DUBLIN, Ohio — One of golf’s more puzzling, and occasionally vilified, rules has been changed by the United States Golf Association and will soon be officially off the books.
Hunter Martin/Getty Images
Webb Simpson, right, spoke with an official after his ball moved at the Zurich Classic last month in New Orleans.
A rules official said Rule 18-2b, which governs the movement of a ball after it has been addressed by a player during competition, was being modified to eliminate a player’s stance as one of two banned factors for causing a ball to move. The other factor, the grounding of the player’s club behind or in front of the ball, will remain in place, the official said.
“Basically we’re changing the definition of addressing the ball going into the future,” said the official, who had knowledge of the discussions about the revision but did not want to be identified because the change had not been formally approved.
“The ball will be addressed when the player places the club in front of or behind the ball. It won’t have anything to do with the stance; it won’t say anything about a stance. They’re taking the stance part out.”
A rules spokesman for the U.S.G.A. declined to comment on the specifics of what had been discussed in the rules meetings. Jeff Hall, the U.S.G.A.’s managing director for the rules of golf and amateur status, said in a telephone interview that no formal announcement of any rule changes would be made until the fall, probably in October, and that they would not be implemented until Jan. 1.
“We certainly have been talking about change, and I think we are going to see some change,” Hall said. “It is no secret that 18-2b is a rule that has been discussed, and that the definition of addressing the ball has been discussed. But just as we have always done during the four-year cycle, we have a painstaking process, and we work within that process, and we will not talk about any of the specific outcomes of the discussion until we do a formal press announcement about all the changes in the fall.”
The U.S.G.A. took swifter action by announcing a rule change at the Masters in April. It decided not to admit any evidence obtained from a high-definition broadcast that could not have been visible to the naked eye. The change was made after a television replay showing an imperceptible movement of Padraig Harrington’s ball led to his disqualification at Qatar in January.
There had been some speculation that the change in 18-2b might be announced this week, leading to the United States Open at Congressional Golf Club in Bethesda, Md. But Hall called the Masters situation “very, very unique,” adding, “That was the unusual case.”
The proposed change will come as little consolation to Joost Luiten, who was disqualified from the Memorial tournament after Thursday’s first round for violating the portion of the rule that will be deleted: his stance was deemed to cause his ball to move in a hazard.
Luiten, 25, a PGA European Tour member from the Netherlands, had signed his scorecard believing that his main worry was shooting a low score on Friday so he could make the cut in his first United States appearance as a professional. He opened with a four-over-par 76, or at least he thought he had.
Moments after signing for the 76, he learned he had bigger concerns. He had violated Rule 18-2b, which states, “If a player’s ball in play moves after he has addressed it (other than as a result of a stroke), the player is deemed to have moved the ball and incurs a penalty of one stroke.”
Luiten’s problem began when he hit his drive near a hazard left of the 11th hole. As he was taking his stance, his ball moved. He notified his playing partner that the ball had moved, but he had not grounded his club. The fellow competitor, Bobby Gates, who did not know that Luiten’s ball was actually resting on the red hazard line when it moved, told him there was no penalty. Luiten played on, and Gates later told the tour official on the hole that Luiten’s ball had moved before he had grounded his club. The official also said no penalty.
This all changed when Luiten told the same official that the ball had been on the hazard line and that he stood in the hazard when he played it. That was a violation, which would have added a stroke. Because Luiten did not replace the ball, that would have added another stroke. But all that was moot because he had signed for a 76 rather than a 78, and the penalty for signing an incorrect scorecard is disqualification.
Luiten, still in Dublin awaiting Monday’s sectional qualifier for the United States Open, was playing in a Nationwide pro-am on Saturday and was not immediately available to comment.
According to the rules official with knowledge of the Rule 18-2b modification discussions, Luiten would not incur a penalty in the same situation after Jan. 1.
“He would have been home free, unless it could have been proven he did something to cause it to move,” the official said. “But based on what I read and saw, he was penalized because he had taken his stance and then the ball moved. He didn’t do anything else.”
Other touring pros who have been recently affected by Rule 18-2b are not likely to be mollified by the change. Webb Simpson, who lost in a playoff at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans after a gust moved his ball as he was addressing it to tap in a putt, would still be penalized one stroke under the modified rule.
“In Webb Simpson’s case, when he placed his club behind the ball, he caused it to move, even under the new rule,” the official said.
No comments:
Post a Comment