1/1/2018 - Happy New Year!

You may have heard mention of the new golf rules coming into effect for 2018, but there aren't any. The new rules you've heard about don't go into effect until 2019.

Some of the proposed rule changes are pretty major.  Some highlights:

• Accidentally moving your ball would no longer be a penalty.
• Relief will be in inches, not club-lengths
• You can only search for a lost ball for three minutes instead of five minutes
• Free relief for embedded ball in the rough (our club has already adopted this as a club local rule)
• You will be allowed to repair any damage on the green (not just a ball mark)
• No penalty for hitting the flagstick with a putt

And they are still that - proposed.  You can read more about them here:

USGA - Major Proposed Changes

If you happen to play on the PGA Tour (or other high-level tours), then you won't have to worry about Joe Couch Potato calling in a penalty:

Common sense prevails as fans can no longer call in golf rules violations

Are they going to call that the Lexi Thompson rule?

I'll probably be writing more on these as the year wears on.  My first question is if the new rule 11.1 (see first link above) would take away the penalty double-contact.  My reading is that it would.