If it’s too warm, many golfers go out to play rather than come to the show. But a lot of snow or extreme cold can also keep numbers down.

“The weather has not been cooperating with us,” Mark Cramer said this week.”It’s kind of like the game of golf — it’s weather-dependent. Four of the last five years, we have not had good Golf Expo weather. It’s either been too nice or it’s been too nasty for the Golf Expo.”

Obviously, there’s nothing Expo organizers can do to control the weather in Colorado in February. So it’s up to the Cramers to find things that are in their control that may move the needle upward.

With that in mind, the Cramers are doing a little tweaking with this year’s Denver Golf Expo, which runs Feb. 8-10 at the Denver Mart (I-25 and 58th Ave.).

In particular, they’re focused on trying to attract more young and middle-aged adults to the show.

“We did a lot of research and talking to people after last year’s show,” Cramer said. “There’s a lot of these street fairs popping up, and they’re really popular. There’s music, beer and food and there are food trucks. They’re neighborhood happenings. The Millennials like that sort of thing. We want to incorporate some of that into the show — and we’re starting this year. Music and stuff like that.”

While it may be a multi-year, evolving plan, this year there will a new area at the Expo, called “The Turn”, that will replace the beer garden in the center of the Pavilion, and two additional food options on the Pavilion floor besides the one returning in the Plaza area. Also, for the first time, the closest to the pin contest on a simulated par-3 will feature two TrackMan launch monitors.

“This is in an effort to get more of the Gen X and the Millennials,” Cramer said. “I think we’ve got enough different events going on down there. We’ve got to give Millennials, Gen Xers and Gen Zs a reason to come. What they’ve got to see is other Millennials and Zs (there). They’ve got to be drawn into the game and made to feel welcome. That’s kind of the direction we’re going to try to take it.”

Still, Cramer isn’t sure 10,000 attendance for the three-day show is a readily-attainable goal. Baby Boomers, largely responsible for driving the growth in the game that took place in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, are getting up in years a bit, which could be taking a toll.

“Is 10,000 still realistic? I don’t know,” Cramer said. “That used to be the gold standard — to get 10,000. Last year we had a pretty good advertising plan, and we ended up with 8,781. If we lost 600 (due to bitterly cold Saturday weather), we would have been in the neighborhood of 9,300 or 9,400. So maybe 9,500 is the new normal. We got used to the over-10,000 number. But things have changed in the industry.”

However, other numbers in the Denver Golf Expo have been on a positive trend. For instance, exhibitors at the show went from 112 in 2017 to 131 last year, and are expected to hit a similar number in 2019. As usual, there will be plenty of those exhibitors offering deals on green fees, equipment, golf travel etc. Also up are the number of sponsors at the show.

In something that won’t change from years past, many of Colorado’s top golf organizations will be on hand to promote the game and offer services. ColoradoGolf.org will have more on that front early next week. Among those at the Expo will be the CGA, Colorado PGA, Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado and the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.

As usual, Colorado PGA and LPGA professionals will be providing free 10-minute lessons to attendees, The First Tee of Denver will handle a pitching area, and the JGAC will be overseeing a large Junior Golf Experience area (left) which will include Birdie Ball full swing and chipping — complete with large inflatable targets — and miniature golf.

Another mainstay that’s back is the large club demo area run by Lenny’s Golf.

Other Expo highlights:

— Free seminars will be held each day of the Expo, with former Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley taking a “celebrity lesson” from a Colorado PGA pro on Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. That will be after Stokley wraps up his live broadcast from the Expo from noon-3 that day on The Fan radio (104.3 FM). Jerry Walters’ “In the Fairway” program, also on The Fan, will broacast from the Expo on Feb. 9.

Among the other seminars will be the CGA’s Robert Duke conducting sessions on the modernized Rules of Golf on Feb. 8 (11 a.m.), Feb. 9 (2 p.m.) and Feb. 10 (noon).

For a lineup of all the seminars — which also include a variety of instruction and fitness tips — CLICK HERE.

— The grand prize for the winner of the closest to the pin contest on Sunday will be a trip to Maui, Hawaii, with golf at Royal Kaanapali and lodging at the Hyatt Regency. And the winner of the long-putt challenge putt-off receives a stay-and-play package at the Tubac Resort & Spa south of Tucson, Ariz.

— Forty tickets to the July Web.com Tour event at TPC Colorado will be given out over the P.A. system throughout the show, with another 40 awarded to qualifiers who return for Sunday’s long-putt challenge putt-off. The TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes also will have a physical presence at the show in booth 531.

“We’re getting a lot of feedback that the Denver show is one of the best consumer golf shows out there,” Cramer said. “We’re holding attendance (relatively steady, albeit under 10,000). There’s a lot of shows across the country that are not holding their attendance. That’s a credit to the Colorado Golf Association (and) the Colorado PGA Section that comes in so magnificently every year and supports us so we can do things like the Junior Golf Central, golf instruction, golf seminars, the First Tee of Denver doing the pitching lessons, Lenny’s getting all the manufacturers down for the club demo. A lot of people have embraced the show and gotten behind it.”

By the way, the Cramers, who have owned and operated the Denver Golf Expo since 2000, will be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame on June 2 at Denver Country Club.

“I can’t believe that happened,” Mark Cramer said. “Lynn and I are floored. But it’s the industry (in Colorado) that deserves it.”

Tickets for the Expo are available at DenverGolfExpo.com, at the Denver Mart during the show, and at participating Kings Soopers stores.

For more information about the Denver Golf Expo, CLICK HERE.
 

This week marks the first full-field event in 2019 for any of the three major professional golf tours based in the U.S.

When the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii starts today (Jan. 10), two players who grew up in Colorado will be in the field — Wyndham Clark and Jim Knous — along with former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders.

Clark and Knous are rookies on the PGA Tour for the 2018-19 wraparound season after graduating from the Web.com circuit. Two other golfers who spent their entire youth in Colorado — Jennifer Kupcho and Becca Huffer — will be rookies on the LPGA Tour after successfully negotiating Q-school. The 2019 LPGA season begins on Jan. 17, though Kupcho has deferred becoming a member until she completes her college eligibility at Wake Forest in May. Former University of Colorado golfer Robyn Choi likewise will be an LPGA rookie in 2019.

The remarkable thing about this year is the number of golfers who grew up in Colorado and will be competing on the three major U.S.-based tours — PGA, LPGA and PGA Tour Champions, which starts its season on Jan. 17.

On the PGA Tour, there’s Clark, Littleton-based Knous and part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler.

On the LPGA circuit, there’s Westminster’s Kupcho and Monument’s Huffer.

And on PGA Tour Champions, there’s Hale Irwin, Brandt Jobe and Steve Jones. And depending on how you classify Mike Reid, who lived in the Denver area for a year and a half and helped Cherry Creek High School win a state team title in 1971, he might be included as well.

Add up the total for the three major circuits, and it’s an unusually high representation from Colorado. And that’s without including other major tour golfers who have lived in the state as adults or who played their college golf in the Colorado.

Some recent historical perspective may be in order.

The number of golfers who grew up in Colorado and have competed in at least 10 tournaments on one of the three major U.S.-based tours in the last decade is relatively small, indicating how tough it is to become a regular at the very highest level of golf.

Here’s the rundown:

PGA TOUR

— Kevin Stadler 159 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Mark Hubbard 84 events.

— Brandt Jobe 80 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Shane Bertsch 65 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Jonathan Kaye 28 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Leif Olson 22 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Wyndham Clark 13 events.

LPGA TOUR

— Jill McGill 38 events since the beginning of 2009.

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS

— Hale Irwin 159 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Mike Reid 130 events since the beginning of 2009.

— Steve Jones 68 events.

— Brandt Jobe 64 events.

— R.W. Eaks 49 events since the beginning of 2009.

So with eight or nine Colorado-grown golfers competing on the big-three U.S.-based golf tours this year alone, it’s certainly a high-water mark for the Centennial State.

In fact, on the women’s side, just one golfer who grew up in Colorado has competed in an LPGA Tour event since the end of 2013 — Kupcho, who has played in three since 2016.

For a look at all players with strong Colorado connections on major professional tours around the world, CLICK HERE to view our weekly local pro roundup, which is updated weekly.

New year, new big-time events, new rules, new look for old courses and new dates for some mainstays.

Such is the outlook as Colorado golf enters 2019 with more than the usual amount of major happenings to look forward to in the Centennial State.

Let’s hit some of the highlights:

— U.S. Mid-Amateur: For just the second time ever and the first since 1983 — when Cherry Hills Country Club hosted the proceedings and Jay Sigel added the U.S. Mid-Amateur title to the U.S. Amateur victory he had posted 32 days earlier — Colorado will host the national championship for amateurs 25 and older.

This time, Colorado Golf Club (left) in Parker will be the primary championship site for the 264-player event, which will run Sept. 14-19. Aurora-based CommonGround Golf Course, which is owned and operated by the CGA, will serve as the second host facility for the stroke-play portion of the event Sept. 14-15. CommonGround did likewise for the 2012 U.S. Amateur that Cherry Hills hosted.

It will be the latest feather in the cap of Colorado Golf Club in terms of hosting big-time tournaments. It’s previously been the site of the 2010 Senior PGA Championship and the 2013 Solheim Cup. Bill Coore and two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw designed Colorado Golf Club, which opened in 2007.

Besides the national title being on the line, the winner of the U.S. Mid-Am will receive a berth in the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club in New York — and likely the 2020 Masters.

With the national championship coming to Colorado, the state will host two qualifying tournaments instead of the usual one for the event: Aug. 13 at the Omni Interlocken Golf Club in Broomfield and Aug. 19 at Inverness Golf Club in Englewood.

Admission to the U.S. Mid-Amateur will be free.

— TPC Colorado Championship: The other national/international tournament coming to Colorado in 2019 will be the inaugural TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes, set for July 11-14 at Berthoud-based TPC Colorado, which opened to the public in 2018.

The tournament, the first of at least five Web.com Tour events scheduled for TPC Colorado, will be mark the first visit to Colorado by the PGA Tour’s feeder circuit since 1997, when the second of two Nike Colorado Classics was held at Riverdale’s Dunes Course in Brighton. Stewart Cink, who has since won six times on the PGA Tour including the 2009 British Open, prevailed in the 1996 event at the Dunes.

The 2019 TPC Colorado Championship will feature a $600,000 purse and a 156-person field. Monday qualifying tournaments are set for Riverdale Dunes and Highlands Meadows Golf Course in Windsor on July 8.

— Return of City Park Golf Course: Sometime this year, after being closed for two years for a course redesign and construction project, a new-look City Park Golf Course (left) in Denver is scheduled to reopen. The return is no small matter given that City Park GC dates back to 1912 and has a strong regular clientele.

Todd  Schoeder and his Broomfield-based iCon Golf Studio teamed with design advisor — and three-time U.S. Open champion — Hale Irwin in the course redesign for the site, which will integrate stormwater detention areas to help protect some of the city’s most at-risk neighborhoods from flooding.

When the redesign project is complete, the site will feature the new 18-hole par-71 golf course, a full-size driving range, a dedicated four-hole course for The First Tee of Denver, a new clubhouse and maintenance facility, stormwater detention, and a reforestation program with a net gain of 500 trees.

— Comeback for Cornerstone: It was several years ago at a CGA senior championship that a member at Cornerstone, the Greg Norman-designed course in the high country near Montrose, said that there were plans to reopen the club, which stopped operating in 2012. And while it took a few years, it appears as if that member was correct.

The highly acclaimed private course is undergoing a renovation — at the hands of Matt Dusenberry and Dusenberry Golf Course Design — with plans to reopen in the summer of this year.

Cornerstone originally operated from 2008 through ’12.

— Colorado’s Second Topgolf: Since August 2015, there’s been one Topgolf location in Colorado — the one in Centennial. But three-plus months ago, ground was broken at a second site — at I-25 and 60th Ave., in Thornton. The 65,000-square-foot, three-level facility is scheduled to open to the public in late 2019. It will have 102 climate-controlled hitting bays — where players hit microchipped golf balls at targets with varying point values — in addition to a restaurant and three bars. There will be 250 HD televisions, a rooftop terrace with fire pits and 3,000 square feet of space devoted to private events. The Centennial Topgolf employs about 500 people, the same number that is expected in Thornton.

— Playing by the (New) Rules: The new Rules of Golf, part of a rules modernization project long in the works, took effect with the new year. But for those who don’t play golf outside of Colorado, there’s still some time to get up to date on the changes given that the first tournaments of the year are months away and that scores from Colorado courses can’t be posted for handicap purposes until March 15.

Whether it be putting with the flagstick left in or dropping from knee height, the CGA did a good job during recent months with a video series highlighting the key changes. To watch, CLICK HERE. 

— The Old Switcheroo: For the second time in six years, the dates of the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open and the Colorado Senior Open at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club have been swapped, so that now the women are back around Memorial Day — as they were in 2012 and earlier — and the seniors return to around Labor Day.

Specifically, the Women’s Open is set for May 29-31 and the Senior Open for Aug. 28-30. (The CoBank Colorado Open remains in its same basic slot, with this year’s event planned for July 25-28.)

As Kevin Laura, CEO of the CoBank Colorado Open Championships, said in an email early last month, “We wanted to strengthen the field of our Women’s Open championship by going against the U.S. Women’s Open so that we can pull players from the LPGA and Symetra tours (the latter is expected to have an off week that week).

“Our purse ($150,000) and especially first place ($50,000) should entice players to compete who have not otherwise been able to do so while we were against an LPGA and Symetra event.”

As for the Colorado Senior Open, it’s very possible the date switch will cost the event a possibility at its top draw from a fan and media standpoint. Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway has played in the tournament four times (2010, ’14, ’16 and ’18) — in addition to the Colorado Open four times. But given that the new dates for the Senior Open are now roughly a week before the start of the NFL regular season, and that Elway is the Denver Broncos general manager, it seems highly unlikely that he’ll compete at Green Valley Ranch in 2019.

— CGA Majors: The CGA will return to some familiar courses for its two men’s “major championships” in 2019. The 119th Match Play is set for June 17-21 at The Club at Rolling Hills in Golden, which hosted the event in 2012 as well as 1997, ’88 and ’79. And Aug. 8-11 the CGA Amateur returns to the recently renovated course at Lakewood Country Club, the site for the championship four times just since 1999 — and numerous times prior — with 2014 being its last time as the host.

On the women’s side, the two majors will be played at venues which are hosting their respective events for the first time. The CGA Women’s Stroke Play is scheduled for June 17-19 at Murphy Creek Golf Course in Aurora, where the 2008 U.S. Amateur Public Links was contested. And the 104th CGA Women’s Match Play is set for July 9-11 at The Club at Ravenna in Littleton, which was the site of the men’s CGA Match Play the past two years.

Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kim Eaton, who has matched Carol Flenniken’s record for CGA/CWGA women’s championship titles with 25, would grab the record outright with her next victory in one of the CGA events.

— USGA Qualifiers: A total of 18 qualifying tournaments for USGA national championships are scheduled in Colorado in 2019. Here’s the rundown on the men’s side:

* U.S. Open Locals: May 7 at Collindale in Fort Collins; May 9 at CommonGround in Aurora; and May 13 at Walnut Creek in Westminster.

* U.S. Senior Open: May 28 at Valley in Centennial.

* U.S. Junior Amateur: June 24 at Ptarmigan in Fort Collins.

* U.S. Amateur: July 1 at Columbine in Columbine Valley; and July 8 at Fort Collins Country Club.

* U.S. Senior Amateur: Aug. 5 at TPC Colorado in Berthoud.

* U.S. Mid-Amateur: Aug. 13 at Omni Interlocken in Broomfield and Aug. 19 at Inverness in Englewood.

* U.S. Amateur Four-Ball: Oct. 1 at Saddle Rock in Aurora.

And here’s the lineup for women’s USGA qualifiers:

* U.S. Senior Women’s Open: April 29 at Glenmoor in Englewood.

* U.S. Women’s Open: May 6 at Walnut Creek in Westminster.

* U.S. Girls’ Junior: June 24 at Colorado National in Erie.

* U.S. Women’s Amateur: July 3 at CommonGround in Aurora.

* U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur: July 24 at Meadow Hills in Aurora.

* U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur: Aug. 1 at the newly renovated Thorncreek in Thornton.

* U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball: Sept. 30 at The Ranch in Westminster.

— Junior Tournaments: While the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado schedule is still being set in stone, the biggest junior tournament in Colorado for 2019 is finalized as the AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior is scheduled for June 3-6 at Walnut Creek Golf Preserve in Westminster. It will be the fifth year for the event, with Walnut Creek serving as host for the third straight season.

The girls state high school tournaments this spring are set for May 20-21 at Harmony Club in Timnath (5A), Pelican Lakes in Windsor (4A) and Eagle Ranch in Eagle (3A).

— Colorado PGA Championships: The Colorado PGA will hold its biggest tournament, the three-day Section Championship, Sept. 9-11 at Meridian Golf Club in Englewood.

The CPGA Women’s Championship is set for Glenmoor in Englewood June 19-20. The Assistants Championship is planned for Walnut Creek in Westminster July 29-30, and the Senior Championship Aug. 12-13 at Inverness in Englewood.

And, after an off year, the CGA amateurs and the Colorado PGA professionals will square off for the Colorado Cup Matches on Oct. 16 at the West Course at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

— Winter Events: Meanwhile, one of the first major Colorado golf events of the year will take place in about a month as the Denver Golf Expo returns to the Denver Mart (I-25 and 58th Ave.) Feb. 8-10. Typically, the three-day show attracts close to 10,000 people. Last year, the Expo celebrated its 25th anniversary.

The CGA Women’s Golf Summit, traditionally known as the Annual Meeting, will take place on March 9 at Pinehurst in south Denver.
 

What has been reported for almost a year — a Web.com Tour event coming to the new TPC Colorado course in Berthoud starting in 2019 — became a reality on Thursday when next year’s Web tournament schedule was announced.

The TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes will be held for the first time the week of July 8-14, 2019. The event, which will feature 156 players and a $600,000 purse, will be the first of five such tournaments planned for TPC Colorado through 2023.

TPC Colorado, located just northwest of U.S. Highway 287 where the road turns east a little northwest of Berthoud, has opened in phases over the last year, with some member play taking place on selected holes in September of 2017 and general public play beginning Sept. 1 of this year.

The TPC facility, the first brand-new 18-hole regulation golf course to open in Colorado since 2009, held its first major tournament last week with the Colorado PGA Professional Championship being contested there.

“Our site is a hidden gem, but I couldn’t imagine a better location,” said TPC Colorado owner Jon Turner. “Our project is equidistant between Boulder and Fort Collins. This is our marquis development project and we think it’s the perfect stage for this event to showcase Colorado to the world.”

The TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes will mark the first Web.com Tour event held in Colorado since 1997. The Web.com Tour is one step below the PGA Tour, with the top 25 finishers on the Web’s regular-season money list each year earning PGA Tour cards, and another 25 landing priviliges through their performance in the Web.com Finals, a series of season-ending events culminating with the Web.com Tour Championship.

The Web circuit — then known as the Nike Tour — previously had a tournament in Colorado in 1996 and ’97, when Riverdale’s Dunes Course in Brighton hosted the Nike Colorado Classic. Stewart Cink, who has since won six times on the PGA Tour including the 2009 British Open, claimed the title in 1996.

Of course, Colorado has also hosted annual PGA Tour stops in the state over the years, most recently The International at Castle Pines from 1986 through 2006. And the BMW Championship PGA Tour playoff event was conducted at Cherry Hills Country Club in 2014.

“We are excited to bring the Web.com Tour to Colorado in conjunction with the highly anticipated debut of TPC Colorado,” Web.com Tour president Dan Glod said in a release. “This state has historically delivered a tremendous amount of PGA Tour support, and we are confident that local businesses, fans and volunteers will enable the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes to become a great success.”

TPC Colorado, a semi-private/high-end daily fee Scottish links-style course designed by Arthur Schaupeter, can stretch to 7,991 yards from the Tour tees. Some of its most formidable features are stacked-sod-faced bunkers (below), often with sheer walls, along with scenic views of the Rocky Mountains. Course mounding often results in views of only part of the flagsticks when hitting approach shots.

The large reservoirs on site — the Lonetree, McNeil and Welch Reservoirs — rarely come into play for championship-caliber players, though seven holes are situated along the water.

A 60,000-square-foot clubhouse at TPC Colorado is currently under construction.

Drew Blass will be the tournament director for the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes. Blass, most recently director of corporate partnerships and business development for the LPGA, has served as director of operations and assistant tournament director for the last three U.S.-based Solheim Cups, including the one held at Colorado Golf Club in Parker in 2013.

“Colorado has a rich history with the game of golf and support (for it), which I witnessed firsthand during my time with the 2013 Solheim Cup,” Blass said. “We are confident the TPC Colorado Championship will become one of the region’s premier sporting events beginning in 2019 and the place to be each July.” 

Larry Collins, the PGA general manager at TPC Colorado, has worked at six TPC facilities over his career.

“It’s really a stunning piece of land,” he said last fall regarding TPC Colorado. “It sits on 800 acres, overlooking three reservoirs with about 1,500 acres of water — with Longs Peak and a panoramic view (of the mountains) in the background. The community is just going to be loaded with amenities. It’s very, very exciting.”

A year after the USGA and R&A proposed changes that would modernize, simplify and streamline the Rules of Golf — and after a subsequent six-month comment period — a final set of Rules were announced on Monday that will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.

Three current or former CGA staffers serve on the USGA Rules of Golf Committee which played a key role in the Rules modernization process — CGA executive director Ed Mate and former CGA staff members Thomas Pagel and Pete Lis. Pagel is the USGA’s senior director of rules and amateur status, and Lis is the manager of rules and competition for the LPGA.

It turns out that the six-month period of public feedback — which resulted in about 30,000 comments — did have an effect, leading to a few changes to what was proposed on March 1, 2017.

“I think it was handled masterfully,” Mate said of the whole process. “The USGA was in a damned if we do and damned if we don’t situation. But they gave a legitimate chance for people to comment, and they listened and responded (with some alterations). It wasn’t just wink, wink.”

For instance:

— Instead of allowing ball drops from any height — as was proposed a year ago — what will be implemented is dropping from knee height.

“A number of comments we received from all levels of the game wanted to see a certain amount of randomness maintained so that when you drop a ball, you’re not sure what kind of lie you’re going to get,” Pagel said. “But how do you ensure that randomness? Do you take it back to shoulder height? It was really about finding a balance of maintaining that randomness while also allowing the player to identify a relief area, drop there as quick as possible and play on.”

— And instead of taking relief in a given situation based on 20- or 80-inch measurements — which was proposed — the rule will be one club length for free relief and two for a drop with a penalty.

“I think of all the changes, that one is the real concrete example of we listened,” Pagel said. “This feedback period, we were sincere in asking for people’s views. Because the fixed measures, philosophically, make total sense, but from a practical standpoint with people saying ‘I’m scratching my head a little bit. I’m not sure how I’m going to measure this,’ we had to step back and say, ‘OK let’s change.’ “¦ It’s a lot easier if I just use my club length. And so we just went back to the drawing board.”

In addition, there are other tweaks since the proposed rules announcement from last year:

— There will be no penalty for accidentally double hitting a ball on a given stroke — a la T.C. Chen at the 1985 U.S. Open. Instead, the player will simply count the stroke made to hit the ball, and the ball will be played as it lies.

— Also, there’s a new local rule that will be available — but not for professional or elite-level amateur play — in which a golfer can drop a ball in the vicinity of where it went out of bounds or was lost, incurring a two-stroke penalty instead of the current stroke-and-distance. That local rule is designed to speed up recreational play.

“This addresses the issue you hear at the club level about the practical nature of going back and playing under stroke and distance that just doesn’t work. It has a negative impact on pace of play, and so how can we introduce something to resolve that? That’s what this local rule is about,” Pagel said. “You simply estimate where it’s out of bounds or where your ball is likely to be lost, you can go all the way out to the fairway and drop anywhere behind. “¦ But the primary objective here is to keep the player moving forward, and we think that’s the real benefit of this.”

There’s also a new unplayable ball relief option in which a player may take relief outside a bunker by dropping a ball back on the line from the hole through where the ball was at rest in the sand — with a penalty of two strokes.

The biggest topic broached in the public comment period reportedly was golfers asking for relief when their ball is in a divot. But no changes were made in that area.

“One of the primary objectives for the overall initiative is to make the rules easier to understand and apply, but to also make sure we maintained the traditions and principles behind the game,” Pagel said. “And the principles are to play the ball as it lies and the course as you find it. So to write a rule that allows a player to sort of deviate from that was not something we were wanting to do.”

Among the previously announced proposed rule changes that will go into effect on Jan. 1 — part of what the USGA calls the biggest Rules overhaul since at least 1984:

— Searches for a lost ball will be limited to three minutes rather than the current five.

— A caddie will no longer be allowed to line up a player.

— There will be no penalty if a ball you hit strikes you, your caddie, or your equipment.

— There will be no penalty for a ball — struck on the putting green — hitting the unattended flag in the hole.

— Spike marks and almost all other damage on a green can be repaired. But note: existing pace-of-play rules will remain in place.

— A club can be grounded and loose impediments removed in a penalty area.

— Loose impediments can be moved in a bunker;.

— There will be no penalty for accidentally moving your ball while searching for it or for accidentally moving your ball or ball marker when it’s on the putting green.”¨

All told, starting next year there will be 24 rules instead of 34 thanks to this rules modernization process, which began in 2012.

“It was a fascinating process in which I had a chance to provide some input and that I had an opportunity to preview,” said Mate, who noted that he tried to always keep in mind that he served on the USGA Rules of Golf Committee as a representive of state and regional golf associations. “The modernization is still golf. None of the changes that were made fundamentally change the game. Some thoughtful, intuitive things have been added.

“It’s been awesome being part of this. When Thomas Pagel called me to serve (starting in the fall of 2015), I would have been thrilled to death if that call came in any year, as someone who’s studied the Rules as long as I have. But to be in the room when those things were discussed, and when the most significant rewrite of the Rules (in a long time) was being done, is incredible. We’re not talking about changing decisions; this was a fundamental rewrite. Everything was being challenged. I much prefer coversations of ‘why’, which is what this was. I’ll always cherish being a part of it.”

For more information from the USGA on the Rules changes, CLICK HERE. And for the USGA Rules page, CLICK HERE.