The CSGA Links Volume 5 Issue 1 April 2017 | Page 39

Full List of Proposed Changes (To take effect January 1st, 2019)
Ball at Rest
- No penalty for accidentally moving your ball during search.
- No penalty for accidentally moving your ball or ball-
marker on the putting green.
- New standard to determine if you caused your ball to
move.
- Replacing Ball- When the original location of a ball is not
known, replace the ball on its estimated spot.
green so long as doing so does not improve the conditions
for your stroke.
- No penalty if your ball played from the putting green (or
anywhere else) hits the unattended flagstick in the hole.
Penalty Areas
- Areas of desert, jungle, lava rock, etc. (in addition to areas
of water) may now be marked as red or yellow “penalty
areas.”
Ball in Motion Accidentally Deflected
- Committees are given the discretion to mark any penalty
- No penalty if your ball in motion is accidentally deflected area as red so that lateral relief is always allowed.
by you, your equipment, or your caddie.
- Relief from a red penalty area no longer allowed on the
opposite side from where the ball last entered the penalty
Taking Relief
area.
- Measuring the Size of the Relief Area Where a Ball Must
Be Dropped and Played. The focus of the new dropping Bunkers
procedure would be on a specific “relief area” of either 20 - Relaxed Rules relating to loose impediments and
or 80 inches from a reference point or reference line.
touching the ground in a bunker.
- Relief allowed outside a bunker for an unplayable ball
New Procedure for Dropping a Ball
for two penalty strokes.
- The only requirement will be for you to hold the ball
above the ground and let it go so that it falls through the Equipment
air before coming to rest.
- A club damaged during a round can continue to be used,
- The ball must come to rest in the relief area where it was even if you damaged it in anger.
dropped, or else the ball must be redropped.
- You will not be allowed to replace a damaged club during
- Fixed Distance (Not Club-Lengths) Used for Measuring- a round if you were responsible for the damage.
The relief area will be measured by a fixed distance of
either 20 or 80 inches from the reference point or the Use of Distance-Measuring Devices
- The use of DMDs will be allowed unless a Local Rule has
reference line.
been adopted prohibiting their use.
Time For Search Before Ball is Lost
- A ball is lost if not found in three minutes (rather than Playing a Ball
- A caddie is not allowed to stand on a line behind a player
the current 5 minutes).
while the player is taking his or her stance and until stroke
Substituting Ball
is made.
- A player will be allowed to always substitute a ball when - A caddie may lift and replace a player’s ball on the putting
taking relief.
green without the player’s specific authorization to do so.
- It is recommended that you play “ready golf” and make
Relief For an Embedded Ball
each stroke in no more than 40 seconds.
- Relief allowed without penalty for an embedded ball - A new “Maximum Score” form of stroke play is recognized,
anywhere (except in sand) in the “general area” (a new where a player’s score for a hole is capped at a max score.
term for “through the green”).
Player Behavior
When to Replace a Ball That Moves on the Putting Green - Committees are given authority to adopt their own
- After your ball has been lifted and replaced, you would code of player conduct and to set penalties for breaches
always replace your ball on its original spot, even if it was
of that code.
blown by the wind or moved for no clear reason.
- A player’s reasonable judgment will not be second-
guessed based on later evidence.
Repairing Damage on the Putting Green
- Repair of almost any damage allowed on the putting - When you have good reason to mark and lift your
ball, you are no longer required to first announce your
green (including spike marks and animal damage).
Putting Green
- No penalty for touching your line of play on the putting
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intention.
CSGA Links // April, 2017 | 39