Major Change: Elimination of the Requirement to Announce the Player’s Intent to Lift a BallGolf's New Rules

Golf's New Rules: Major Changes

New Rule: In all three situations under the Rules (that is, Rule 4.2c, Rule 7.3 and Rule 16.4):

• A player is allowed to mark and lift the ball and proceed under the Rule without needing first to announce this intention to another person or to give that person a chance to observe the process.
• But the player still gets a one-stroke penalty if he or she marked and lifted the ball without good reason to do so under that Rule.

Reasons for Change:

The Rules generally rely on the integrity of the player.

• In other relief situations, including when a ball may be lifted and played from a different place, players are allowed to proceed under the Rules without being required to involve another person in any part of the process.

Eliminating the announcement requirements for these three situations simplifies the Rules, brings consistency to the approach of trusting the player and eliminates an unnecessary procedural penalty for simply not informing an appropriate person.

This change should also speed up play because a player no longer needs to take the time to inform another player of their intent to lift and to wait to see if that other player wants to come over to observe the lifting and replacement of the ball.