The article below was written by Jack Backhouse of National Club Golfer.
How you stand to the ball has a massive effect how you you then swing and hit it. PGA pro Jack Backhouse explains how to set up for success.
Standing to the ball with good posture is not complicated but is often overlooked by golfers when it comes to trying to improve. It is easy to get lost in the complex components of the swing, like swing plane, club path, wrist angles and so on and miss something easy like posture. In this video, what the 3 easy steps to perfect golf posture are.
Why is posture so important?
Getting into a good posture requires no skill and no athleticism and is the low-hanging fruit of golf technique. A golfer in a bad posture cannot make a big turn, create speed, or swing in balance, so starting in a good stance is important. Just like a goalkeeper waiting to save a penalty, standing too much on the heel or toes, too upright or bent over, it is very difficult to react and create speed and power when standing poorly.
What does poor posture look like?
There are generally two different ways golfers get their posture wrong. The first is standing too far away and reaching for the ball too much. When this happens, the golfer will generally be forced to move their weight too much to the balls of the feet and is off balance, or bend their knees a lot and sit down too much. In both of these instances, the golfer will stand up out of their bad posture, early extend and generally will have issues with fat and thin contact.
The second common mistake golfers make in their posture is arching their back too much, creating too much tension in the hamstring and lower to mid back. Although this might feel athletic, a flat or even arched back creates stiffness that stops a golfer from being able to turn and pivot correctly and, in the end, reduces club head speed and overall freedom throughout the golf swing.
Step 1
Step one is standing in a good golf posture with a correct spine angle. The way to do this is:
stand up straight with the club parallel to the ground
softly bend the knees
round the upper back down until the club gets to the ground
The key here is not to over-hinge from the hips; this creates tension in the muscles on the back of the body that we don’t need. We want muscles to be loose when the golfer begins the swing to hit the ball. This may feel too relaxed or unathletic, but that is the correct feeling.
Step 2
Step two is standing the correct distance from the ball. Most amateur golfers stand too far from the ball. To know you are in the right position is:
Stand in posture to the ball
Let the trail hand relax off the club and let it hang freely
Your hand should hang level with the part of the grip the trail hand holds
If the hand swings inside the club you are too far away
Step 3
Step three is setting up with the correct spine tilt. Depending on the club used, the spine should angle away from the target in various amounts. to know the correct spine tilt:
Get into golf posture
Hold the club down your sternum
Tilt away from the target until the golf club touches the lead leg
The wider the stance (longer the club), the more tilt is required to set up
It is worth checking your posture every month to ensure you have all three of these points covered and give yourself the best chance of making good swings and hitting the ball well.
If you are interested in seeking further information from Jack that is more specific to your golf game, you can book an in-person or online golf lesson by clicking here.
A drop in golf is often a misunderstood concept, so if you’ve ever asked the question How does a drop work in golf?, you certainly won’t be alone.
However, in this blog, we’ll answer that question so you can drop with confidence.
How does a drop work in golf?
Firstly, when taking relief, you
must drop your ball, whether under penalty or not. If you have a caddy, they can’t
drop your ball for you—that’s your responsibility.
Since 2019, the rules now state that when dropping, you have to do so from knee height. Prior to the change, dropping was instead done from shoulder height.
When the rules changed at the beginning of 2019, it was initially met with criticism regarding how silly it looked to drop the ball from knee height—but there was, in fact, some sound thinking behind it.
Dropping from knee height
At the time of the rule change, the USGA’s Thomas Pagel explained: “It’s not just a drop from knee height, but now it’s a focus on the relief area. People say that dropping from shoulder height is simple, and it is, but under the old rules, there were nine different times you had to re-drop. We wanted to eliminate all those complications.
“In order to focus on that new
relief area, we said, ‘Let’s get the player closer to the ground, and if you
drop it from knee height, that ball is going to bounce a little less.’”
When dropping, the ball must first
strike the ground and stay within the relief area. If it lands inside and rolls
out, or vice versa, then you need to drop the ball again.
To better understand where to drop your ball, though, you need to understand where your reference point is, and these differ depending on the type of relief you’re getting.
Knowing your reference point
If your ball is unplayable, the reference point is where the ball lies
If your ball is in a penalty area (for example, a body of water or an area which has been defined as unplayable or where a ball is often lost), the reference point is where the ball crossed the edge of the penalty area
If you’re taking back-on-the-line relief, the reference point is where the ball first hits the ground when dropped
If
your ball comes to rest in ‘abnormal course conditions’, such as temporary
water, ground under repair, cart paths, or sprinkler heads, the reference point
is the nearest point to where your ball lies. However, this can’t be
nearer to the hole and is the spot where you can play your next shot with no
interference from where you are dropping
You may stand either inside or
outside the relief area when dropping your ball.
As of 2019, the term ‘penalty area’
has superseded ‘water hazard’. You can play the ball as it lies in a penalty
area, and you can ground your club.
Golfers have three options if taking relief…
1. Stroke-and-distance relief
If you’re certain that your ball is in a penalty area, you can return to where your last shot was played from, drop your ball within one-club length, and play it with a one-shot penalty. If it was a tee shot, you can play it from any area of the tee.
2. Back-on-the-line relief
Locate where your ball last crossed the penalty area, and you can go back as far as you want on a line that keeps that point between you and the hole. You can now drop your ball, and it can move in any direction from that spot.
3. Lateral relief
Here, you can measure a relief area
of two club lengths (not nearer the hole) from your reference point of crossing
the penalty area and drop it in this relief area. The penalty, again, is one
stroke.
Another key point to understand is the size of the relief area from your reference point. If you’re dropping from some abnormal course conditions, it’s one-club length, and if you’re dropping from an unplayable ball or a ball in a red penalty area, it’s two-clubs length.
If the ball doesn’t stay in the
relief area, simply drop it again. If this happens for a second time, place the
ball where the ball landed when you re-dropped it.
Another rule change also stipulates
that the longest club in your bag cannot be your putter, so anyone using an
extended putter can’t gain an advantage.
Interestingly, you can leave the headcover on your driver when measuring, but the extra length does not count.
How does a drop work in golf?
Points to remember
* Before lifting your ball, you must mark the spot. You can use a ball marker behind or next to the ball or hold a club on the ground right behind or right next to your ball. If you fail to do either of these, you will receive one penalty stroke.
* You can clean your ball when it is on the putting green or when you’re taking free relief or a penalty drop. However, you CAN NOT clean your ball when:
checking to see if it’s cut or cracked
lifting it to identify it—though you can clean mud away to do so
it is interfering with another player away from the green
checking to see if it has settled into an indentation—however, if you take relief from an embedded ball, you are then allowed to clean it
If you fail to comply with the above, you will be penalised one stroke.
Dropping in golf can take a while to get the hang of, particularly if you’re new to the game. However, read up on the rules mentioned above and refer to this guide the next time you need to take a drop. You’ll be dropping with confidence in no time.
Trying to define the best golf courses in the world is clearly a difficult and subjective task.
However, in this blog, we’ve tried to help
ourselves a bit by breaking it down into different sub-categories—from the most
historic and beautiful courses to bucket list-type trips and everything else in
between.
There really is nowhere else to start but the Old Course at St Andrews. The original and, many believe, still the best.
The Old Course might not dazzle with scenery
or drama, but it’s packed with a challenge so nuanced and subtle that it
sometimes takes multiple plays to fully appreciate it.
The legendary Bobby Jones was famously not a fan initially—but eventually came to love it.
It’s the only course where you’ll hear the usually
cynical, clinical Tour pros routinely state how they have hairs on the back of
their neck standing up on the first tee.
Also in this category sit Prestwick, scene of the first 24 Opens, and Musselburgh Old, another part of Open folklore.
One of the best things about golf is that its
stages take you to beautiful locations you might otherwise never visit.
Do football, rugby, tennis or F1 venues take
your breath away? Not really. Cricket sometimes does, to be fair, but golf often
does.
The most spectacular course in the UK, in our opinion, is Turnberry’s Ailsa in Scotland, with a third of its holes set along the water.
Over in Ireland, step forward Old Head, a clifftop golf course of quite staggering drama.
In continental Europe, Lofoten Links is the easy winner. Set within the North Pole, this spectacular Norwegian course lies where the mountains meet the sea. Epic.
In the US, California’s Pebble Beach puts a huge tick in the beautiful box. Pacific views come as standard here—and as one of the big-name American courses open to the general public, it’s a must-visit if you’re ever lucky enough to visit this part of the world.
South Cape in South Korea and Japan’s Kawana Fuji are solid representatives for Asia in this category, while down under in Australia, Cape Wickham could be described as a fusion of Turnberry and Old Head—check that one out, too.
Bucket list visits
These are the courses that most encourage you
to say, “Oh, I’d love to play there!”. We’ve got four for you, in fact.
The annual host of the Masters has ‘emulate-the-stars’
moments on every hole—some of which are the most thrilling, risk-reward you’ll
ever face. The course is in bewilderingly good condition, too, of course.
Pine Valley in New Jersey is often the connoisseur’s choice for the world’s best golf course title. It’s uber-private, so few actually get to play it, but you never hear a disappointed verdict. Colin Montgomerie, in fact, rates it as his #1 course.
Spain’s Real ClubValderrama has the sense of mystique you’d expect from a €500 green fee and the hosting of a mythical Ryder Cup in 1997 (the first time the tournament had ever been held outside of either the UK or the US). And you’ll not find a blade of grass out of place, either.
You’ve watched the Tour pros hit THAT tee shot towards the skyscrapers; now it’s your turn.
Best overall experiences
South Africa has many fine golf courses, but the big lure of playing here is that at the likes of Sun City, for example, you take on a superb challenge while also taking in a ‘Big Five’ game safari.
Or, how about staying at the epic beachside JW Marriott Resort in Mauritius, playing at Tamarina Golf, and climbing Le Morne for Insta-worthy pictures at the top?
Midnight golf, anyone? Back at Lofoten, and also at the likes of Iceland’s Brautarholt, Westman Island, and Keilir, you can play through the night during the summer months.
If you’ve ever thought about skiing and playing golf in the same day, visit the beautiful nation of Georgia, and you can do just that. Start with a morning on the mountain slopes before an afternoon drive down to the capital to play Tbilisi Hills.
Best course designs
‘Best course design’ is a potentially contentious category, but a few courses are worthy of inclusion nonetheless, not least Muirfieldin Scotland.
This seasoned host of The Open lacks the sea
views of other links but is nevertheless an unremitting challenge. Its frequent
changes in direction mean you constantly have to calculate and work with the
wind.
We mentioned it right at the beginning, but the Old Course at St Andrews deserves another mention here, too, as do the glorious Harry Colt heathlands of Sunningdale and Swinley Forest.
Over in Australia, Dr Alister Mackenzie’s principles of playable-but-strategic golf are in full view at Royal Melbourne’s EastCourse.
Best golf resorts
You could say that Bandon Dunes is the only definitive answer when debating the best in any category of golf.
It has four courses ranked by Golf World in its World Top 100 public access list, all within 600 yards of each other on-site. Just imagine that—four of the best golf courses in the world in the same resort. Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails and Sheep Ranch are all comfortably on that list, and a fifth—Old Macdonald—is just outside it.
Streamsong also has three World Top 100 entries, while Pinehurst opens its 10th course in April 2024. None of its other nine are anything other than excellent.
We can’t not mention St Andrews again, either. The Old, New, Castle, Eden, Jubilee, Strathtyrum,and Balgove courses make this undoubtedly one of the oldest (and most historic) golf resorts.
The King’s, Queen’s, and Centenary courses at Gleneagles make the list, too, while Ireland’s Rosapenna, with a new Tom Doak course to add to its two great existing links, also deserves a mention.
Best new golf courses
Here are a couple of golf courses that have
only recently opened.
In New Zealand, Te Arai has two courses, one by Doak and the other by Coore-Crenshaw, that look stunning and play just as well.
Coore-Crenshaw also have a brand-new design opening at Cabot St Lucia that images and early feedback suggest is epic.
BONUS: The world’s best cheap golf course
As an added bonus to round off our list of the best golf courses in the world, we’re suggesting Shiskine on the island of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland.
It’s only 12 holes, but still riotous fun
among glorious seaside scenery, too.
What’s more—it’s yours for a truly astonishing
£32*.
See you there soon?
*Based on 2023 visitor green fees. Price shown for an adult 12-hole round Monday to Friday.
A
good golfing read is like nothing else. Regardless of your experience or level
of interest in the game, some truly brilliant golf books are out there to scratch
your itch.
In
this article, we’ve put together something for everyone—from the more technical
and mental elements of the game to the captivating storytellers and tours of
great courses that whet your appetite no end.
Golf is blessed with some incredible writers and teachers to help us play better and enjoy it more, so what better way to spend a day off than settling down and getting lost in a good golf book?
For
many of us, if given the choice of watching one golfer from the past, it would
be Ben Hogan. Elements of his swing are still talked about and mimicked today, and
his ball-striking was sensationally good.
His most famous book, co-written with Herbert Warren Wind, focuses on breaking down the golf swing into its main fundamentals: grip, stance, posture, and the swing itself.
Interestingly,
Hogan was not right-handed. In the book, he writes: “I was born left-handed—that
was the normal way for me to do things. I started golf as a left-hander because
the first club I ever came into possession of, an old 5-iron, was a left-handed
stick.”
A must-read for any golfer, Five Lessons was initially released in 1957 as a five-part series in Sports Illustrated magazine.
Penick’s
brilliant collection of insights and anecdotes is the biggest-selling golf book
of all time.
Co-written
with Bud Shrake, part of the beauty is the ease of how the stories are told, as
well as how easy it is to dip in and out of as a reader. If you’re looking for genuine
nuggets to help with your swing or mind game, you’ll find them here.
Penick’s coaching CV backs all this up, too—he coached Hall of Fame members Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Mickey Wright, Betsy Rawls, and Kathy Whitworth. Ben Crenshaw went on to win the Masters in 1995, just days after being a pallbearer at Penick’s funeral.
You’re
missing a trick if you haven’t read any of Dr Bob Rotella’s work. There are many
titles to choose from covering multiple aspects of the game, but this one will
certainly help your mental game.
Rotella’s
genius shines right through in his golf books. His conversational nature as he
guides you through a series of mental shortcomings that all of us, even those
at the top, share is somewhat comforting.
He’s worked with the likes of Nick Price, Tom Kite, and Davis Love III, and he famously even helped Padraig Harrington to his first Major title at Carnoustie in 2007.
“There is nothing that Bob Rotella would tell me that I don’t already know, but he’s reminding me and encouraging me, and keeping me going down the line right lines.”
Mark
Frost was the co-creator of the TV series Twin Peaks, but in the golfing world,
he’s best known for writing some of the very best golf books in the game.
The Greatest Game Ever Playedtells the remarkable story of amateur Francis Ouimet’s stunning US Open win at Brookline in 1913, while The Match features how Ouimet’s 10-year-old caddy, Eddie Lowery, made a bet that two of his employees, Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi, could beat any two golfers of fellow millionaire George Coleman’s choice.
Coleman would show up to Cypress Point with none other than Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. Frost is maybe the most remarkable storyteller in golf, and this is an absolute must-read for any golf lover.
The
links courses of Britain and Ireland represent the greatest collection of
courses anywhere on the planet. Other parts of the globe have their huge merits,
but the links that play home to The Open, and the hundreds of others, are the
envy of every golfer.
Author
David Worley spent 10 years putting this book together, looking at 155 of the
greatest links on these shores. There are more than 500 photos to pore over, and
a brilliant taster of these fast-running, windswept courses.
This book is both something for the coffee table and also a guide for your next golf trip to the seaside. What’s more—there’s a foreword from five-time Open champion Peter Thomson.
Michael
Bamberger remains one of the most respected golf writers, and in 1991, he did
what many of us would love to do—step away from the day job to explore the ‘wider
world’ of golf.
The first part of this exploration involved caddying on the then-European Tour, where he would carry the bag of Peter Teravainen and rub shoulders with many European greats, including Seve Ballesteros.
From
there, Bamberger headed to Scotland and visited the likes of the Old Course,
Cruden Bay, Prestwick and Royal Dornoch. He would also meet Crieff GC teaching
pro John Stark, who would feed his golfing soul with some of the game’s
supposed ‘secrets’.
One particular highlight of this book is the account of a trip to Machrihanish—a place any golfer should visit at least once in their life. Bamberger writes beautifully, and he’s picked the perfect topics to show us in this one.
Or,
to give it its full title – Every Shot Counts: Using the Revolutionary
Strokes Gained Approach to Improve Your Golf Performance and Strategy.
Needless
to say, this one is for the stats fans, and given how the game (at least at the
elite level) is now so stats-led, this book was way ahead of its time when
first published in 2014.
Mark Broadie is a Columbia Business School professor, who led the PGA Tour in developing its strokes gained putting stat. Broadie had access to the Tour’s ShotLink data and used it to develop the metric.
Regarding
strokes gained, the PGA Tour states: “Strokes gained is a better method for
measuring performance because it compares a player’s performance to the rest of
the field and because it can isolate individual aspects of the game.”
So, thanks to this, a player can now compare themselves in every aspect, and the measurements are exhaustive, to know where their game sits.
If you don’t follow Dan Grieve on Instagram, you’re missing out. Grieve is the head pro at Woburn and one of the best short-game coaches in the world.
In this brilliant book, he breaks the short game down into just three shots: the chip and run, a soft-landing spin shot, and the lob shot—presenting clear and simple directions on how to implement them into your game.
There
are also instructions for your bunker and pitching in the form of photographs
of swing sequences and practice drills. So many amateurs have little
understanding of the short game, and this book really helps to de-mystify what
goes on around the greens.
Grieve has also helped several leading tour pros, including Charley Hull and Georgia Hall.
Pia
Nilsson and Lynn Marriott are two of golf’s leading coaches, and although Every
Shot Must Have a Purpose was written almost 20 years ago, it’s still one of
the most thought-provoking golf books out there.
Nilsson and Marriott help piece together the physical, technical, mental, emotional and social parts of a player’s golf game to help produce swings that can be repeated under pressure. This isn’t a book that runs through the usual grip, stance, takeaway, and follow-through drills—instead, it’s a book to help implement a clearer vision of what you want to do with a shot and to then repeat it time after time.
Co-founders of Vision54—a score they believe is possible—this coaching duo have worked with a range of notable golfers, including Annika Sorenstam and Suzann Pettersen.
Any
self-respecting list of golf books would have to include at least something by
John Feinstein. He’s one of sport’s greatest storytellers, and Caddy For
Life is as moving as it is brilliant.
Bruce
Edwards spent most of his caddying career on the bag of Tom Watson, and
together, they would form a brilliant partnership that would dominate the game.
But it’s their amazing friendship that shines through in this book, and how
Edwards deals with his diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease, which attacks nerve
cells in the brain and the spinal cord.
Edwards sadly passed away in 2004 aged just 49, and Feinstein provides the perfect eulogy with this truly beautiful book.
The article below was written by Steve Carroll of National Club Golfer.
Yes, you get a Green Jacket, but there are a whole host of other benefits that come with winning the year’s first major. We outline some of them.
Winning a major championship is incredible enough, but when it’s the Masters there are so many bonuses that just elevate the winner’s achievement into the stratosphere. From donning the famous Green Jacket, to being able to come back to Augusta National for the rest of your life, the perks of winning the Masters are simply incredible.
Let’s look at what comes with winning the first major of the year at the glorious Georgia course…
Perks of winning the Masters
The green jacket – and you can keep it for a year
Bobby Jones had many good ideas – Augusta National itself being one of his finest – but he drew on inspiration for the Green Jacket.
The now famous ‘coat’ was said to be born from the red hunting jackets that club captains wore at Royal Liverpool, and which he saw on a visit to Hoylake.
Another theory is that the members wore them so they could be easily identified as members, and the first handed out to a Masters champion was Sam Snead in 1949.
The colour is Pantone 342 and they are made by Hamilton Tailoring Co, in Cincinnati. For the first 12 months after winning, winners can take the jacket away from Augusta National. After that, it must remain on the property and worn when visiting the club.
Jon Rahm revealed some of the strict rules that govern the wearing of the green jacket – and that players must agree to by signing a document!
These include: no jeans, no short, no public appearances without the club knowing, and no alcohol while wearing the jacket.
Perks of winning the Masters: It’s quite the trophy…
Some trophies are absolute monstrosities. Some look like they’ve come out of a quick trip to a bargain basement outlet. Not this one. This is one of the fabulous perks of winning the Masters.
The Masters Trophy, which depicts the famous clubhouse, was first awarded in 1961 and is forged out of 900 separate pieces of silver, according to the Masters website.
The original trophy stays at Augusta National, but winners get a sterling replica of it which they can keep.
What’s this – a gold medal too?
It’s a bit grander than you might receive for winning a club competition. Measuring 3.4 inches in diameter and weighing a pound, this gold medallion shows the Founders Circle which is in front of the Augusta National clubhouse.
There is also a silver medallion for the runner up, which is the same size as the gold medal, but is silver and weighs slightly less.
The prize money isn’t bad, either
Jon Rahm picked up £3.24 million in a record year of prize money in 2023, which saw a total purse of $18 million. That was up from $15 million in 2022 and $11.5 million on 2021.
Perks of winning the Masters: You get a lifetime exemption
If one visit to Augusta National’s perfect fairways and greens is enough to captivate, imagine being able to return every single year. Masters champions have a lifetime exemption to play in the tournament if they wish. There is no age barrier to entry. The players, themselves, can decide if they’ve had enough.
Don’t forget the Champions Dinner
One of the highlights of Masters week, winners gather on the Tuesday of the tournament to swap stories and reminisce at the Masters Champions Dinner.
It was Ben Hogan who started the annual tradition in 1952, when he invited the 11 surviving winners to dine with him. It’s more formally known as the Masters Club, and the winners are joined by the current Masters chair.
The defending champion selects the menu and former winners often fly in just to attend and take advantage of what has become one of the game’s most cherished evenings. Truly one of the great perks of winning the Masters.
Access to the Champions Locker Room
A very exclusive place for a very exclusive group. Found on the second floor of the Augusta National clubhouse, with a veranda looking out over Founders Circle and Magnolia Lane, the Champions Locker Room is a secluded spot to gather the thoughts during another Masters run.
Each locker has a plaque engraved with the champion’s name and the dates they were victorious. The list of champions through the decades can often see a current competitor doubling up with a true legend of the game.
You are locked in to the other majors
Winning the Masters brings exemptions into the PGA Championship, US Open, and The Open.
Not only can you play the Masters every year, but you’ll get five years of qualification free starts into the other big three events too, as well as a half-decade exemption on the PGA Tour.
The article below was written by Steve Carroll of National Club Golfer.
It’s been five years since the introduction of the biggest alterations to the laws of the game for a generation. Some of what was revealed was huge, but how many of them are now routine when you go out for a round?
It’s hard to believe it’s five years since the Rules of Golf were completely turned on their head. 2019 brought some of the biggest changes to the game since 1984 and staples of the laws, such as how you dropped a ball, were changed forever.
There was a huge song and dance in some quarters. Remember Haotong Li and his caddie? Or Rickie Fowler’s gesture after forgetting to go from knee high?
But how many of them have remained a big deal? These few Rules of Golf changes outlined below were enormous at the time. But have you just got used to them now? Do you bother with some of them at all? Let’s take a look…
Rules of Golf changes: Have you got used to these four big alterations?
Leaving the flagstick in the hole
Covid gave us no choice for a while, your course manager was worried the hole was going to get mangled, Bryson DeChambeau had it all worked out to the last scientific detail. Rule 13.2a (1), which allowed players to leave the flagstick in the hole, came with a whole lot of noise.
The flagstick was going in and out like the hokey-cokey. Groups were trying to work out who wanted to do what and then trying to remember to repeat the trick on every hole. It was a bit of a merry-go-round.
But it’s all settled down now, hasn’t it? If you’re a distance from the hole, the flag stays in. The closer you get, the more likely it is that it will come out. And because you can use Ready Golf in stroke play, if someone likes the flagstick to remain planted (that would be me) they can just fit in conveniently around everyone else. It’s become easy.
Tapping down marks on the line of your putt
A very big no-no before 2019, Rule 13.1c (2) basically gave you carte-blanche to repair almost any damage you encountered on the putting green.
Chief among the list were ball marks, shoe damage – read spike marks – and “scrapes or indentations caused by equipment or a flagstick”.
Some had visions of golfers unable to snap out of an obsession with fixing any little imperfection they found on a green before finally settling down to putt – even though you could still be penalised for unreasonably delaying play.
What did we do at club level with this new-found freedom? Well, in my experience, not a lot. You might find a player fixing the odd dent but I’ve yet to see anyone in a medal get out their magnifying glass to mend anything that might hinder their ball’s path to the hole.
You do see it a bit more on tour, but it’s still cursory and quick. If you’re looking for the root cause of slow play in the professional game, you won’t find it here.
Grounding your club in a penalty area
I was so used to keeping my club suspended in the air when mired in a penalty area, as you would with a bunker shot, the idea of suddenly being able to ground that club felt a bit odd.
Among all the other big changes, this one passed a few of us by and I’d heard of a couple of altercations in the first few months after they were introduced as players were confused about which rules applied.
It’s found in Rule 17.1b. In one sentence which says, when talking about playing the ball as it lies, that you may do so “under the same Rules that apply to a ball in the general area.”
Probably not much help if your ball is nestling in the bottom of a stream but if it’s held on the bank, but still within the stakes, being able to ground your club can make a big difference to the chance of successful recovery.
It may have taken us a while to get to grips with it. But it’s turned out to be a hugely positive change.
Three minutes to search for a golf ball?
Could you ever find a ball in just three minutes? It had been hard enough to get plenty of players to cease and desist after the clock timer had hit five.
Pace of play was one of the reasons cited for reducing the amount of time you could spend searching for a ball in the 2019 rules and, anecdotally at least, this one might be hitting the mark.
With five minutes to hunt, I’d have hardly ever pulled up the drawbridge on a search after 90 seconds or so. Now both in my own game and when refereeing, I’ve seen players far more ready to give up the ghost quicker if their ball is nowhere to be found.
Has this actually sped up the game? Undoubtedly. Could we still do with more than three minutes in certain circumstances? If you’ve ever approached a ball planted in a thicket of heather, you might put up your hands in prayer and ask for more. 180 seconds always seems like precious little time in such circumstances.
