Which Of The Rules Of Golf Are Most Expendable?

Everyone will have his or her own idea about rules they might consider ‘expendable’ but having written about the Rules of Golf for 16 years or so now, and seen them evolve and progress during that time, I’ve found this brief a little tricky.

Yes, there have been fairly high-profile incidents over that time that have sparked calls for change, and some of these have been heeded and remedied – no longer a penalty for any accidental movement of your ball or ball-marker on the putting green is one example, nor any penalty now for your ball accidentally hitting you or your equipment. And before you ask… no, I don’t subscribe to the fairly common opinion that there should be free relief from divots on the fairway, which will no doubt disappoint many.

But after some thought, I have come up with a handful of Rules that I think could change for the better by perhaps making certain elements of them expendable.

Provisional ball wording

Let’s start with the provisional ball Rule (18.3). You have to make it clear that you are playing a provisional ball before doing so, but I think the Rule could be black and white or crystal-clear if it stopped at “the player must use the word ‘provisional’” rather than then going on to say “or otherwise clearly indicate that they are playing the ball provisionally under Rule 18.3”.

It’s completely clear-cut then rather than there being a slightly grey area as to precisely what is acceptable and what isn’t.

Marking ball with clubhead

I’ve always found it a little strange that you are allowed to mark your ball on the green by holding a club next to it, typically the toe of a putter as that is the club you’re most likely to have to hand. The Rules are so precise in so many ways, with some people getting very het up when a player appears to place their ball back down a millimetre out of place. Yet if you’re holding the club at one end and then bending down (not so easy for some with bad backs or reduced flexibility) surely there is scope for the putterhead to twist slightly between picking the ball up and placing It back down, and quite possibly by more than the odd millimetre that causes so much consternation elsewhere?