2016 Rules Changes

2016 brings some new changes in the Rules of Golf. Here is a quick recap of a few of them that players could run into.

One misconception is that the long putter has been banned but that is not the case in that it is anchoring of any club is now not allowed. The long putter was the main club that players anchored. Anchoring is having a fixed point and then swinging the club like a pendulum.

Using artificial devices during a round like alignment sticks or weighted donuts on a club used to be a disqualification but now it’s a two stroke penalty for the first infraction and further ones will be a disqualification.

They have withdrawn the rule of a penalty for a ball moving after you had addressed your ball. This would often happen on very fast greens and now the one stroke penalty will be applied only when the facts show that the player has caused the ball to move. In the past if you addressed your ball and for virtually any reason it moved you would be penalized even if you had stepped away.

I will try to regularly give some information on some of the basic Rules of Golf that players don’t fully understand and if there are any questions from anyone I hope that they will be posted and I’ll do my best to answer.