From Michelle, our Rules Chairman.

A new 2019 rule that might be good to review

Golf’s New Rules: Major Changes

New Rule: A club-length is defined as the length of the longest club in the player’s bag, except that this cannot be his or her putter.

• The relief area for dropping a ball is a fixed size of either one or two club-lengths depending on which relief Rule is being used.
• The relief area is a fixed size for each player and is pre-determined based on the clubs the player has selected for play.

Reasons for Change:

The definition of a club-length as the longest club other than a putter means that a player cannot choose which club to measure with based on the situation.

For example, players are no longer able to make a strategic choice about the size of the relief area by choosing a longer club so that the player can reach a location that is farther from the nearest point of relief or other reference point.

Using the longest club for measuring minimizes the inconsistency in the size of a relief area between players (including eliminating the advantage for players who previously could have used a long putter for measuring).