5 Golf Rules That Should Change

The last time I wrote an article about golf rules, things got a little heated.

Well, I promise not to mention fairway divot relief in this story. This is, after all, a story about golf rules that should change (and there is nothing to change about playing the ball as it lies).

Now that you’re sufficiently upset with me, I would like to present five official Rules of Golf that should change.

This is completely separate from John Barba’s common sense rules, which is a great guide for recreational play where breakfast balls and dropping from tree roots is totally acceptable. It’s also separate from talking about unwritten rules of etiquette, whether on the course or while on the practice range.

This is about actual written rules that should change. As in the USGA and R&A Rules of Golf that set the standard for worldwide competition on all levels of play. The average golfer largely plays by their own rules—which is totally fine by me—but this specific article is about letter-of-the-law changes.

I’m a bigger defender of golf rules than most. It would, in theory, be nice to have a simple 10-page rulebook that clears up every issue with straightforward guidance—I think that is unrealistic given the complexities of golf.

Could rules be tightened up a little bit? Yes. Are they trending in the right direction? Also yes.

Only five years ago, golfers received a two-shot penalty for making a putt with the flagstick still in the hole. There used to be outrage over whether a player grounded their club in a hazard, as if that made any difference whatsoever to their ability to hit the shot. You used to not be able to fix a giant spike mark directly in your line on a five-foot putt. Players had five minutes to look for a lost ball (they now have a more understandable three minutes).

Looking back, these are all positive, common sense changes to the rules.

Here are five changes that, in my opinion, deserve to get implemented at some point.

1. Eliminating stroke-and-distance penalty for out-of-bounds and lost balls

Hitting a ball out-of-bounds, or losing a ball, is by far the most punishing mistake a player can make. One bad swing and you’ve essentially been penalized two shots, given that you have to return to the original spot while also taking an additional stroke.

I’m against this rule for three reasons.

The first is that’s way too harsh a penalty for the crime. You can hit a tee shot into the middle of a lake and be in significantly better shape than going out-of-bounds, even if the shot into the water was just as bad as the shot that went OB.

The second is that a lot of courses are not marked properly. I’ve played plenty of tree-lined courses that don’t have any stakes bordering complete wilderness you can’t enter. And then you go to another course and there are red stakes or white stakes or yellow stakes in similar areas.

The third is that stroke-and-distance penalties only slow the game down. If a player in a tournament hits a shot OB but thinks it is in play, they have to trudge all the way back to the tee to hit again.

The USGA has an optional local rule that allows a player to take two penalty strokes and then “estimate the spot where your ball is lost or went out of bounds and then find the nearest fairway edge that is not nearer the hole than the estimated spot.” It goes on to state that, “You can drop a ball in the fairway within two club-lengths of that fairway edge point, or anywhere between there and the estimated spot where your ball is lost or went out of bounds.”

I would like to see the inverse of this, with a modification—allow a local rule for stroke-and-distance penalties while making the standard procedure to treat lost balls and shots that go OB as a one-stroke penalty, but without the benefit of going to the fairway edge.

Rule Change: Estimate the spot where your ball is lost or went out of bounds based on where the ball crossed OB or was approximately lost and then drop closest to that area, taking full relief and incurring a one-stroke penalty. A local rule for Tour golf or higher levels can still enforce stroke-and-distance penalties.

There is still a strict punishment for losing a ball or going OB—many times, it will be a punch shot out of the woods after already taking a one-stroke penalty—but it is a more fitting penalty for the mistake, makes up for improperly marked courses and allows play to move along without anyone having to go back to the tee. It will also cut off the time spent searching for a ball, given that the penalty is not as severe.

As for arguments about exactly where a ball crossed OB or was lost, that type of discussion has been happening in golf forever with lateral hazards.

2. Stricter pace of play standards

I’m not sure if you’ve been to, well, any elite amateur or professional golf tournament in the past few years, but golf has a pace of play crisis on its hands.

Rounds are routinely taking beyond five hours, and we’re not talking about some foursome of 20-handicappers stuck in the woods all day—we’re talking about some of the best players in the world.

Ultimately, I think golf will need to change its standards. It’s not too dissimilar from baseball which installed a pitch clock to significantly shorten games.

There are “recommendations” in the rulebook to describe how fast the game should be played but they are way too vague. Rule 5.6b states: “It is recommended that the player make the stroke in no more than 40 seconds after they are (or should be) able to play without interference or distraction, and the player should usually be able to play more quickly than that and is encouraged to do so.”

The rule goes on to state that a local committee can determine penalties for not adhering to pace of play standards.

Sure, but that is almost never enforced at any level. How many players are cognizant of how much time they are taking? It’s an afterthought. There is less than one pace of play penalty per year on the PGA Tour. You hear of it happening occasionally at lower levels, but it clearly isn’t affecting overall pace.

Playing the game within a reasonable time is a skill, just like it’s a skill in any other sport. If Patrick Mahomes didn’t have a play clock, football would get a lot easier. And golf needs to get faster for a variety of reasons—entertainment as a TV product being among them.

Rule Change: Rather than a recommendation, time is a legitimate rule. Every player gets 40 seconds to play their shot upon reaching their ball and/or being expected to hit. Rules officials, like state troopers handing out speeding tickets, have the ability to dock a player a one-stroke penalty at any time in the round if the players doesn’t hit within 40 seconds. Groups that fall behind pace get timed for every shot until they are back in position. Common sense exceptions can be made based on the rules official’s discretion.

I think this sets a standard that everyone needs to play in a reasonable amount of time. It would be great to have actual shot clocks in place but logistically it’s not feasible to have that available for all groups across all levels of play. This change makes it known that all players risk getting docked a stroke.

3. More liberal embedded ball interpretations

An embedded ball occurs when a ball plugs far enough to break the surface of the ground, making the next shot unreasonable to hit.

There is typically free relief after hitting a shot and having this happen. It makes sense, given that it’s usually the direct result of soft conditions. If you hit a ball but it plugs, the ball staying in its crater, it obviously doesn’t make sense for a golfer to hit the next shot from that spot when they’ve done nothing wrong.

This free relief is granted through the “general area,” which essentially covers the whole course except penalty areas and bunkers. That makes sense. If you hit the ball in the bunker and have a fried egg, you shouldn’t get free relief. It’s a hazard for a reason.

However, there are additional instances where free relief is not granted. Rule 16.3a(2) states that, “A ball is not embedded if it is below the level of the ground as a result of anything other than the player’s previous stroke, such as when the ball is pushed into the ground by someone stepping on it, the ball is driven straight into the ground without becoming airborne, or the ball was dropped in taking relief under a Rule.”

I would like to see free relief granted for these conditions. Someone (including yourself) accidentally stepping on your ball shouldn’t warrant having to take an unplayable lie. The same rings true for some poor soul who barely moves their ball with a shot driven straight into the ground. I think the embarrassment (and the stroke already taken) is punishment enough.

Rule Change: All embedded balls through the general area warrant free relief. Golfers can take one club-length of relief no closer to the hole.

You may be seething at your computer wondering why I am in support of more liberal rules for free relief from an embedded ball while still being in favor of having to play out of fairway divots.

OK, I promised I wouldn’t mention fairway divots in this story, but now I have to explain.

An embedded ball is typically straightforward to determine. Has the ball broken ground? And an embedded ball is also typically unreasonable to play from.

A fairway divot may or may not be straightforward to determine. What constitutes a divot? And 99.9 percent of the time it is reasonable (albeit inconvenient) to hit a shot from a fairway divot.

4. No limit on the number of clubs a player can carry

One of the first golf rules a beginner learns is the maximum number of clubs (14) you are permitted to carry.

Defenders of club limits will point to additional shot-making and strategy when there are limits to how many clubs go in your bag but I feel like that impact is imperceptible once you reach 14 clubs. I would love to see a Tour event with a max of 10 clubs—then we’ll really see some decisions having to be made—but the 14-club limit doesn’t really serve any reasonable purpose at this point.

This rule came about in the 1930s when players wanted to carry both hickory and steel-shafted clubs as they transitioned into more advanced equipment. The number 14 was arbitrary.

Now what? If I want to take 17 clubs with me, why should it matter? It might make the game slightly easier for some people—and it might make the game slightly more fun for some people—but how many shots could someone realistically save by adding clubs?

Also, few people, including Tour pros, would go beyond 16 or 17 clubs just because of the added weight/clutter it creates in most modern golf bags.

If there is a club so specialized and magical that it gives a player an unfair advantage, well, that advantage would exist equally with everyone. And they probably would have already added that club to the bag under the 14-club rule, anyway.

Rule 4.1b states that players can incur a maximum four-stroke penalty if they play multiple holes in a round with more than 14 clubs. While I’ll admit this rule rarely gets enforced, it’s also unnecessary.

If the PGA Tour is an entertainment product, why wouldn’t we allow everyone the option of having a 64-degree wedge, multiple drivers and any club in the bag that could help them pull off incredible shots?

Please don’t come at me about how records would have to be changed or anything like that. Golf has long jumped the shark with distance and technology—most scoring records have been obliterated.

Make the game simpler and let everyone carry what they want.

Rule Change: Players can carry as many clubs as they want, as long as they are conforming.

5. Creating a more lenient wrong ball rule

Hitting the wrong golf ball—which is something the vast majority of golfers do unintentionally—carries one of the harshest penalties in golf.

Under Rule 6.3c, it’s a two-shot penalty and you must correct the mistake by going back and playing your ball to finish the hole. If you can’t find your ball, you have to proceed under the stroke-and-distance penalty, creating a comical string of penalty strokes added to your score.

So let’s say you hook your tee shot well left and are searching for the ball. You find a ball, hit it and then realize that it’s not your ball. You still can’t find your original tee shot. Now you have to go back to the tee, hitting your fifth shot.

I am in favor of creating a more reasonable penalty here, given how hitting a wrong ball is usually a mistake. I would have the player return to their original ball after a one-stroke penalty.

However, given my other rule change on this list, a lost ball would only require an additional one-stroke penalty and a drop nearest to the estimated spot of losing the ball.

So now a hooked tee shot, plus hitting a wrong ball, plus not being able to find the original ball, would result in the player getting to hit their fourth shot from the spot where they believed the ball to be lost.

Rule Change: Hitting a wrong ball results in a one-stroke penalty and requires the player to return to their previous ball. If lost, they can take a drop at the estimated location of the lost ball.

What other rule changes would you put on this list? Let me know below in the comments.

Top Photo Caption: PGA Tour player Tyson Alexander receives a ruling during the Wyndham Championship. (GETTY IMAGES/David Jensen)