Today was a special day at the Golf Academy. Dr. Robin Farran, the USGA Rules Official who usually teaches Advanced Rules of Golf, paid our Advanced Rules class a visit. Dr. Farran has taught Advanced Rules at the Academy for several years now, but an illness that put him in the hospital for several weeks forced him to miss this semester. In his unofficial welcome back Wednesday, this Rules official was back in his element, and you could tell Dr. Farran had missed it.
Don’t get me wrong. Class with PGA Professional (and noted Rules expert) Ed Ekis has been great, but in fairness to Ed, it’s tough to duplicate Dr. Farran’s credentials. The man has served as a USGA Rules Official for U.S. Opens, U.S. Amateurs, and even U.S. Women’s Opens. He’s also had a hand in writing the Rules and even a few of the Decisions on the Rules of Golf currently in print.
The timing of Dr. Farran’s visit could not have been more appropriate since the USGA announced the publication of the 2016 Rules of Golf and the changes therein late last month. Today, our class discussion focused on Rules 4-6, and specifically some of the more interesting stories surrounding those Rules over the years.
Matt Every became the first disqualification of 2015 while, at the Sony Open in Hawaii, damaged his 4-iron on Thursday and then played with the same damaged, non-conforming club the very next day. You can’t do that.
We also talked about Ian Woosnam’s two-stroke penalty for having 15 clubs in his bag at the 2001 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. You could argue that Woozy’s carelessness cost him a Claret Jug. Pretty interesting stuff. Dr. Farran is a great storyteller too, and that really adds color to what might otherwise be considered a pretty mundane topic.
Dr. Farran basically admitted that the people who write the Rules at the USGA and the R&A are out of touch with the people who play the game on a regular basis. He called it frustrating because the situations those ruling bodies are writing about are the situations encountered under near perfect conditions at Tour events and major championships, not what the weekend warrior faces when he plays with his buddies.
Our class project this semester is simplifying the Rules and their definitions, essentially “dumbing down” the language into words everyone can understand. Dr. Farran told us the reason the Rules are so complex is that they’re written by people who know what they mean and what they’re trying to say. Rather than using more clarifying language (which would take more words) the USGA instead opts for the most efficient language possible in order to keep the Rules a few pages shorter. Those priorities in this regard seem misplaced. The Rules – and the way they’re written – is just one of the reasons why golf has such an elitist reputation.
When our class took its customary top-of-the-hour break, I had to ask Dr. Farran privately what he thought about the new Rule 14-1b (Anchoring the Club), which prohibits anchoring the club either “directly” or by use of an “anchor point” in making a stroke. The penalty is loss of hole in match play or two strokes in stroke play.
When I switched to an anchored putter several years ago, it totally revolutionized my game. I started making everything, and as a result, my confidence level shot through the roof! I also started practicing my putting more often, something I had never done or enjoyed doing before, and that made me a better putter too. Then the USGA announced its ruling in May of 2013, so I had to switch back.
Dr. Farran told me he thought the USGA should have made its ruling 20 years ago instead of waiting so long. I couldn’t agree more. His argument, which has been mine all along, is that if it was such a big deal to putt with an anchored stroke, the USGA should have squashed it when it first came out instead of waiting until the practice gained in popularity. When PGA Tour players started winning with it, the USGA stepped-in and stopped it when, in my opinion, it was already too late. Their thinking when anchored putting first came onto the scene was that because “only one or two players were using it,” it would never catch on. Boy were they wrong.