Curious to see how everyone feels about the new rules. I feel they are positive changes and should help (at least somewhat) with pace of play.
Leaving the pin in: I will do this for long putts as the course I play & work at has very large greens.
Knee-high drop: OK with this. Should help eliminate some of the really bad lies I got dropping from the shoulder.
3 minutes to look for lost ball: Should help, although some of the guys I play with don't know the difference from 3-5-10 minutes!
OB optional rule: The daily group I play with will adopt this rule. Will definitely speed up play.
These changes are the ones I think will most impact the guys in our home course group.
I know the Tour guys have been bitching about the drop rule, but since I consider some of them to be spoiled bras, their opinion does not matter to me.
What do you think about the new rules?
I haven't studied the new rules very hard, since I don't play in any tournaments now.
I do like removing penalties for minor incidents where there is no advantage, even if
done on purpose.
Knee drop is OK. Placing would speed play more.
3 Minute lost ball search is only going to affect serious tournaments, not public golf.
The OB + Lost Ball rule may have more committees adopting that. It's good for a
basic club tournament, but not the Champ Flight of the Club Championship. 2 strokes is
enough of a penalty. We don't need to find out if the golfer will hit another OB and it could
happen to those who are against this.
Leaving the pin in is nice on long putts when nobody is ready to attend the pin.
It won't help anyone lower their handicap. Being more visible might help some see the hole.
If you think how many times you crush a putt during a year AND it goes straight over the hole,
you will see that using the pin as a backstop will rarely help us.
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I feel most are fine. The one i think is a little over done wont affect me at all or super very rarely as i dont play in any tournaments that require a caddie.
The drop and the no re-tee is great, as long as local tourney's adopt that rule for no re-tee. The rest of the rules are fine, most guys i play with dont waste more then a minute or two looking anyhow.
Let the Big Dawg Bark!!!
There is actually quite a bit to the new rules beyond the ones most are talking about. The elimination or reduction of several penalties, relaxed putting green and bunker rules, penalty areas vs water hazards. I'm going to my second rules seminar (these are only an hour and only go over the new changes) and I'm still a little confused. Most of our guys are putting with the pin in which speeds up play - however, is some games it's pin in for some and pin out for others which doesn't help pace of play. All keep the pin in on long putts.
Golf is just an excuse to drink whiskey and smoke cigars
Forgot about a big change that I don't understand why they put it in - removing loose impediments in a penalty area - this helped me greatly the other day as I pushed a drive into what was formerly known as a water hazard - it was dryish where my ball lay, but a downed tree branch was blocking my ability to make contact with my ball - the new rule allowed me to remove the branch and hit the shot. Pissed off my competitor as I ended up beating him on the hole.
Golf is just an excuse to drink whiskey and smoke cigars
I hoped there would have been more replies to this post as I was interested in everyone's opinion.
I do like the change that allows you to fix almost any kind of damage on the green.
