Adjusting to the New Rules of Golf

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Starting a thread where we can share our experiences adjusting to the new rules of golf. I'll have my first observation that I'll post below to kick things off.

I suspect this thread is going to see a lot of discussion over the next few weeks.
 
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I played my first round of the new year today. The thing that jumped out at me the most was what to do when we all get on or around the green.

Used to be that if someone was on the collar or close in the rough you'd ask whether they want the stick in, tended, or out. Then once everyone was on you just pull the flag. Now every player can choose to putt with the flag in or out, so how to handle that?

I decided just to ask, "Is everybody okay with pulling the flag?" Seemed to work okay. This group was fine with the flag out. I suppose I might run into someone in the future that wants to putt with it in. If so, I guess I'll hang onto the flag, so it can go back in when that person putts.
 
I suppose I might run into someone in the future that wants to putt with it in. If so, I guess I'll hang onto the flag, so it can go back in when that person putts.

Very interesting because the whole point of that rule change (I think) was to speed up play. And in that very likely scenario, it will for sure slow down the group.

I think it’ll continuously come back to pace of play can only be controlled by the player, not rules unfortunately.


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I have clearly not read enough about the rule changes. I completely missed the change in height on the drop rule until I was watching Kampala last night and saw it explained.


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I played my first round of 2019 today. I was a single that got paired up with 3 others (another single and a twosome). I'm not a very vocal person when I'm not with people I know. There was no discussion at all about the pin. As soon as everyone was on the green one of the other 3 always pulled the pin until we holed out. I'm sure I could have requested the pin to be put in but I just went with the flow of things (and didn't really care).

I also noticed the group in front of us always pulled the pin for their putting as well.
 
Here's one I'm kinda dreading. The OB tee shot by a player in your group. The rules before and after allowed for a provisional to be played off the tee. Now you have the option of dropping where the ball went OB with a 2-stroke penalty. So, you are hitting your 4th shot. The problem is a lot of weekend players up to now took a drop and played on with no penalty or a 1-stroke penalty. While this was against the rules, it's what they've been doing. If you point out what the new rules allow as an option, this will likely be met with a lot of grousing. Has anyone encountered this? Have some tips on how to handle this situation?
 
Here's one I'm kinda dreading. The OB tee shot by a player in your group. The rules before and after allowed for a provisional to be played off the tee. Now you have the option of dropping where the ball went OB with a 2-stroke penalty. So, you are hitting your 4th shot. The problem is a lot of weekend players up to now took a drop and played on with no penalty or a 1-stroke penalty. While this was against the rules, it's what they've been doing. If you point out what the new rules allow as an option, this will likely be met with a lot of grousing. Has anyone encountered this? Have some tips on how to handle this situation?
That's how a lot of my buddies play. The upside now is that they can drop in the fairway instead near the fence line, for example. Maybe sell that as the upside?

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I have played a few rounds and I like the option of leaving the flag in.
 
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