Golfers throughout the world, from the crude club hacker to the elite amateur and the leading professional campaigners, will benefit from a series of revisions to the game's rules announced by the Royal & Ancient and the United States Golf Association last night.
Following an extensive, four-year investigation, amateur golfers will be allowed to play for unlimited hole-in-one prizes in a significant change to the Rules of Amateur Status which will now recognise the “special nature of a hole-in-one during a round of golf”.
Previously, the rules allowed for a prize worth no more than £500 and any amateur accepting something of a higher value had to relinquish their amateur status. A well-known English golf correspondent once received a Lamborghini after scoring an ace back in 1998.
While the chances of a sportscar being on offer at the Bishopbriggs Pro-Am are remote, an amateur who achieves the rare feat and accepts any bounty on offer will now have no cause for concern.
A new ruling, which will be effective from January 1, 2012 and brings the R&A into line with the USGA, excludes hole-in-one prizes from the general prize limit and allows high- value prizes, including cash, to be awarded.
“We felt the time was right to carry out a fundamental review of the Rules of Amateur Status,” said David Rickman, the R&A’s director of rules, after unveiling a joint worldwide code for amateur status for the first time. “We were conscious that many sports had done away with amateur status rules and we felt that was an appropriate question for us to ask.
“We concluded that it is very important that golf retains its amateur regulations, mainly because of the self-regulating nature of the game, in terms of the playing rules and handicapping. We felt that uncontrolled financial incentives could place too much pressure on these important features.”
The amended Rules of Amateur Status will also have benefits for amateur golfers making the step up into the professional ranks. Under the new terms, players will now be able to enter into an agreement with an agent or sponsor as long as they do not receive any financial gain while still an amateur. Rules have also been relaxed on subsistence payments paid through the national golf unions.
“The rules on contracts now reflect the modern game and adopt a much more realistic and common-sense approach,” said Rickman. “Similarly, the rules on subsistence expenses should help the support of deserving talent wherever it may emerge across the golfing world.”
The R&A and the USGA also unveiled tweaks to nine principal rules of golf to improve clarity. The most telling of these amendments will result in a player being exonerated from a penalty if it is known that their ball was moved by the wind after address.
In a series of incidents this season, Webb Simpson and Rory McIlroy both received one-shot penalties for what is widely regarded as one of golf’s harshest rules.
At the Zurich Classic in May, Simpson’s ball moved on the 15th green and he incurred a penalty. Simpson lost his one stroke lead and was eventually beaten in a play-off by Bubba Watson. McIlroy was penalised on the seventh hole during the final round of July’s Open but it did not have dramatic an impact as he finished down in 25th.
“Every time the wind blows I am worried that my ball is going to move,” said Padriag Harrington, a two-time Open champion. “This change will speed up play, there won’t be as many suspensions and players won’t be getting penalised or disqualified unfairly. It is definitely giving us players a little bit of a break.”
Other notable amendments mean players will also be able to smooth sand in a bunker before playing from the hazard “provided it is for the sole purpose of caring for the course and Rule 13-2 (improving lie, area of intended stance or swing or line of play) is not breached”.
The penalty, meanwhile, for starting late, but within five minutes of the correct time, is reduced from disqualification to loss of the first hole in match play or two strokes at the first hole in stroke play.
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