(Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a three-part series on the Rules of Golf. The first part was a look at the five most-searched rules in 2023 and the second discussed the USGA’s rules hotline.)
The Rules of Golf govern every shot during a professional round or even an outing with friends, but they’re never in the front of your mind when lining up a 10-foot putt or a tee shot.
Where you can take relief from, how you can mark a ball on a green and how to deal with ground under repair are all common issues one may face during a round of golf. Yet the rules guiding the game are constantly changing, and sometimes it can be hard for a weekend golfer to keep up with the changes.
However, that doesn’t stop the United States Golf Association and R&A from continually evaluating the rules to make sure they’re up to par with today’s standards and the way golf is played.
“As long as golfers are out there playing the game, the rules are going to keep changing,” said Craig Winter, the USGA’s senior director of Rules of Golf. “That’s true of any sport and society in general. Rules obviously help golfers understand how the game is played.”
As far as the USGA, which helps govern the game of golf with the R&A, Winter said the organization is always taking feedback on rules and whether changes need to be made.
Winter said there’s a committee, which includes PGA Tour, LPGA, PGA of America and other representation, that meets three times a year to discuss the Rules of Golf. During those meetings, the committee and its experts will talk about the rules, whether they think some need to be changed and try to answer questions that were submitted.
The USGA and R&A partnered for joint governance in 1952, and new rules have been announced in four-year cycles ever since. It changed with the modernized rules update in 2019, meaning the new four-year cycle put rule changes at the beginning of this year with the next to come in 2027.
“The joint meetings are a really good chance for us to get together and get deep into what are you looking for with this particular item, this particular reason for change,” Winter said.
There are also quarterly clarifications that can come out on rules, including one that did in July.
Winter said the USGA receives nearly 15,000 questions a year regarding the Rules of Golf. Although the USGA doesn’t discuss all of them among the committee, the ones that get them thinking and stir up a conversation on whether a change needs to be made are brought up on the bigger stage.
“We live and breath the rules,” Winter said. “Especially as a staff, that’s what our job is. We’re always thinking about the rules. Anything you’re thinking about, you’re thinking about how it is, how it was and how it could be. That process just kind of feeds itself.”
