7 GOLF RULES WE WOULD CHANGE TOMORROW!

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.

► Skip to your favourite section:
0:17 Relief from divots
2:15 Number of clubs
4:18 Out of bounds
6:03 Signing your scorecard
7:07 Putter alignment
9:07 Teeing area
11:38 Use of tees

► Video shot on location at the beautiful Palheiro golf club in Madeira, host of the Madeira Islands Open. Visit https://www.palheironatureestate.com for more information.

► For more information on the Rules of Golf, be sure to check out the rules section on the Golf Monthly website: https://www.golfmonthly.com/golf-rules

► Do you agree with our choices and which rule would you want to change? Let us know in the comments below! 💬

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Joel I actually find the rules of golf really quite confusing and a bit boring to be honest yeah they are quite complicated actually aren’t they I mean is there anything that you change about them I’ve got a few ideas actually have you I’ve got a few ideas as well should

Go talk about them yeah let’s do It right so to kick us off I think this is probably the most obvious rule that most golfers want to change down it’s having relief from a ball in a divot 100% if you asked a thousand golfers now what rule would you want to see change

Tomorrow I think 999 would say I want relief from divots in the fair way we’ll come on to that in a second but you know I’ve hit a perfect drive down here got flick with a wedge in I’ve got to play out of this putrid divot here that

Someone’s had a right hack at um in a previous life so yeah simple as that right Joel I want are you in agreement with me I’m not in agreement I’m the one out of the Thousand that don’t agree you should get release from the divot I think there’s far too many gray areas

Here obviously you can see your ball is obviously in a divot but there’ll be other situations where where you’ve got old divots where they’ve been mostly kind of recovered but there’s still a slight indentation um you know you could argue that pretty much every on The Fairway there’s been a divot at some

Point so how do you categorize a different age of divot you know if you’ve got a bad lie in the Fairway it doesn’t look like a divot could you claim there’s a divot I think there’s just too many gray areas for you to actually Define what a divot is and

Therefore apply consistent ruling so you think it’d be too much of a slippery slope if this actually came into effect yeah and you could argue that obviously it’s unfair that you get relief from holes um rabbit scrapings that sort of thing you get free relief from those so

Why not just extend it to the to divot but for me personally I just think it’s too messy I think it’ll slow down play as well I think there’ll be an awful lot of players calling over their playing Partners can you check if this is a

Divot is it not a divot you know what is it is it just a bad lie in the Fairway and then you know what happens if you get in a divot in the rough or the semi- roughe that is a bit ofbody area even I think people who want this rule to come

Into place um especially if it’s not clear if you’re quite in the Fairway or not yeah yeah that’s even more it gets very muddy I still think it should come into play somehow the rules makers in the world need to figure that out figure out those gray areas let us know what

You think you want of the 999 or you wanted Jo’s Mates right so another rule of golf we would like to change refers to the number of clubs you are allowed to carry in your bag Dan talk us through exactly how you would change it yeah quite passionate about this one actually I think 14 is way too many golf clubs a

It’s heavy right it’s expensive I think it takes a little bit of skill out of the game as well when you’ve got a club that does these sort of very minute things you might get out once or twice so no one knows why it’s 14 clubs by the

Way it came into effect in about the 1930s when steel shaft started getting used instead of hickories but it’s the rule now rule four no more than 14 golf clubs I would reduce it to 10 nice round number let’s take four clubs out of the

Bag make it a bit lighter make it a bit cheaper for people bring that skill back in where you’ve got to you know finesse different kind of shots you know half shots 50% shots so with that in mind Joel I’m going to ask you now okay take

Your 14 clubs that you probably carry at the minute which four would you get rid of if this rule came into place really good question for the record I totally in agreement with this but yeah in terms of the clubs I would yeah I I would say I could

Definitely do without my lob wedge 60° wedge I pretty much only use it out of bunkers and I think I could get away with using a 54 or 56 quite comfortably I think I get rid of my three-wood don’t only really tend to use that on second

Shots into par FS but you know I can use a hybrid and flick it wedging um I think my five iron as well I mean those are three clubs that I think could easily be taken out I don’t think I’d see a massive drop off in performance or

Scores as a result I agree with you on the lob wedge I love my through so I keep it I’d take I’d only play Odd iron so I’d go 5 seven9 wedge so I lose my six and my eight my lob wedge and then four E I don’t carry a four I probably

Would if I carried 14 probably realistically one of my hybrid or three would I’d have to have a sit down myself and really work data Maybe exactly see which one’s doing the same job as the other so yeah um come on I need your 14th I need the fourth Club out of there

Um yeah I’d probably get rid of my one of the wedges maybe the the gap wedge you get rid of the gap wedge you anyway yeah I think a great rule we’re both in agree on this one let’s get 14 clubs down to 10 right so I’m just thankful D we found

Some shade a beautiful sunny day here at Palio golf course in madira um but I’m a bit disgruntled down because my drive off this 18th hole it’s come down the left it’s Kit left this guy is still in your way and this guy is going to cause me a lot of issues

Because my the other post is of in line here going back past the camera so the ball is just out of bounds I found it as we all know the penalty is very severe when it comes to Out of Bounds um I have to get take stroke and distance so walk

All the way back to the T cuz I haven’t hit a provisional ball CU I didn’t think it was going to be outbound all the way up to the T play three off the T So if I hit a good driveid to this one playing

Four from the First on on a that is actually crazy like how severe the penalty is for out of bounds obviously going back to the two slows down play a lot you got that walk of shame that embarrassment Factor as well but I think a fair and reasonable penalty in my

Opinion would be if you’ve dropped it or you you haven’t found it but you can reasonably with some certainty know where your ball has gone into the outbounds I think you should be a to drop a ball inbounds the point that it kind of crossed the out of bounds line

As you would do with with red posts and yellow with a penalty shot so playing your third shot so you’re obviously not you’ve got a penalty you’ve been disadvantaged by going outbounds but the penalty is not so severe I think it’s it’s a fairer penalty that’s a much

Fairer way to deal with out of bounds I think and while we’re here on out of bounds I think we’re both in agreement internal out of bounds sack it off absolutely can’t stand I mean I know there’s a safety uh element to it but yeah internal out of bounds between two

Holes you know if you hit a a wayward drive and it’s sitting perfectly on another Fairway but you’re you’re randomly out of bounds it doesn’t make any sense to me yeah and I think alongside the divit one we spoke about earlier this to be a really really popular one but golf was back Home right Dan that was a nice round wasn’t it very enjoyable thanks that Jo it’s time to sign our scorecard I believe there’s a rule that you might want to tweak with this regard I think there a chance to change this now and so

The USG RNA bought a new rule in in 2023 a model local rule that meant you wouldn’t get um disqualified anymore for not signing the card which I think was a good rule do you agree with that I think it was always a bit harsh isn’t it that

You don’t put your little squiggle down and it’s often just a sort of blind squigle anyway isn’t it you get DQ That’s now a two shot penalty however it’s only a model local rule which means clubs don’t have to adopt it if they don’t want to I think it should be

Written and entrenched in the rules now that if you don’t sign for your scorecard if you forget to put a seure on there it’s just a two shot penalty which I think is penalty enough for what is really a stupid mistake that we should all be doing anyway right there’s

Something else WR on the scorecard there as well yeah so at the bottom of this one here it says um like this video And subscribe to to the golf monthly YouTube channel for more videos like this which I think a good idea it’s pretty Sound Advice Yeah it’s one rule that we want to change that I actually considered before comes down to putter design Dan in particular the alignment assistance you get from puts and also on golf balls as well I think you’ve got quite a drastic change that you’d like to make well this

Is a really interesting one when we were uh brainstorming ideas this video what did we we sat down as a group and said what do we want to change and Joe our colleague said I think we should get rid of alignment Aids on and I said well

Okay let’s maybe get rid of them on balls as well and the more I thought about it I think the more I like it so there’s rules in place at the minute don’t know the exact ones that say you allowed them and the height they’re allowed in the club and the substance

That you can use and and and and I would personally wipe it clean and that’s from putters so you can see here on my spider which I do love and I do use this quite a lot sort of two alignment AIDS here right you got the line going down the

Middle and the the Y that they use the white Y and then on gol fors like this I mean again really popular but I’m sorry tlor made away bridg Stone now get him gone let’s wipe it clean and bring a bit more skill back into the game I guess

You know not having it all lined up you’ve got to know where you put a heads face in if it’s open if it’s closed you’ve got to trust your Lin with the ball stuff like that I think it’s a really interesting one and one the more

I think about it the more I’m into yeah I think if you look think about other sports you know snooker for example you don’t have alignment assistance from you Q You could argue using lines on the ball or features like we’ve got on that tailor made uh tour response rrie slows

Play down a lot when you’re trying to line it up perfectly you fast play don’t you I’ve noticed that I do love fast play I don’t like messing around too much um so getting that precisely right can take a lot of time uh so yeah there’s definitely a case to make for um

Simplifying the the design of the the clubs and the balls a little bit bring us more skill back into the game and um best PS would probably still come through yeah and I think it’s just like I’m not going to rely on it you knock it

Down nice and easy and you just hold you just hold you just hold puts like that you don’t need the alignment just demonstrated thank you let’s wipe them off completely but let us know about that one cuz it’s a bit more of an interesting one okay then Joel next rule change

Please what have you got for us so we’re going to talk about the teing area Dan so this all comes under rule 6.1b it’s fascinating stuff my favorite that one as everyone knows the teeing area relates to kind of the straight line from the front of the tea markers two

Club LS back and then kind of a parallel line along here this is your teeing area but if you don’t tee your ball up in the teeing area and play your shot you get the general penalty which is two shots okay and you have to correct your mistake I.E play another ball from

Within the team area now in my opinion that is a very harsh penalty for what in a situation where you’re not really gaining a massive Advantage so for example if I if I te the ball accidentally say here you know just in front of the te- markers I’ve gained a

Couple of inches it’s not worth it it’s not it’s not worth it it’s not worth the penalty right I’m not gaining a huge Advantage by doing doing this and therefore I feel like the two shot penalty plus correcting your mistake is very harsh I think the one shot penalty

Like I understand that you you need to protect the game and you can’t have people teeing up way in front of the markers but in this particular situation um I think the penalty is too harsh okay I think I tend to agree with you Joel Where’s the Line though literally

Because you know it’s like V and offside isn’t it it’s like oh well a toe they shouldn’t give it them let’s make that not offside okay cool how far does it go and you could get some person who just keeps nudging I don’t think I think there’s there’s hardly anyone who would

Go and te you know if you’re playing this way no one would te up over here okay that’s fair people would only make the mistake you know within like a 12 in range and I don’t think you I think I understand your point yeah but my kind

Of main gripe is the penalty is too harsh agreed I think so and most of the time people do this on accident right exactly and it’s worth putting out in match play there’s no penalty you can your playing partner can ask you to play

It again or if you hit it into the the rubbish they can say they can say that that shot counts and that’s fine and I understand you know if you’re teeing up the other side of that was my next question though what if you know what if

It’s a hybrid to play for position you’re not good with a hybrid so if you keep coming back and back and back oh I can hit a driver now again you probably gain more you probably gain more Advantage going that way than you do this way because you can if you’re like

You say if you’re in between clubs and you’ve got the club that’s going to go too far if you go too far back then you can it becomes a perfect yardage so I kind of understand it so I’m okay with this way less okay with it okay uh yes I

Definitely understand your point I think the rules have got to just sort of relax a bit man you know chill out a little bit um and this would be a great way of doing it probably the most dramatic and drastic of the ones we’ve spoken about

It could change the game forever talk us through it it’s a Humdinger Dam yeah I think we should ban teas bang boom have that I think the Privileges that are extended to Golfers on the teeing area versus the rest of the golf course are excessive okay I’ve got my phone I can

Reel off some of the things that you can do on on a te in between these two you can’t do anywhere on on the golf course so um te’s can be up to 4 in Long yeah um you can alter the surface of the ground you can make indentations with

Your foot or the club you can move Bend or break grass you know we know you can’t do that on anywhere else on the golf course you can remove objects in the teeing area you can press down sand and soil you can remove Jew Frost and

Water you can do all sorts of stuff youve C blanch here to do what you want with the golf ball right you don’t want to see that ex but you know placing the ball on a te on the ground on the teting area on the ground is enough to give you

A good enough lie to be able to gain an advantage versus where you are on the rest of the golf course yeah and then you’ve got the argument about the B golf ball going too far and how the te is pretty much directly responsible for golf has being able to launch the ball

Higher with less spin because they’re able to attack the ball on the up because the ball is raised above the ground whereas if you put the ball on the ground you would see lower ball flights with more splin less distance you would definitely uh increase the

Level of skill that would be required to hit the shots correctly with a lower lofted 3w or maybe if you still want to hit a driver I think it brings the skill back into the game it produces less distance it solves an awful lot of problems does I’ve got can I just pitch

A couple of questions you I think people might be shouting at home right so I’m broadly on board with it I think it’s a fun idea uh would it roll out that club entirely from existence um what about golfers who struggle with their driver

At the minute to get it up in the air and off the ground those are my main I mean obviously they’ be it’ be unpopular with with golfers who struggle with their driver and obviously a lot of golfers are used to playing the ball you

Know on a te raised up but I think people would get used to hitting driver off these sorts of Fes and yeah they might play a slightly high lofted driver as a result or a low lofted 3w like I’ve said but um I mean I can demonstrate I

Mean we see we see driver off the deck anyway don’t we I mean that is from the more skilled players but maybe that will bring that element of the game yeah back into sort of high handicaps of the world you know on team grounds you can get

Some pretty good lies cuz that is still now and we’ll show it you closeup sat up fairly nicely it’s set up pretty nicely and I haven’t hit a lot of shots today so this could go horribly wrong but let’s give it a wh oh Jo look at that that is your first

Swing of the day first swing of the day just down that right hand side of the Fairway it’s probably gone a good you know 250 yards that’s fine that’s all you need say that’s bringing a skill back into I know I’m a relatively good goal for your three handicapper but uh

And handicappers they’re probably going to struggle with this sort of Li but I do think removing te’s alog together and the Privileges you get around preferring your lie you using your wedges to to raise up the ground and that sort of thing we see Laura Davis do I think I

Think that needs to be banished from the game all together and wouldn’t it be fascinating to watch the professionals play all these great golf courses that we can then come see back in the game again you know the roll back argument is we don’t see some of the great old

Courses anymore because they’re bombing it too far wouldn’t it be great to see those golf courses back and it’s that risk reward as well do you want to risk hitting a driver off the deck off the te in case it goes horribly wrong but obviously you get rewarded if you hit it

Like that you do still get some pretty good distance H it’s a fascinating one Joel I think one some food for thought for you guys watching at home I think probably a really good rule to Crown off that video there’s going to be a lot of

Comments I think on well let us know would you like to see that I’m I’m feeling a lot of anger because some golfers aren’t lots of golfers aren’t that great and they’re going to struggle with that but I’m feeling lots of positives on the role back perspective

But is it I was going to say is it a better solution than rolling back the golf ball for everybody I would say yes I would say yes as well so let us know if there’s any that we’ve missed that you would like to see but for now from

Madira thanks for joining us