The Rules of Golf: A new resource for committees

Shona McRae, Assistant Director – Rules, The R&A, details a new resource for committees for 2019

The R&A has produced an Official Guide to the Rules of Golf as a reference book designed for those involved in the administration of golf at all levels.

The first section of the official guide focuses on the latest edition of the Rules and is a result of the rules’ modernisation initiative to bring the Rules up to date. The Rules is reproduced in full in the official guide and they are supplemented by interpretations, which are located under the sub-rule they relate to so that they are easily located and distinguishable.

Although most questions that arise on the golf course will be answerable by reference to the full Rules of Golf, the interpretations are provided for aspects of the rules that are considered to require additional clarification and use examples to help.

For users of the Decisions of the Rules of Golf of old, you will find that many of the decisions from that publication now form part of the Rules of Golf. This has been one of the main features of modernising the rules.

The second section of the official guide is entitled ‘Committee Procedures’ and contains practical guidance for those involved in running day to day play at golf courses or running competitions at all levels of the game.  It is divided into guidance for general play and for competition golf.

The information contained in the Committee Procedures combines a lot of information that was contained in a variety of publications and websites in the past. It brings these aspects together to provide a much more accessible, user-friendly guide to all aspects of golf administration. For example, the role of the committee, how to mark and set up the golf course, establishing the terms of the competition and local rules, starting and scoring, pace of play and codes of conducts.

To assist committees for 2019, The R&A has designed a ‘Committee Toolkit’ to provide committees with additional resources to help with the understanding and application of the 2019 Rules of Golf. It includes a ‘Local Rules Creator’ to assist in the process of updating local rules by allowing the user to select, edit and copy the local rules that will apply to your course or competition.

You can access the Committee Toolkit at www.randa.org