By Paul Gueorgieff
Editor, Golfer Pacific NZ

It has now been a year since a swag of new rules where introduced to golf.

And now is a good time to review those changes.

Perhaps the biggest change, in my mind, was allowing the flagstick to remain in the hole when putting on the green. 

I never have the pin removed and of the people I play with, I would suggest 80 percent are the same.

I have no doubt this has increased the pace of play. No longer do you have to wait for someone to move their golf cart around to the side of the green before they attend the flagstick for you. 

Instead, you just putt while that person is moving their golf cart around to the side of the green. Repeat this 18 times and I reckon 10 minutes have been shaved off a round of golf.

My only disappointment is that more professional golfers are not doing the same. I understand they have caddies who can remove the flagstick for them but I really do believe there is no need whatsoever for the flagstick to be taken out.

The second-biggest change, especially for us amateurs, was the local rule which allowed you to drop the ball on the fairway from where a ball went out of bounds or where it was lost.

Usually, that would mean instead of playing three off the tee from a ball hit out of bounds, you could march up the hole and play your fourth from the fairway.

Once again this is helpful for the pace of play and no great advantage because you are probably still going to end up with no stableford points.

Another significant change was taking a drop from knee height rather than shoulder height.

I am not particularly for or against this change, although if I was pressed to make a decision it would be to go back to shoulder height.

One change I definitely have been favour of is the double-hit rule.

Previously a double-hit, in one swing, counted as two shots. Now it is just one shot.

I double-hit a shot perhaps three or four times in the last 12 months and have not felt a tinge of guilt that it now only counts as one. 

Usually there is no advantage in a double-hit and it is, after all, only one swing at the ball. There is certainly no intention to have a double-hit.

Another change I am highly thankful of is the one that does not allow a caddy to line up a player.

Of course this change does not apply to likes of you and me — we don’t have caddies.

But it was one that was irritatingly used, for some reason, by women on the top professional tours. This procedure has, thankfully, gone. And good riddance.

Another of the major changes was the time allowed to look for a ball. It used to be five minutes, now it is three minutes.

I did not invoke the three-minute rule on anyone in 2019, even though more than three minutes may have been taken. But who would know if it is three minutes or not. Do you carry a stopwatch?

So in summary I give a big thumbs to the flagstick rule. The local rule of playing from the fairway from an out of bounds shot is fine and I am ambivalent about the knee-height drop rule.

I am also happy with the double-hit rule and delighted with the caddy not allowed to line you up. But I do have reservations about the three-minute rule for a lost ball.