Seinfeld fans will recall the episode that Kramer says "without rules, there's chaos" after his opponent lifted the ball on the 15th hole and cleaned it - which of course is only permitted on the putting green. Golfers today might be surprised to learn that the first time the ball could be lifted and cleaned on the putting green was 1960.

For the past seven years, the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club (R&A) - along with input from the PGA and PGA Tour - have been working on major changes to the rules of golf. On January 1st the new, modernized rules went into effect.

With the release, 34 rules have been reduced to 24 (former ASGA President E.B. Gee Jr. has a collector's license plate with "34Rules") and more than 1,200 "decisions" have been reduced to roughly 300 "interpretations."

Bryant Fortin, who has been on staff with the ASGA for more than six years, and current ASGA Executive Director, Jay Fox, taught six rules of golf seminars to our members and member clubs by press time - including the Arkansas PGA Chapter at its annual meeting. 

Here are a few of the major changes - with the emphasis on relaxed or reduced - in terms of penalty strokes:

• All drops are from knee height
• Repair spike marks on the putting green
• Ground your club in penalty areas & take practice swings
• Remove loose impediments in penalty areas and bunkers
• Putt with the flagstick in the hole from anywhere, includes the putting green
• No penalty for accidental movement of a ball on the putting green
• No penalty if a player causes his ball to move during search.

You may notice a new term above - penalty area - replaces old term water hazard or lateral water hazard and includes YELLOW penalty areas and RED penalty areas.

Dropping from knee height has drawn quite a bit of attention on social media. Prior to 1984, the ball was dropped "over the shoulder" which changes to shoulder height. The new height has a better chance for a player to get a ball back into play on the first drop, without re-dropping which sometimes resulted in penalties for not correctly following procedure.

Please note that grounding your club in penalty areas - whether they be yellow or red - is not allowed in bunkers as that rule has not changed. Putting with the flagstick in the hole was allowed until 1968 - so that rule really is not a new rule.

No penalty for accidental movement of a ball on the putting green or if a player causes his ball to move during search - both used to be one stroke penalties and ball had to be replaced. The latter is still in effect - ball must be replaced and if spot not known, used to be a drop - but in 2019 has been changed to be "replaced."

In 1996, pace of play guidelines were put into the rules and "ready golf" is being reinstituted and even allows a player to play out of turn in match play if the opponent doesn't object - the old rule was simply the opponent could recall the stroke. The big change in that regard is 5 minutes to search has been reduced to 3 minutes.

To learn more about the relaxed, modernized rules, contact the ASGA office at 501-455-2742 or go to usga.org/rules to see videos and other tools that might help.