EDITORIAL – EXAMING THE SIX RULES CHANGES ON THE PGA TOUR

The PGA Tour enacted six Local Rules changes for 2026, with some interesting angles:

1) When “lift-clean-replace” is in effect, the player may now move the ball only within one scorecard length instead of a club length.

2) Players now get free relief in the fringe from any immovable obstruction and not just sprinkler heads.

3) Players may now replace a damaged club with components that are carried in the bag.

4) Players may now take free relief if their ball is in any pitch mark in the general area, not just their own.

5) If a player accidentally causes their ball to move outside the putting green and is unaware, the penalty upon discovery is now one stroke instead of two.

6) In cases of internal out-of-bounds, this will now apply only to shots hit from the teeing ground.

What’s noteworthy is that the Rules of Golf state, “Rule 1.3c(3) states that the Committee does not have the authority to apply penalties in a different way than stated in the Rules of Golf. Therefore a Committee must not use a Local Rule to waive, modify or apply a penalty.” Rule change #5 clearly violates this principle, and in regard to #6, the Rules of Golf state, “The Rules do not contemplate an area having more than one status during the play of a hole, and so an area must not be marked as out of bounds for certain strokes, or strokes made from certain areas such as the teeing area.” The other Local Rules changes (except for #1) by the PGA Tour also do not adhere to what a committee is permitted to do under the Rules of Golf.

What does this mean? Does it mean the PGA Tour is testing the waters to see if it can enact Local Rules outside the purview of what is permitted by the USGA? The most obvious reason they may be doing this concerns the ball rollback to be enacted in 2030. The PGA Tour has made it clear it does not like the rollback, and this may be a precursor of them refusing to go along with it. It will be interesting to see what happens going forward.