New Rules for 2023

The Rules of Golf have typically been updated every four years of late, but the major modernisation that came into effect in January 2019 strayed a year early from that cycle.

- Jeremy Ellwood with Grant Moir 

In that major revamp, the number of Rules was pruned from 34 to 24 and many long-established Rules changed radically, from reducing search time to three minutes and dropping from knee height to putting with the flagstick in without fear of penalty.

Now, The R&A and USGA have reverted to the four-yearly cycle, which means another update as of the start of this year. "It's not quite the dramatic change of 2019, where everyone was having to completely relearn a lot of things," Grant Moir, executive director - governance at The R&A, explains, "but we have been busy refining and hopefully improving in certain areas." The R&A feels that although the 2019 Rules updates have proved largely successful, despite the odd voice of dissent still, there's always room for improvement.

"That's what we've been trying to do these last four years," Moir says. "Some of this is refinement in areas where, perhaps on reflection, we felt we could have done a better job and others where we're just continuing the process of trying to make the Rules easier to understand and apply and, where possible, to relax penalties or outcomes in certain situations." So, did anything on the table end up not changing? "Well, there are inevitably some technical things that we feel we need more time to flesh out," Moir says. "But there isn't anything we've been talking about that hasn't made it into the Rules."

Before we go into detail about five key changes for 2023, it's worth noting that the Player's Edition usually distributed to golf clubs and golfers is no longer being printed. "We're printing four million fewer books than last time," Moir explains. "Our distribution operation is greatly reduced, so that really fits with our emphasis on sustainability at The R&A.