The new rulebook, which enters into force at the end of the year applies to all golfers throughout the world, amateurs and professionals. And it contains more changes than in a very long time.
Many of these aim to make the gulf – a sport that can be seen as a strict and tradition-bound – more forgiving. The player will now have to avoid have to pay for example, if you happen to meet yourself when you hit or disturb his ball when searching for it.
– Some rules of golf have been left in I know not how many hundred years. Like everything else, they need the to be modernised, and some rules have been a bit larviga, ” says Jesper Parnevik.
behind him, the second in the British Open in 1994 and 1997 and five-time winner on the US tour, he knows undeniably what he’s talking about. And he has himself been hit in the contest.
” I went there at a time. When I would put the ball back so touched I the coin (used as a marker). It is a kind of duty. Which one might think is how silly.
a number of regulatory changes designed to increase the speltempot. Hitting a kind will now take a maximum of 40 seconds, and it will be forbidden to look for a lost ball for more than three minutes.
– It should go a bit faster to play golf. When we are playing over here a bunch of buddies when we are trying to take us around for three hours, ” says Jesper Parnevik, who lives in Florida.
is something Claes Grönberg, regelansvarig at Swedish golf federation, agrees. But he does not know how much the changes will help.
” It helps a little bit. But the big problem with speltempot is the players ‘ actions. You have to go faster and turn faster, there is nothing more to it.
the Swedish golf federation welcomes, however, the regulatory changes and have worked hard with training during the autumn. The federation has also started the ”Regelpodden” which is available on the website.
from the regelorganen behind the change – american USGA and the scottish R&A has been to make the rules easier to understand.
– the Changes are really good in one way because they have become much more educational. Before, the rules of golf just a bunch of text really, ” says Claes Grönberg.
the Changes also seem to be received with open arms by Sweden’s golfers. The mean Oskar Åsgård, editor-in-chief at the magazine Svensk Golf.
– Actually, nearly all who called in and mejlat us on the editorial staff have been positive. Golfers seem to particularly appreciate the changes that simplify the game, which, for example, that you now may be the hammer and clear away loose natural objects in a water hazard, or pliktområde as it is called nowadays. On the first Sunday of advent was a 40-odd members of the Ingelsta golf club in Norrkoping a contest with the new rules and both the participants and the organizer was satisfied with how it worked, ” says Oskar Åsgård.
regular golfers that are affected, but also the pros. Something Jesper Parnevik also looking forward to see. He mentions a specific rule change – now you may putt with the flag still in the hole.
” It’ll be fun to look at all the proffslirare, if they use the stick in or take out of it. I think that even proffsgolfarna will laugh the first time someone putts with the flag in. It has been such a taboo. Man has been terrified of the stick.
Is there any disadvantage? Perhaps for those who follow the golf tournaments on tv.
” People feel a certain pleasure when it is really going to hell for anyone. There is a bunker at St Andrews, the 17th hole that many don’t come out. But now they have changed the rules so that you can drop out of a bunker if it is plugged in the hill, “says Jesper Parnevik and continues:
” But I can understand it also. It saves the lot of time – instead of someone to stand there and hack in impossible locations.
