Phil Mickelson has been a harsh critic of a number of the USGA’s adjustments.

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Welcome to Stuff Golfers Ought to Know, a Patacon.org collection through which we reveal all types of helpful golf (and life!) knowledge that’s positive to make you the neatest, savviest and most ready participant in your foursome.

New yr, new guidelines. The calendar turning to 2022 signifies that a number of beforehand introduced guidelines adjustments by way of the USGA and R&A at the moment are formally reside on Jan. 1, 2022.

What number of do you’ll want to know? Principally three of them are value mentioning, since they solely have an effect on some skilled and novice golfers and there’s a great likelihood they don’t apply to most leisure gamers. Both manner, a fundamental understanding of those will make you the neatest participant in your group, so it may’t damage to be educated, proper? Listed here are the primary adjustments:

Driver size shortened

The PGA Tour will implement a brand new native rule and restrict driver size to 46 inches (beforehand 48 inches). If this one sounds acquainted, that’s as a result of Phil Mickelson has been a vocal critic of it. Mickelson, who received the PGA Championship final yr with a 47.9-inch driver, has known as the change “pathetic.”

GOLF’s gear editor Jonathan Wall says most drivers on Tour are round 44.5 to 45.5 inches, and the USGA beforehand stated solely 3 p.c of professionals use drivers longer than 48 inches. Rory McIlroy was among the many gamers who didn’t appear bothered by the change.

“I used to be in all these conferences after we mentioned it for fairly some time, and I believe nearly all of gamers are on board with it,” McIlroy stated in October.

As for you? Don’t lose sleep over it. It’s an area rule, so that you don’t want to fret about it when you occur to be enjoying that lengthy of a driver anyway. (In truth, right here’s how one can make the most of an extended driver.)

Greens-books makeover

The opposite fundamental change coming to the PGA Tour beginning Jan. 1, 2022, is one other native rule: greens-reading books are getting a makeover.

Underneath the brand new native rule the PGA Tour will implement, gamers and caddies will probably be required to make use of committee-approved yardage books. In line with a memo despatched to Tour gamers and caddies, the committee-approved books “will probably be similar to a conventional yardage guide and, with respect to greens particulars, can have solely normal data on slopes and different options.”

Briefly, books from 2021 or prior can now not be used, and gamers/caddies can solely add notes to their books primarily based off first-hand observations on the course or from watching throughout a telecast — which means they’ll’t use any instruments or units to measure slopes or contours and file that data.

“The aim of this native rule is to return to a place the place gamers and caddies use solely their talent, judgment and really feel together with any data gained by way of expertise, preparation, and follow to learn the road of play on the placing inexperienced,” stated a memo the PGA Tour despatched to gamers.

Not everybody was a fan of this alteration, together with a high placing coach.

New guidelines concerning novice standing

The final guidelines change to know will take a detour from the professional sport and canopy high-level amateurs. The USGA and R&A up to date the Guidelines of Novice Standing, which additionally went reside on Jan. 1, 2022. And, simply because the NCAA adopted its title, picture and likeness (NIL) guidelines six months in the past, golf’s governing our bodies are following swimsuit.

In line with the USGA and R&A, there’ll now be “no restrictions associated to receiving bills or utilizing one’s title, picture and likeness (NIL) to advertise or promote.” Probably the most high-profile instance of this got here when Lucy Li, 16 on the time, was investigated for showing in an Apple Watch advert in January 2019. She wasn’t paid for the looks and acquired a one-time warning, however situations like that can now not trigger a stir. Amateurs can now become profitable off their title, picture and likeness.

3 issues the professionals *can* nonetheless do on placing greens after the brand new guidelines change
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Luke Kerr-Dineen

Moreover, you would possibly discover “bills” talked about above. Amateurs can now obtain cash to cowl them with out restrictions.

“An novice who doesn’t qualify for a nationwide or collegiate program now has the identical alternative to discover a solution to cowl bills with out being required to report the supply to a nationwide, regional or state golf union or affiliation and should publicly reference the supply of then help,” the principles overview states. “Eradicating complicated reporting procedures and restrictions permits all amateurs the identical alternative to hunt help with their bills and introduces extra fairness and inclusion within the novice sport.”

The opposite fundamental change for amateurs is that they’ll now settle for prize cash as much as $1,000 (beforehand $750) in a scratch competitors, though prize cash can’t be collected in handicapped occasions. Within the latter they’ll nonetheless obtain issues equivalent to gear, clothes or professional store credit score.

For extra on the governing our bodies’ adjustments, click on right here.

Josh Berhow
Patacon.org Editor

Josh Berhow is the managing editor at Patacon.org. The Minnesota native graduated with a journalism diploma from Minnesota State College in Mankato. You possibly can attain him at [email protected]