On a recent episode of the Erik Anders Lang Podcast. Matt Ginella from Golf Channel’s Morning Drive was a guest. And early on in the podcast he made a great point on the recent changes to the rules of golf. “The Pros play a different brand of golf”.

This year’s changes to the rules of golf were focused around making the game faster. Which is certainly a great idea. Rounds are longer than ever and guys like Brooks Koepka are definitely in favor.

“We can play something that is similar to [tour players], we can have variations of the rules. But at the end of the day, we don’t play the same game that they play.”

Matt Ginella

Pin in or out

When talking about keeping the pin in. Matt goes onto say that the intention of the rule was to help amateurs when the pin is far away that they can putt without fear of a 2 stroke penalty. Which should speed up the game.

But instead what you see if the pros looking at how they can use it to their advantage to hole more putts. And just like Matty G, I think it will actually slow down play.

“Leaving the pin in, tapping everything down on the green, dropping from your knee so you don’t have to repeatedly re-drop. It makes sense for the amateur game.”

Matt Ginella

So perhaps the amature game would benefit from this change to the rules of golf. But in the tour game it will take away from the challenge of putting the ball in the hole. And perhaps even slow down play.

Anchors away

In 2018 the USGA and R&A jointly made a change to the rules of golf that banned the use of an anchored putting stroke. Citing that “The [putting] stoke is a fundamental element of the game”

A stroke is a fundamental element that defines the game of golf and is meant to involve the player freely swinging the entire club at the ball.  Anchoring the club relieves the player from making a free swing by restricting the movement of the club as if it were physically attached to the player’s body and thereby providing extra support and stability for the stroke.

R&A

So then how is making a putt without using the flagstick as a backstop not also fundamental to the game?

Amature vs. Pro

There is a lot made about the difference between amature and pro golfers. Ask anyone who has turned pro and wanted to get their amature status back.

If the governing bodies that make the rules of golf are so sticky on the difference between these two statuses then why not have two different sets of rules?

Too much distance

Another topic that has been picking up more steam is the debate on rolling the golf back back to slow it down. With the golfers getting more and more athletic, the balls are certainly travelling further. But I think the jury is still out on if it’s actually the ball.

If a golf ball roll back were to happen, it’s my opinon that it should only happen at the pro level.

“The idea that [amateurs] play the same game is ludicrous.”

Matt Ginella

Imagine taking 10 to 15 yards away from a weekend hacker because they have to use the same balls as the pros. If you want to “grow the game”, this change would have the opposite effect.

Having a different set of rules would allow for changes to the ball at the tour and pro levels, but leave the recreational golfer to choose the ball they want.

Examples from other sports

You don’t have to look far to find examples of rules being different between pro and amature sports.

Being Canadian, it’s easy to look at Hockey. The rules that the NHL and international hockey use are different. The rinks are even different sizes. Penalties are also differnt. In the NHL fighting is allowed and only penalized with a 5 minute penalty. Where as in other levels it’s prohibited and will get your ejected from the game.

In american football a ball is only considered to be caught if two feet touch in bounds. But in college (amature) football only one foot is required. Why? Because its so much harder to do.

In baseball, the pros are only able to play with wooden bats. But in lower levels metal bats are allowed. If professional baseball players could hit with a metal bat, every hit would be home run.

Even in the new rules of golf one of the changes only affects the recreational golfer. Only for recreation golf, the stroke and distance penalty is changed for any shot that goes out of bounds. So why not just have an entirely different book?

It’s a net positive

Overall I believe the changes made this year are a net positive for the entire game of golf. But a few other rules and future rule changes could and likely should change to just be for the amateur game.

The post Making a Case for Separate Tour and Amateur Rules of Golf. appeared first on Golfixation.

I certainly think this is a good rule change and do plan on leaving the pin in as much as possible. Especially, after seeing the results from the MyGolfSpy team. The evidence is pretty clear that keeping the stick in will help you sink more putts. At the very least leave you with a shorter miss.

But in some cases I am skeptical if this will actually speed up play…

I don’t actually think the USGA and R&A are trying to speed up play on Tour, but let’s use the tour as an example of where this might fall to pieces.

Let’s assume that Bryson DeChambeau, who has said and demonstrated he will keep the pin in for every putt. Say he’s paired with Justin Thomas who has said “I can’t really take myself seriously if I kept the pin in”.

If Bryson wants it in for every putt and Justin wants it out, one of their caddies will be running back and fourth with the stick to replace and remove it.

When the flagstick rule slows down

Admittedly this scenario won’t play out often, but just humor me for a minute.

If both players are on the green and Justin is away he will have his caddie pull the flagstick. Justin misses his putt and is left with a 5 footer. With Bryson away he has the pin replaced, because… Bryson. He in turn also misses his putt and is now 4 feet away and marks.

With Justin now away he has the flagstick removed once again and makes his putt. He is a pro after all. Now Bryson with his 4 footer keeps to his convictions and has the flag replaced. Bryson makes his putt and they head to the next hole.

If you are still with me, the flag was removed and replaced a total of 4 times. Using last years rules in this same scenario the flagstick would have been removed and replaced, once each. That just doubled the time on the green, possibly more.

So at your local course when you don’t have a caddie to do this work. What would you do?

Personally, I’ll probably just point anyone like Justin Thomas to the MyGolfSpy article to help change their mind. Then we will all fly through our round and make more putts without having once removed the stick.

On tour, I believe more players will see the success that Bryson is having and will follow suit. But I’m super interested in what will happen with this rule.

The post Why the new flagstick rule might not speed up play appeared first on Golfixation.