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Almost every golfer has an opinion on The Rules of Golf, particularly the rules that they would want to change... It can seem harsh that you don’t get free relief when your perfect drive finishes in a divot, or when you have to hit three off the tee after you find your ball a yard out of bounds. In this video, Joel Tadman and Dan Parker take a lighthearted look at the 7 rules they would change in order to make the sport fairer, more fun and introduce a greater level of skill back into the game.
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00:00Joel, I actually find the rules of golf
00:01really quite confusing and a bit boring, to be honest.
00:03Yeah, they are quite complicated, actually, aren't they?
00:05I mean, is there anything that you've changed about them?
00:07I've got a few ideas, actually.
00:08Have you? I've got a few ideas as well.
00:10Shall we go talk about them?
00:10Yeah, let's do it.
00:19Right, so to kick us off,
00:20I think this is probably the most obvious rule
00:22that most golfers want to change, Dan.
00:23It's having relief from a ball in a divot.
00:25100%. If you asked 1,000 golfers now
00:28what rule would you want to change tomorrow,
00:29I think 999 would say,
00:31I want relief from divots in the fair way.
00:34We'll come on to that in a second.
00:35But, you know, I've hit a perfect drive down here,
00:37got a flick with a wedge in,
00:39I've got to play out of this putrid divot here
00:41that someone's had a right hack at in a previous life.
00:44So, yeah, simple as that, right, Joel?
00:46Are you in agreement with me here?
00:48No, I'm not in agreement.
00:49I'm the one out of 1,000 that don't agree
00:52you should get relief from a divot.
00:53I think there's far too many grey areas here.
00:57Obviously, you can see your ball is obviously in a divot,
00:58but there'll be other situations
01:00where you've got old divots
01:01where they've been mostly kind of recovered,
01:03but there's still a slight indentation.
01:06You could argue that pretty much everywhere on the fairway,
01:08there's been a divot at some point,
01:10so how do you categorise a different age of divot?
01:12You know, if you've got a bad line in the fairway,
01:13it doesn't look like a divot.
01:15Could you claim there's a divot?
01:16I think there's just too many grey areas
01:17for you to actually define what a divot is,
01:20and therefore apply a consistent rule.
01:22So you think it'd be too much of a slippery slope
01:24if this actually came into effect.
01:25Yeah, and you could argue that obviously
01:27it's unfair that you get relief from animal holes,
01:31rabbit scrapings, that sort of thing.
01:33You get free relief from those,
01:34so why not just extend it to a divot?
01:36But for me personally, I just think it's too messy.
01:39I think it'll slow down play as well.
01:40I think there'll be an awful lot of players
01:42calling over their playing partners,
01:43can you check if this is a divot, is it not a divot?
01:46You know, what is it?
01:47Is it just a bad lie in the fairway?
01:48And then, you know, what happens if you get
01:50in a divot in the rough or the semi-rough?
01:52That is a bit of a muddy area,
01:54even I think people who want this rule to come into place.
01:57Especially if it's not clear
01:58if you're quite in the fairway or not.
02:00Yeah, yeah, it's even more.
02:02It gets very muddy.
02:03I still think it should come into place somehow.
02:05The rules makers in the world need to figure that out,
02:06figure out those grey areas.
02:08Let us know what you think.
02:09Are you one of the 999, or are you one of Joel's mates?
02:16Right, so another rule of golf
02:17we would like to change refers to the number of clubs
02:20you are allowed to carry in your bag.
02:22Dan, talk us through exactly how you would change it.
02:25Yeah, quite passionate about this one, actually.
02:26I think 14 is way too many golf clubs.
02:28A, it's heavy, right, it's expensive.
02:31I think it takes a little bit of skill out of the game as well,
02:33when you've got a club that does these sort of
02:35very minute things you might get out once or twice.
02:37So, no one knows why it's 14 clubs, by the way.
02:40It came into effect in about the 1930s,
02:42when steel shafts started getting used instead of hickories.
02:45But it's the rule now, I think it's rule four,
02:47no more than 14 golf clubs.
02:48I would reduce it to 10.
02:50Nice round number.
02:51Let's take four clubs out of the bag,
02:53make it a bit lighter, make it a bit cheaper for people.
02:55Bring that skill back in where you've got to,
02:57you know, finesse different kind of shots,
02:59you know, half shots, 50% shots.
03:01So, with that in mind, Joel, I'm going to ask you now.
03:03Okay.
03:04Take your 14 clubs that you probably carry at the minute,
03:06which four would you get rid of if this rule came into place?
03:08Really good question.
03:09For the record, I am totally in agreement with this.
03:11Oh, excellent, thank you.
03:12But yeah, in terms of the clubs, I would say I could definitely do without my lob wedge.
03:16100%.
03:1760 degree wedge, I pretty much only use it out of bunkers,
03:19and I think I could get away with using a 54 or a 56 quite comfortably.
03:23I think I'd get rid of my three-wood.
03:25I only really tend to use that on second shots into par fives,
03:27but, you know, I can use a hybrid and flick a wedge in.
03:30I think my five iron as well.
03:32I mean, those are three clubs that I think could easily be taken out.
03:35I don't think I'd see a massive drop off in performance or scores as a result.
03:38I agree with you on the lob wedge.
03:40I love my three-wood, so I keep it.
03:42I'd take, I'd only play odd iron, so I'd go five, seven, nine wedge.
03:46So I lose my six and my eight, my lob wedge, and then...
03:49Your four iron?
03:50Either, I don't carry a four iron.
03:52I probably would if I carried 14.
03:53Probably, realistically, one of my hybrid or three would.
03:57I'd have to have to sit down with myself and really work out...
03:59Look at your Arcos data, maybe.
04:00Exactly, see which one's doing the same job as the other.
04:02So, yeah, come on, I need your 14th.
04:04I need the fourth club out of here.
04:05Yeah, I'd probably get rid of my, one of the wedges, maybe, the gap wedge.
04:10You'd get rid of the gap wedge, couldn't you?
04:11Anyway, yeah, I think a great rule.
04:12We're both in agreement on this one.
04:13Let's get 14 clubs down to 10.
04:19Right, so I'm just thankful, Dan, we found some shade.
04:21Yes.
04:21A beautiful sunny day here at Paliero Golf Course in Madeira,
04:24but I'm a bit disgruntled, Dan,
04:25because my drive off this 18th hole, it's come down the left, it's kicked left.
04:30This guy's stood there in your way.
04:31And this guy is going to cause me a lot of issues.
04:33Yeah.
04:34Because the other post is in line here going back past the camera,
04:37so the ball is just out of bounds.
04:40I've found it.
04:41As we all know, the penalty is very severe when it comes to out of bounds.
04:45I have to take stroke and distance, so walk all the way back to the tee,
04:48because I haven't hit a provisional ball,
04:49so I didn't think it was going to be out of bounds.
04:51All the way back to the tee, play three off the tee.
04:53So if I hit a good drive, make a distance to this one,
04:56playing four from the fair hit.
04:57On a part four, which it is.
04:59I mean, think about it, that is actually crazy,
05:00like how severe the penalty is for out of bounds.
05:03Obviously, going back to the tee slows down play a lot.
05:05You've got that walk of shame, that embarrassment factor as well.
05:08But I think a fair and reasonable penalty, in my opinion, would be
05:11if you've dropped it or you haven't found it,
05:13but you can reasonably, with some certainty,
05:17know where your ball has gone into the out bounds.
05:19I think you should be able to drop a ball, in bounds,
05:21the point that it kind of crossed the out of bounds line.
05:23As you would do with red posts and yellow at the minute, right?
05:25Exactly, with a penalty shot, so playing your third shot,
05:28so obviously you've got a penalty,
05:30you've been disadvantaged by going out of bounds,
05:32but the penalty is not so severe.
05:35I think it's a fairer penalty.
05:36That's a much fairer way to deal with out of bounds, I think.
05:38And while we're here on out of bounds,
05:39I think we're both in agreement.
05:41Internal out of bounds, sack it off entirely.
05:43Absolutely, I can't stand it.
05:44I mean, I know there's a safety element to it,
05:47but yeah, internal out of bounds between two holes.
05:49You know, if you hit a wayward drive
05:51and it's sitting perfectly on another fairway,
05:53but you're randomly out of bounds,
05:55it doesn't make any sense to me.
05:56Yeah, and I think alongside the divot one
05:58we spoke about earlier,
05:59this would be a really, really popular one
06:00with golfers back home.
06:06Right, Dan, that was a nice round, wasn't it?
06:08Very enjoyable, thanks for that, Joel.
06:09It's time to sign our scorecard.
06:11It is.
06:11I believe there's a rule that you might want to tweak
06:13with disregard.
06:14I think there's a chance to change this now.
06:16And so the USG and the RNA brought a new rule in,
06:19in 2023, a model local rule that meant
06:21you wouldn't get disqualified anymore
06:23for not signing the card,
06:25which I think was a good rule.
06:26Do you agree with that?
06:27I think it was always a bit harsh, isn't it?
06:28That you don't put your little squiggle down
06:30and it's often just the sort of blind scribble anyway,
06:33isn't it?
06:33You get DQ'd.
06:34That's now a two-shot penalty.
06:36However, it's only a model local rule,
06:38which means clubs don't have to adopt it
06:39if they don't want to.
06:41I think it should be written and entrenched in the rules now
06:44that if you don't sign for your scorecard,
06:46if you forget to put a signature on there,
06:48it's just a two-shot penalty,
06:49which I think is penalty enough
06:50for what is really a stupid mistake
06:52that we should all be doing anyway, right?
06:54There's something else written on the scorecard there as well.
06:55Yeah, so at the bottom of this one here,
06:57it says like this video
06:58and subscribe to the Golf Month YouTube channel
07:00for more videos like this,
07:01which I think is pretty sound advice.
07:03Yeah.
07:04So one rule that we want to change
07:09that I hadn't actually considered before
07:10comes down to putter design, Dan.
07:12In particular, the alignment assistance you get from putters
07:16and also on golf balls as well.
07:17Yeah.
07:17I think you've got quite a drastic change
07:19that you'd like to make.
07:20Well, this is a really interesting one
07:21when we were brainstorming ideas for the video.
07:23What did we, we sat down as a group
07:25and said, what do we want to change?
07:26And Joe, our colleague said,
07:27I think we should get rid of alignment aids on putters.
07:29And I said, well, okay,
07:30let's maybe get rid of them on balls as well.
07:32And the more I thought about it,
07:34I think the more I like it.
07:35So there's rules in place at the minute.
07:36Don't know the exact ones that say you allowed them
07:39and the height they're allowed in the club
07:40and the substance that you can use and, and, and, and, and.
07:42I would personally wipe it clean.
07:45And that's from putters.
07:46So you can see here on my spider,
07:48which I do love and I do use this quite a lot.
07:50Sort of two alignment aids here, right?
07:51You've got the line going down the middle
07:52and the Y that they use, the white Y.
07:55And then on golf balls like this,
07:56I mean, again, really popular,
07:57but I'm sorry, TaylorMade, Callaway, Bridgestone now,
08:01get them gone.
08:02Let's wipe it clean
08:03and bring a bit more skill back into the game.
08:06I guess, you know, not having it all lined up.
08:07You've got to know where you put a heads facing
08:09if it's open, if it's closed,
08:10you've got to trust your alignment with the ball,
08:12stuff like that.
08:13I think it's a really interesting one.
08:15And one, the more I think about it,
08:16the more I'm into.
08:17Yeah.
08:17I think if you look,
08:18think about other sports, you know,
08:20snooker, for example,
08:21you don't have alignment assistance from your queue.
08:23You could argue using lines on the ball
08:26or features like we've got
08:27on that TaylorMade tool response stripe,
08:29slows play down a lot
08:31when you're trying to line it up perfectly.
08:32You love fast play, don't you,
08:33I've noticed that.
08:34I do love fast play.
08:35I don't like messing around too much.
08:37So getting that precisely right
08:38can take a lot of time.
08:40So yeah, there's definitely a case to make for
08:43simplifying the design of the clubs
08:45and the balls a little bit,
08:46bring us more skill back into the game
08:48and best putters could probably still come through.
08:51Yeah.
08:51And I think it's just like,
08:52I'm not going to rely on it.
08:53You knock it down nice and easy
08:55and you just hold putts like that.
08:58You don't need the alignment aids.
08:59You've just demonstrated it.
09:01Let's wipe them off completely.
09:02But let us know about that one
09:03because it's a bit more of an interesting one.
09:07Okay then, Joel, next rule change please.
09:09What have you got for us?
09:10So we're going to talk about the teeing area, Dan.
09:11So this all comes under rule 6.1b.
09:14It's fascinating stuff.
09:15It's my favourite rule, that one.
09:16As everyone knows, the teeing area
09:18relates to kind of the straight line
09:20from the front of the tee markers,
09:21two club links back and then kind of
09:23a parallel line along here.
09:24This is your teeing area.
09:26But if you don't tee your ball up in the teeing area
09:29and play your shot,
09:30you get the general penalty, which is two shots.
09:33Okay.
09:34And you have to correct your mistake,
09:36i.e. play another ball from within the teeing area.
09:38Now in my opinion, that is a very harsh penalty
09:41for what is in a situation where you're not really
09:44gaining a massive advantage.
09:45So for example, if I tee the ball accidentally, say here,
09:50just in front of the tee markers,
09:51I've gained a couple of inches.
09:53It's not worth it.
09:54It's not worth it.
09:55It's not worth the penalty, right?
09:56I'm not gaining a huge advantage by doing this
09:59and therefore I feel like the two-shot penalty,
10:01plus correcting your mistake, is very harsh.
10:04I think the one-shot penalty,
10:05like I understand that you need to protect the game
10:09and you can't have people teeing up way in front of the markers.
10:12But in this particular situation,
10:15I think the penalty is too harsh.
10:16Okay.
10:17I think I tend to agree with you, Joel.
10:19Where's the line though, literally?
10:21Because, you know, it's like VAR and offside, isn't it?
10:24It's like, oh, well, a toe, they shouldn't give it them.
10:25Let's make that not offside.
10:27Okay, cool.
10:27How far does it go?
10:29And you could get some person who just keeps nudging themselves up.
10:32I don't think you,
10:32I think there's hardly anyone who would go and tee,
10:34you know, if you're playing this way,
10:35no one would tee up over here.
10:36Okay, that's fair.
10:37People would only make the mistake, you know,
10:39within like a 12-inch range.
10:41And I don't think you're gaining the line.
10:43Okay.
10:44I understand your point.
10:45Yeah.
10:45But my kind of main gripe is the penalty is too harsh.
10:48Agreed.
10:49I think so.
10:49And most of the time people do this on accident, right?
10:52Exactly.
10:52And it's worth pointing out in match play,
10:54there's no penalty.
10:55You can,
10:56your playing partner can ask you to play it again.
10:58Or if you've hit it into the rubbish,
10:59they can say that that shot counts and that's fine.
11:02And I understand, you know,
11:03if you're teeing up the other side of the...
11:04So that was my next question though.
11:06What if, you know,
11:06what if it's a hybrid to play for position,
11:09but you're not good with it hybrid.
11:10Yeah.
11:10So if you keep coming back and back and back,
11:12I want to hit a driver now.
11:13You probably gain more,
11:14you probably gain more advantage going that way
11:16than you do this way.
11:17I think so.
11:17Because you can,
11:18if you're like you say,
11:19if you're in between clubs
11:20and you've got the club that's going to go too far,
11:22if you go too far back,
11:23then you can,
11:24it becomes a perfect yardage.
11:25So I kind of understand it.
11:26So I'm okay with this way,
11:28less okay with it this way.
11:29Okay.
11:29Yes, I definitely understand your point.
11:30I think the rules have got to just sort of
11:32relax a bit, man.
11:33You know, chill out a little bit,
11:34and this would be a great way of doing it.
11:39Probably the most dramatic and drastic
11:41of the ones we've spoken about.
11:42It could change the game forever.
11:43Talk us through it.
11:44It's a humdinger, Dan.
11:45Yeah, I think we should ban tees.
11:47Bang, boom, have that.
11:49I think the privileges that are extended to golfers
11:51on the teeing area versus the rest of the golf course
11:54are excessive.
11:55Okay.
11:55I mean, I've got my phone.
11:56I can reel off some of the things that you can do
11:58on a tee.
11:59In between these two sticks.
12:00You can't do anywhere on the golf course.
12:02So, tees can be up to four inches long.
12:05Yeah.
12:06You can alter the surface of the ground.
12:08You can make indentations with your foot or the club.
12:11You can move, bend, or break grass.
12:12You know, we know you can't do that on anywhere else
12:14on the golf course.
12:15Correct.
12:16You can remove objects in the teeing area.
12:18You can press down sand and soil.
12:19You can remove dew, frost, and water.
12:21You can do all sorts of stuff.
12:22You've got carte blanche here to do what you want
12:24with the golf ball, right?
12:25Exactly.
12:25And you don't want to see that.
12:26But, you know, placing the ball on a tee on the ground,
12:29on the teeing area on the ground,
12:30is enough to give you a good enough lie
12:33to be able to gain an advantage versus where you are
12:36on the rest of the golf course.
12:37Yeah.
12:37And then you've got the argument about the golf ball going too far
12:41and how the tee is pretty much directly responsible for golfers being able to
12:45launch the ball higher with less spin because they're able to attack the ball on the up
12:49because the ball is raised above the ground.
12:52Whereas if you put the ball on the ground,
12:54you would see lower ball flights with more spin, less distance.
12:58You would definitely increase the level of skill that would be required to hit the shots correctly
13:03with a lower lofted three-wood or maybe if you still want to hit a driver.
13:06I think it brings the skill back into the game.
13:08It produces less distance.
13:09It solves an awful lot of problems.
13:11It does.
13:11I've got...
13:12Can I just pitch a couple of questions?
13:13Of course you can.
13:14I think people might be shouting at home, right?
13:15So I'm broadly on board with it.
13:18I think it's a fun idea.
13:20Would it rule out that club entirely from existence?
13:24What about golfers who struggle with their driver at the minute to get it up in the air
13:27and off the ground?
13:28Those are my main steps.
13:28Yeah, obviously they'd be unpopular with golfers who struggle with their driver
13:32and obviously a lot of golfers are used to playing the ball, you know, on a tee, raised up.
13:37But I think people would get used to hitting drive off these sorts of flies.
13:39And yeah, they might play a slightly higher lofted driver as a result or a lower lofted three-wood,
13:44like I've said.
13:45But I mean, I could demonstrate one.
13:46I mean, we see driver off the deck anyway, don't we?
13:49I mean, that is from the more skilled players.
13:51But maybe that'll bring that element of the game back into the sort of high handicaps of the world.
13:56You know, on the teeing grounds, you can get some pretty good lies.
14:00Because that is still now and will show it in close up.
14:03Sat up fairly nicely.
14:04It's sat up pretty nicely and I haven't hit a lot of shots today.
14:06So this could go horribly wrong, but let's give it a whirl.
14:10Oh, Joel.
14:14Look at that.
14:15That is your first swing of the day.
14:17First swing of the day, just down that right-hand side of the fairway.
14:20And it's probably gone a good, you know, 250 yards.
14:22And that's fine.
14:23That's all you need.
14:23So that's bringing the skill back into it.
14:25I know I'm a relatively good golfer, you know, three handicapper.
14:27And the high handicappers, they're probably going to struggle with these sort of lies.
14:31But I do think removing tees altogether and the privileges you get around preferring your lie,
14:36you know, using your wedges to raise up the ground and that sort of thing, you see Laura Davies do.
14:41I think that needs to be banished from the game altogether.
14:43And wouldn't it be fascinating to watch the professionals play all these great golf courses
14:47that we can then come see back in the game again?
14:49You know, the rollback argument is we don't see some of the great old courses anymore
14:52because they're bombing it too far.
14:53Wouldn't it be great to see those golf courses back?
14:55And it's that risk-reward as well.
14:57Do you want to risk hitting a driver off the deck, off the tee, in case it goes horribly wrong?
15:01Yeah.
15:01But obviously you get rewarded if you hit it like that.
15:03You do still get some pretty good distance.
15:05It's a fascinating one, Joel.
15:06I think one, some food for thought for you guys watching at home.
15:09I think probably a really good rule to crown off that video.
15:12Yeah, there's going to be a lot of comments, I think.
15:13Well, let us know.
15:14Would you like to see that?
15:15I'm feeling a lot of anger because some golfers aren't,
15:19lots of golfers aren't that great and they're going to struggle with that.
15:21But I'm feeling lots of positives on the rollback perspective.
15:23But I was going to say, is it a better solution than rolling back the golf ball for everybody?
15:26I would say yes.
15:27I would say yes as well.
15:28So let us know if there's any that we've missed that you would like to see.
15:30But for now, from Madeira, thanks for joining us.
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