Major Change: Touching Loose Impediments or Ground in a Penalty Area

We will continue to keep members informed of the Rules of Golf taking effect January 1, 2019.  From now, through to the end of the year, there will be a series of instructional videos that are expected to have the most impact on the game and to be of most interest to golfers.  Remember to keep an eye on the Rules Hub page on the website.

2019 Rule: Under Rule 17:

• There will no longer be any special restrictions when a ball is in a “penalty area” (the expanded designation for the area that includes what are now called water hazards).
• A player will be allowed to touch or move loose impediments and touch the ground with hand or club (such as grounding the club right behind the ball) for any reason, subject only to the prohibition on improving conditions for the stroke (see new Rule 8.1a).

Reasons for Change:

A strict prohibition on touching or moving loose impediments or touching the ground in a water hazard has never been practical, and so a series of exceptions had to be recognized in Rule 13-4 (see Exception 1), Rule 12-1 and various Decisions.

This has created confusion and complications in applying the Rules, such as needing to decide when a player was or was not “testing”, what constitutes touching “as a result of or to prevent falling”, and similar questions about applying the many exceptions.

The current prohibitions have led to penalties that some view as overly harsh, such as:

• Where the breach was so inconsequential that the player could not have gained any advantage or where even a careful player could not have avoided the penalty, and
• In a televised competition, where the breach could not be detected by the player or others on the course and was discovered only through later video review.

Treating a penalty area the same as the general area for these purposes will simplify the Rules, reduce confusion and eliminate unnecessary penalties.

Removing these restrictions is consistent with the purpose of a penalty area – which is not necessarily to require the player to face a more difficult challenge in playing the ball, but to address the practical need to give the player appropriate relief options because it will often be difficult or impossible to play a ball from the penalty area (such as when the ball is under water).

← Back to previous page