Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2019 - 8

RULES PRIMER
New Rules in Action
Revised playing procedures test tour pros' knowledge
and patience.
R
14.3
Dropping a Ball in a Relief Area
One of the major changes in the new Rules published last year is fairly straightforward:
You must drop a ball in the right way, which means all of the ways described here:
(1) You drop the ball (not anyone else, except your partner) from knee height (see illus.),
so that (2) it falls straight down without any " English " on it, which might affect where
it comes to rest, and it must not touch any part of your body or equipment before it hits
the ground.
(3) The ball must be dropped in the relief area and remain in the relief area.
If the drop doesn't satisfy all of the conditions
above, then the ball was dropped
in a wrong way, and it must be dropped
again. A wrong drop does not count as
one of the two drops required before
the ball must be placed in the relief area
where it first struck the ground (after
the second correct drop).
Rickie Fowler dropped his ball at
the WGC in Mexico (the old way from
shoulder height), earning a one-stroke
penalty (he didn't correct the drop).
Obviously, it rankled, because a week
later at the Honda Classic, Fowler was
infamously captured mocking the new
dropping procedure.
While it looks different (not cool,
athletic or good, Fowler was quoted),
arriving at knee height was intended to
simplify putting a ball back in play by
avoiding one of the nine instances when a
re-drop was required under the old rules.
ules 14.3 and 10.2b have thrown monkey wrenches in what has otherwise been a
mostly smooth transition as the professional tours play under the new, modernized
Rules of Golf. There have been only a handful of penalties associated with the
new rules, but two of them have caused quite a stir on social media.
NEW RULE
* BY W.P. RYAN *
RULE 10.2 CONTROVERSY
PROMPTS CLARIFICATION
The USGA and R&A have
issued several rules clarifications
since the new, modernized
Rules of Golf were
published last year. You might
call clarifications common
sense tweaks to make the
rules better. A timely clarification
came Feb. 6 to Rule
10.2b(4)-Restriction on the
Caddie Standing Behind the
Player after Denny McCarthy
was penalized two strokes at
the Waste Management Open.
McCarthy's caddie was behind
him after he had begun to take
his stance. Although he backed
away, it was too late to avoid
the penalty under the original
rule. With the clarification, if a
player backs away, the stance
is not considered to have
begun. The second clarification
for this rule explains that
it does not apply if the caddie
is not deliberately standing
behind the player. In other
words, to be deliberate, the
caddie has to be standing behind
the player and be awake
to the fact that the player is
taking his stance in preparation
for making a stroke. To
sum up: The caddie should
not be behind the player as
the stance is taken, but if the
player backs away from the
stance, it is essentially a getout-of-jail-free
card. For a full
explanation of the rules, go to
usga.org/rules.
8
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Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2019

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