RULES By Logan Rasmussen

RULES OF GOLF

Alter Your Clubs the “Right” Way Although normal wear and tear to golf clubs, balls, and other equipment is common when playing golf, there are certain restrictions when it comes to altering/tailoring your equipment. The word “conforming” pops up within the Rules of Golf pretty often and in fact, there is anWORDS BY LOGAN RASMUSSEN other entire set of “Rules” that describe and restrict what golf equipment can look like, limit how it can perform, and what constitutes as “conforming.” The Equipment Rules are referenced throughout the Rules of Golf with the main objective of creating a level playing field for everyone to enjoy the game! Non-conforming clubs and balls can add distance and correct ball flight by merit of their design – not by merit of player skill. Hence why they are not allowed to protect the integrity of the game. So we know that buying a “magic golf ball” or the “perfect driver” is obviously going to be against the rules, but what alterations can we make to our existing clubs and equipment? What are we allowed and not allowed to do to better our play? Let’s take a brief look. One common reference that you may have seen was this past year on the PGA Tour when Hideki Matsuyama was disqualified from the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village when a member of his team altered his 3-wood by adding a “white-out” Hideki Matsuyama was disqualified for using a substance to the clubface. The substance was “white out” substance on added to serve as an alignment aid but that his clubface. (Sky Sports) is not the reason he was disqualified.

RULES OF GOLF

“Rule 4.1a(3) within the equipment rules speaks to applying a substance to the face could unduly affect the performance of a ball,” said PGA Tour Rules Official Steve Rintoul. “The flight, the spin, all the performance of the ball … and even though it was done for alignment purposes, it was excessive, it was a large amount of paint on the face and that could affect the performance of the ball.”

Matsuyama used the club, which was then a non-conforming club due to the addition of this substance to the face, on his first hole of the day – which resulted in a disqualification under Rule 4.1a(3).

Remember when Rory Sabbatini was DQ’d from the RSM Classic last November? He placed what was deemed as an “external attachment” to his club face that made the club “non-conforming.” He proceeded to use the club throughout the round and shot a -4 (68) before being informed at scoring of his fate.

In today’s environment of capturing every single swing and clubface path for each one placing these stickers on your club face in between rounds is common practice, but we do need to remember these must be removed before every round even though these stickers surely had no benefit to his game.

Let’s remember, however, that there are certain measures that we are allowed to take, like the addition of lead tape to certain parts of the club. Despite the increase of weight adjustability features in many modern clubs, many tour pros and high-level amateurs will still apply lead tape to their clubs to alter how a club feels, how it affects the ball’s trajectory, or to help cure a swing defect.

So, we know that the addition of lead tape is legal but there is one catch. It must be put on before the round starts. If you alter your clubs during a round in any way and then proceed to make a stroke with a now “non-conforming” club, you would face a penalty of Disqualification.

The same is true for changing of the adjustable weights found in many of today’s drivers. All modifications and adjustments must be done prior to the start of your round in order to avoid penalty.

The one exception to this rule is if a club’s performance characteristics were changed during a round by using an adjustable feature and, before the club is used to make a stroke, the club is restored as nearly as possible to its original position by adjusting the feature back to where it was. In this case, there is no penalty and the club may be used to make a stroke.

There is also no penalty for merely having in your bag a non-conforming club or a club whose performance characteristics were deliberately changed during the round. Any prospective penalty would not be enforced until a stroke is made with the non-conforming club.

What about replacing or repairing a club that breaks during a round? If a conforming club is damaged during a round, the player normally must not replace it with another club unless a Model Local Rule is in place. For a limited exception when the player did not cause the damage, see Rule 4.1b(3).

But no matter what the nature or cause of the damage, the damaged club is treated as conforming for the rest of that round. You may continue to make strokes with the damaged club, or you may even attempt to repair it by restoring the club as nearly as possible to the condition it was in before the damage happened.

Some common examples of “repair” include replacing the same lead tape that fell off during a stroke, bending a club back into its original position, or tightening clubs with adjustable mechanisms that may have come loose during the round.

To sum things up, even with the adjustability of today’s golf clubs, be sure to make the proper, legal alterations before you start your round. And leave the white out in your office – it’s got no place on the golf course!

Rory Sabbatini was disqualified for adding “external attachments” to his clubface. (GOLF.com)