USGA Annual Meeting, Part I

This week everyone who's anyone in American golf administration will be in Houston. The USGA is hosting its annual meeting at the Hilton Post Oak. People such as PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, LPGA commish Carolyn Bivens, and former prez George H.W. Bush (who's recieving the Bob Jones Award) are attending. Obviously, USGA Executive Director David B. Fay, the entire Executive Committee, and members of all the other (zillion) committees are here. I've been here since 8 a.m., it's now 2:15. The joint isn't exactly jumping, there are a lot of committee meetings (not open to public). But that doesn't mean there hasn't been any news.

Many of the USGA committee members have been here since Tuesday. During that span of times several decisions of the championship variety were handed down. Two extremely new but spectacular courses were just called up to the show. Notably Tacoma's Chambers Bay (built by Houston-based construction firm Heritage Links) was awarded the 2010 U.S. Amateur AND the 2015 U.S. OPEN! Whoa. The course opened only last year! Likewise Erin Hills
just outside Millwaukee was awarded the 2011 U.S. Amateur. That course is also a year old, and will be hosting the U.S. Women's APL this year.

Think the USGA is loving links?

There was a rules seminar this morning. Some interesting things I gleaned:

• A golfer may now lift their ball from a hazard to identify it. Consequently, there is now a penalty for playing the wrong ball from a hazard. Before 2008, if two golfers were in the same bunker but couldn’t identify their balls, they would have to pick one. Then whichever of the two golfers played first would have to go investigate the ball they just hit and figure out if that was indeed his original ball. If it wasn’t, they would’ve had to replace it and replay their original ball. The USGA hopes this change will help improve place of play.

• The definition of advice has been changed. From now on two golfers in competition -or their caddies- may give each other distances without penalty. In the old rule, if you gave an opponent yardage you would lose the hole in match play or be penalized two strokes in stroke play. Professional golf fans may recall that during the 2007 Honda Classic Mark Wilson was penalized two shots when his caddie gave his playing partner. Those two lost shots put Wilson was in a four-way playoff.

• There is also a lesser penalty for a player carrying –but not playing- a non-conforming club. In the 2004 rules the penalty was disqualification. At the 2007 (Las Vegas PGA Tour) Kevin Stadler realized that the shaft on his 7-iron was bent. He hadn’t played a shot with the 7-iron, but he was disqualified because the club didn’t conform. In 2008, Stadler would be penalized two shots for each hole the club was in his bag, but he could not be penalized more than four strokes.

• In the old 2004 rules, if a golfer’s ball is accidentally deflected by themselves, their opponent, either of the caddies or the players’ equipment the player would be penalized two strokes or the loss of a hole in match play. The USGA felt that the punishment didn’t fit the crime, especially when it came to match play. From now on the golfer will just add one stroke to their score for that hole.

• Rangefinders and GPS course-measuring devices are growing more and more popular. The USGA allows local competitive committees to make up their own mind about the use of rangefinders. However in 2008 the USGA has declared that all rangefinders that measure anything other than distance (such as gradient, wind direction, etc.) illegal.
  

FYI.