It’s all for charity as rules get a makeover

By Graham Otway

Two of golf’s toughest rules have been changed by The R&A, which could lead to subtle changes at pro tournaments around the world from the start of next year.

Amateurs will still not be able to claim prize money. But after making the cut, there could be an arrangement whereby an equivalent cash sum that would have been paid to a pro finishing in their spot on the leaderboard is handed over to charity.

The second big change is that a player will not in future be disqualified if a keen-eyed TV viewer claims to have spotted a rules infringement that leads to penalty shots being added to their score after they have been into the recorder’s hut to sign their scorecard.

In future, instead of being booted out of a tournament, if something similar happens to a player, the penalty for the infringement will be applied to the score with two further penalty shots added for signing for an incorrect scorecard.

But it is the charity initiative for amateurs that could see golf climb up the ladder of public popularity four years after the strict no-cash amateur rule was invoked by the rules’ bosses at St Andrews.

David Rickman, The R&A’s head of rules, said the issue had to be looked at after Hideki Matsuyama, then a teenage amateur sensation, was asked to help raise money at a tournament for victims of the 2011 Japanese Tsunami, which killed more than 15,000 people and damaged property worth an estimated $300bn. Matsuyama desperately wanted to get involved, but was told by The R&A that if he did he would forfeit his amateur status.

Rickman confirmed that the new charity concept would be applied next year at tournaments, not just charity golf days, providing the organisers seeks approval from the governing body in advance and can show that the nominated charity is a genuine concern.

The European Tour would not say whether it could be implemented in Race to Dubai events next season because of the impression it only applied to charity days. But the size of cheques that could be written for good causes was demonstrated by last summer’s Open Championship at St Andrews.

With Silver Medal winner Jordan Niebrugge finishing sixth, another American, Ollie Schniederjans, and England’s Ashley Chesters tying 12th, and Ireland’s Paul Dunne in a share of 30th, the quartet, due to their unpaid status, were unable to claim collectively