( atc )
The Rules
Capture
The Flag:
In or out?
The choice
is yours
by JOSH COATES
Whether you have read the new Rules
of Golf, played a round using them or just
watched golf on television this year, one of
the major changes to the Rules that has
probably caught your attention regards the
flagstick. Rule 13.2 covers what options you
have when dealing with the flagstick and
some of them are very different than those
that you had at this time last year.
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If you want to save time,
you can hole out with the
flagstick left in the hole.
the flagstick when it is his or her turn to
play, you may have it placed back in the
hole when it is your turn. One thing to
keep in mind is that if you leave the flag-
stick in the hole or choose to have it put
back in, you cannot deliberately move it
to a position other than centered in the
hole. So, in certain situations there may
be some strategy involved as to whether
or not you leave the flagstick in the hole,
but you cannot try to gain an advantage
by leaning it one way or another.
Of course, if you do not wish to leave
the flagstick in the hole, you may have it
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 9
removed or authorize someone to attend
it, just as you used to, and the Rules are
more relaxed in these cases. If you make
a stroke and your ball accidentally hits
the removed flagstick or the person who
removed it or the person attending the
flagstick, including anything that person
is holding, there is no penalty and the
ball must be played as it lies. The key
word here is accidentally. The Rules treat
deliberate actions much differently and
there may be a penalty involved if your
ball is deliberately deflected or stopped
(see Rules 13.2b(2), 11.2 and 11.3).
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Under last year’s Rules, when your ball
was on the putting green, you had to
remove the flagstick or have it attended
because if the ball were to hit it after
a stroke, more than likely there was a
penalty involved. Under the new Rules,
before a stroke from anywhere on the
course, whether on or off the putting
green, you may opt to leave the flagstick in
the hole and there is no penalty if the ball
hits it. The main reason for this change
fits into one of the themes of the new
Rules, which is faster pace of play. You
no longer need to wait for someone to
attend the flagstick for that 50-foot putt
or remove the flagstick from the hole for
a short tap in. Instead, you may save time
and hole out with it left in the hole.
The decision to leave the flagstick in the
hole or not is entirely up to you. So, if one
player in your group chooses to remove