Understanding golf's new rule sparked by Lexi
Golf's rulebook is, in many ways, the thread that stitches the fabric of the game together. It also, at times, creates massive headaches for everyone involved, as Lexi Thompson learned in a heartbreaking manner earlier this month. She was retroactively applied a four-stroke penalty in controversial fashion at the ANA Inspiration, a penalty that cost her what would've been her second major championship.
The reason behind golf's occasional rules book madness is, in many ways, understandable, frustrating though it is. 273 years have passed since the first known iteration of golf's rulebook was released, and when you're trying to police a complex game featuring thousands upon thousands of possible variations, things like this are bound to happen.
But the USGA and R&A, to their absolute credit, are intent on trying to fix them as best they can. Not long after a widely-praised simplification of a number of key rules, golf's ruling bodies responded to the Lexi Thompson issue with a new amendment, which they announced Tuesday.
The USGA and R&A have issued a new Decision on the Rules of Golf to limit the use of video evidence. The new Decision 34-3/10, effectively immediately, puts in place two standards for the rules committees to limit the use of video. The first standard limits evidence that cannot be reasonably seen by the naked eye. The second relies on reasonable judgement to determine a specific location when applying the rules.
The decision is admittedly vague, and many fans posited the change prompted more questions than answers. How would this have affected Lexi Thompson's situation? Why doesn't this directly outlaw viewer call-in penalties? And why does the statute of limitations issue remain unsolved? What does this actually solve?
Those are all legitimate questions, and while they're worth asking, getting bogged down in the nuts-and-bolts misses the bigger point of what's going on.
What the USGA and R&A have done here is build flexibility into the rule book for its administrators, which is exactly what they needed.
Golf's biggest rule-related problem, more than anything else, is that it's officials haven't been granted the latitude to apply common sense. They've been chained to a book and forced to apply the letter of the law unflinchingly, even when it doesn't offer all the answers. The result is inevitable: A really clumsy, often overly-harsh application of the rules, one that often violates the spirit of the law.
This new change helps solve that problem. The change, in its very simplest terms, helps officials when to apply a penalty, and when to let it slide. Whereas before, where rules officials would be forced to apply a penalty if one viewer at home notices a ball move a quarter of an inch in super slow motion, now they can choose to let it slide. They can make the executive decision that, even if the ball move, the whole thing was so incidental to those involved a punishment isn't necessary. Just as referees in other sports can make a call and normalize for all the countless micro-infractions, now golf can, too.
Yes, the new rule it's vague, but that's because it's supposed to be. And that's why it'll work.