Bob Austin has scored 100 percent on the PGA/USGA Rules of Golf exam the last three times he’s taken it — and four times overall. He’s answered a question incorrectly on the exam a grand total of three times over the last eight years.

Yet, as much of a rules expert as he’s been, there he was on a beautiful Saturday morning/early afternoon a couple of weeks ago, attending the first of five rules seminars the CGA is conducting this fall.

Why?

Because, as CGA executive director Ed Mate noted early on, seldom in history have the Rules of Golf undergone as significant a chance as they’re currently undergoing. This major “Rules Modernization” will take effect on Jan. 1.

In other words, ready or not, here they come.

People like Austin — and the other 21 people who attended this particular rules seminar on Oct. 20 at Todd Creek Golf Club in Thornton — are doing their best to be proactive, trying to fully memorize and understand the new rules as well as they did the old ones.

And that’s the idea behind a couple of significant projects the CGA has undertaken this fall:

— Mate — who has played a significant role in the impending rules changes, having served on the USGA Rules of Golf Committee for the last three years — and the CGA are putting together a series of “Ready for the 2019 Rules” videos which are being released each Monday for 18 weeks this fall.

— And, complementing the videos, there are five four-hour rules seminars, accompanied by a meal, that are being conducted by the CGA. There was the aforementioned first one at Todd Creek on Oct. 20, one at Lone Tree Golf Club on Oct. 27, and another at Fossil Trace Golf Club in Golden on Saturday. Upcoming are ones at The Club at Flying Horse in Colorado Springs (Dec. 8), and at Ptarmigan Country Club in Fort Collins (Dec. 15).

And at least 10 more CGA rules seminars will be held in the spring, according to CGA director of rules and competition Robert Duke.

To access the CGA’s Ready for the 2019 Rules page, which includes both the videos and the list of seminars, CLICK HERE.

At Todd Creek, the seminar was led by Mate and Duke. With the help of a presentation program and videos, they went one by one through many of the major changes in the rules that will take effect on Jan. 1, took questions and led discussions that came up.

“When the flag went in the hole at the Mid-Am (the final individual CGA championship of 2018) and we started doing the Monday videos, we thought, ‘We ought to pair these with seminars,'” Mate said. “It wasn’t planned, but I’m really glad we did it and I think it’s worked out great.

“Nobody is an expert now. Everybody has to reprove their expertise.”

About 50 people were on hand at Lone Tree, following the 22 at Todd Creek. And there were more than 70 signed up for Fossil Trace this past weekend. Attending are rules officials, various representatives of men’s and women’s clubs, PGA professionals and plenty of others.

“Working on the rules is hard, it’s a process,” noted Austin, who typically serves as a rules official at 8-10 USGA/NCAA tournaments per year. “But even if you’re a beginner or wanted to start officiating, these (the rules seminars) would be a place to start. And I’m sure everyone benefited from listening to the conversations.”

As of Jan. 1, there will be 24 rules in the Rules of Golf, down from 34. Some of the major changes will be:

— When taking a drop, it will be done from knee height rather than shoulder height.

— Players can leave the flagstick in when putting, with no penalty for their ball hitting it.

— The search time for lost balls has been reduced to three minutes from five.

— Most green damage, including spike marks, can be repaired without unduly delaying play.

— A ball unintentionally moved during a search should be replaced with no penalty.

— A ball wedged against the flagstick and the side of the hole is deemed holed.

— It’s not permitted for caddies to line up players before they strike their shot.

— There’s no penalty when a ball unintentionally hits a player or his/her caddie or equipment.

— There’s no penalty for an accidental double hit. Play the ball as it lies.

— An expanded version of water hazards — not including bunkers — are now referred to as penalty areas.

— Loose impediments can be removed in penalty areas and in bunkers.

— Clubs can be grounded in penalty areas.

— A ball — or ball marker — moved accidentally on a putting green should be replaced with no penalty.

— A player may keep using any damaged club, no matter the nature or cause of the damage, even if the player damaged it in anger.

Of course, those are just the highlights. There’s much more to it than that. For a summary the CGA created comparing the current rules to the 2019 rules, CLICK HERE.

“If the facial expression and body language are any indication, (the seminar attendees) really do like (the rules changes),” Mate after the Todd Creek seminar. “I’m not saying they are perfect by any means. Are there still weird things that are head-scratchers? Yes. There’s always going to be nuance, but overall on a scale of 1 to 10 of intuitive, we moved it from a 3 to a 7. It’s a huge improvement. It’s just so much more logical.

“I used to say to people who were not rules experts and would say, ‘I’ve got reasonably good common sense.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s not going to help you'” understand the rules. “It doesn’t help you. There was ‘rules common sense’, and once you became a rules expert and understood the philosophy behind it then common sense in that context would work for you. But unless you understood this, it didn’t help you. Now, if you just have common sense, they make more sense — if that makes sense,” Mate said with a chuckle.

And that’s hopefully the case for people affectionately known as “rules geeks” as well as for relative novices.

Austin definitely falls into the former category. Besides being a prominent national and regional rules official in his own right, he’s married to Christie Austin, the first woman to chair the USGA Rules of Golf Committee.

“I grind on it and work at” being very knowledgeable about the Rules of Golf, Bob Austin said. “My wife says I study more than anybody who she knows. But I really enjoy the academic study of the rules. Most days I spend a half an hour or an hour just reading things, looking at things and just kind of working on it. To do it right, and to do it at a really high level, it takes a lot of work. I love the work, but you need to be diligent about it.

“Christie and I both joke about it. When we’re both studying for rules, we both have decision books on our bedside table. That’s sort of the standard joke with our rules officials. (Christie and I) will talk about situations that come up. She’ll ask me what I learned today. We actually talk about (the rules) a reasonable amount. As a past chairman of the USGA Rules of Golf Committee, she has a great knowledge also. Every time we take the test together, we have a little bit of a friendly (competition). I hope she gets 100, but we certainly have a friendly rivalry about it. She’s academically smarter than I am, and it drives me crazy because I work a lot harder at it that she does. But she can get to the same level as I am in less time. It drives me crazy, but I’m proud of her for it.”

On the other hand, there are plenty of people who want to play by the rules without having to study the topic so intensely.

The key to an effective rules seminar “is being able to give beginning, intermediate and advanced offerings,” Mate noted. “Sandy Schnitzer, who is the co-chair of our Rules Committee, I’ve seen her do rules seminars and she’s so good at teaching to a beginning audience. What we do, as people who live it every day, we hear a question and either we overthink it and try to give a much more detailed answer than is necessary or we underthink it. She’s just so good at getting (what a questioner is asking, no matter at what level).”

As many changes as will take effect on Jan. 1, it’s safe to say that not all will be set in stone. Any long-term student of the game can tell you as much.

“The Rules of Golf are very fluid,” Bob Austin said. “I was surprised by some of the changes, like when you throw a club and damage it, you can continue to play with it. I understood the reason behind each one. But the rules are fluid. And not everything in the rules are going to work out. And the next time they make (a new rules book), there will be tweaks and changes. The USGA and its rulesmakers are going to be watching and looking, and they’ll see what works and what doesn’t work. I certainly trust their judgment.”
 

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.
 

The headline was in reaction to the USGA and R&A’s joint announcement that, starting Jan. 1, a new Local Rule can be implemented to eliminate the penalty when a ball or ball marker is accidentally moved on the putting green.

The Local Rule will be utilized by the top tours around the world and at all USGA and R&A championships, qualifying tournaments and their international matches. It’s expected that many tournament committees — including at the course/club level — will likewise enact the new Local Rule, which has a good chance of becoming part of the Rules of Golf when the next edition is issued.

The Local Rule could affect many golfers — from those who compete in events at their local courses or clubs, to the highest level of tournament play. And it also has an additional local angle given that CGA executive director Ed Mate and former CGA staffer — and current USGA senior director of Rules of Golf and Amateur Status — Thomas Pagel both serve on the USGA Rules of Golf Committee, which reviews such matters very carefully before any such changes are announced.

Of course, last week’s announcement directly addresses situations such as the one that occurred in this year’s U.S. Open, where Dustin Johnson’s ball moved slightly on the fifth green at Oakmont Country Club during the final round as he was preparing to address it. As the pertinent rule indicated at the time, if the weight of evidence indicates it’s more likely than not that a player caused the ball to move, then a penalty must be assessed.

Johnson notified a USGA official and told him he didn’t believe he caused the ball to move, but after other officials reviewed close-up video, DJ was notified on the 12th hole that the matter would be settled after the round. That, of course, left things in limbo for both Johnson and the rest of the competitors. But despite a one-stroke penalty being assessed after the round, Johnson still won by three. That didn’t stop a torrent of criticism regarding the USGA’s handling of the matter.

“For a long time this summer, it’s all people (in the golf community) wanted to talk about,” Mate noted on Friday. “So yes, there was a ton of feedback. Everyone, including the USGA, agrees it was handled poorly. The second thing was, rules officials agree almost unanimously that Dustin Johnson caused the ball to move, while everyone else seemed to think clearly he didn’t cause it to move. I thought the ruling was correct regarding the rules in place at the time. With the preponderance of evidence, I thought he caused ball to move. (Similarly), rules officials thought the ruling was right but was handled poorly.”

Whatever the case, with the situation involving the leader of a major championship during the final round, it was one of the biggest stories of the year in golf. Indeed, Golf World recently ranked it — along with another rules-related controvery at the U.S. Women’s Open — the No. 5 Newsmaker of the Year.

“We’re golfers too, and when we saw players penalized for minor movement of a ball on the putting green, it didn’t sit well with us,” said Pagel, who worked on the CGA staff from 2003-08 and was the assistant executive director of the association for two years before being named executive director of the Utah Golf Association in 2008. “I do hope people are excited about the change and it’s well-received.”

Pagel and Mate both noted that the issue about a ball accidentally moving on the putting green has long been on the USGA Rules of Golf radar, with the Johnson situation bringing it to the forefront. And that resulted in last week’s announcement, which was a relatively rare situation in which a rules alteration was made in between formal revisions of the Rules of Golf.

But this change is part of a larger project of Rules modernization and simplification being undertaken by the USGA and R&A. According to a Q&A on USGA.org, “we plan to preview a comprehensive set of proposed changes in 2017.”

“Would this be happening if not for Dustin Johnson? I don’t think so,” Mate said of this new Local Rule. “But it was a smart PR move and consistent with the overall modernization project.”

“It’s a complete review,” Mate said of the modernization initiative. “Everything is looked at, including clubs, balls, equipment, swinging of the club … No stone is left unturned. (Potentially) there will be lots of changes.”

For more information from the USGA on the new Local Rule, CLICK HERE.