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THE RULES
OB SPORTS GOLF & LEISURE
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WINTER 2019
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obsports.com
the 1985 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills by
a shot after he was assessed a penalty
for a double-hit chip on the way to a
quadruple-bogey in the final round.
"Two Chip" Chen wants a mulligan.
From now on, a double-hit only counts
as one stroke. Thank you, USGA.
> You can now putt with the flag-
stick in the cup and won't be penal-
ized if your ball hits the pin, the way
the late Bruce Lietzke once missed a
cut after his brother-in-law caddie
failed to remove it in time.
This also is a great change that could
help pace of play, because when you're
faced with a long putt, you won't need
someone else to tend the flag. Your
playing partners can be lining up their
putts while you're putting.
Sometimes the flagstick helps; some-
times it hurts. It's up to you to decide
if you want to leave it in.
Like tour pro Bryson DeChambeau,
I like to leave the flagstick in, but for a
different reason than he does. I have
very little depth perception, so the
flagstick helps me gauge the distance
on long putts.
> You can now repair spike marks
on the green, rather than being lim-
ited to fixing only old ball-marks. This
is a welcome new rule that is espe-
cially helpful for weekend golfers who
play most of their rounds on busy
public and municipal courses that see
heavy foot traffic from sunrise to sun-
set. Of course, now you can't blame
pock marks for missing short putts.
> You also can now remove loose
impediments from bunkers, like the
R&A has long allowed in Europe.
These two changes won't speed up
play, but they both are common-sense
rules that don't give anyone an unfair
advantage and eliminate some "rub-
of-the-green" bad breaks that golfers
love to bemoan.
But while we're applauding golf's
governing bodies for finally using
common sense, why didn't they desig-
nate divot holes or sand-filled divots
in the middle of the fairway as
"ground under repair," thereby allow-
ing free drops? I guess we can't have
everything. So we'll be thankful for
what they gave us.
One other rule they should have en-
acted immediately: If you're caught
spitting sunflower seeds on the green,
you get kicked off the course.
