Time to scrap a rule that harms golf, says Howell

By European Tour player David Howell

So let’s get this straight, a golfer, let’s call him Dustin for the sake of a name, is allowed to take a full ­practice swing on a tee, hit the ball off the toe end of the club and send it crashing out of bounds, yet it does not count as a stroke and he receives no penalty at all, because he wasn’t attempting to play a shot and the ball is not in play.

Dustin can start his actual swing and nudge the ball off  the tee in the process and just replace it with no penalty because he wasn’t attempting to strike the ball. But if Dustin puts his putter on a green behind the ball, without ­actually touching it, and the ball moves, he gets a one-shot penalty.

If Dustin puts his putter behind the ball and the ball moves after, let’s say four or five seconds, there is a chance that he won’t receive that penalty stroke. However, depending on the referee, he may – or depending on the views of his playing partners should a referee not be available.

If it’s deemed that Dustin has not caused the ball to move, he plays the ball from the new position, whether that be an inch away or 50 yards away, should it have rolled down a slope and gathered ­momentum, but if Dustin is deemed to have caused the ball to move, and the ball has rolled 50 yards away, he gets a one-stroke penalty, but gets to replace the ball in its original position, which could of course be two or three feet away from the hole. Confused? You should be, but let’s crack on.

Every golfer the world over places his putter behind the ball to strike a putt, it’s as much a part of playing the game as it is to tee up a driver, it’s an integral part of playing golf. But if Dustin happens to be really good, and he has a six-inch tap-in to win the world’s biggest tournament, watched by millions of golf fans the world over, and in the instance that he places his putter behind the ball, the ball ­topples over a dimple or two, Dustin gets a penalty and ties the ­championship that the whole world saw him win.

If he saw it move, but in an instant tapped the ball in anyway because it ­happened in such a blur, he has then played the ball from a wrong position and gets a further stroke penalty thereby missing the play-off as well. Sounds extreme doesn’t it? But it’s not really, it’s only a matter of time until this happens for real, on the last green with the world watching on.

This is the ludicrous position that golf has got itself into – it has left itself open to ridicule rather than being able to hold its head up as the most honest of all the sports, and to guard against what I really do not know. No advantage is being gained in any of these situations, it’s just a daft rule.

In France last week I played with Scott Hend. On the 16th green he walked up to tap in an 18-inch putt, he placed his putter an inch being the ball and sure enough the ball moved and he incurred a penalty stroke, (after a five-minute discussion with a ref). It was the third such incident that day because on Poa Annua greens cut to Tour standards balls move oh so often. In trying to be whiter than white, golf has muddied the waters of what is fair, and in doing so is hurting the game. Mind you I make it sound like it’s a new rule. It’s not, it’s always been the rule, over the last few years it’s been changed to give more leeway to the player, but that leeway causes more problems than it’s worth.

It would need such a simple rule change too, to make it sensible: As long as the player has not touched the ball with the putter then there should be no penalty and the ball is played as it lies. Simple and fair. Here’s how it would go under this new sensible rule.

Referee: “Dustin, you say the ball moved, did you touch it with your putter?”

Dustin: “No, I did not.”

Referee: “OK great, tap it in then to win the tournament.”

Dustin: “Great, I will do that.”

Professional golf clearly has to play exactly by the rules, but how are weekend golfers interpreting these situations? More often than not I would imagine by using common sense and just ignoring the fact that the ball moved one dimple when it was addressed, and quite right too. In some ways, the game is hard enough without being given a penalty when you don’t hit the ball!

So let’s hope that  The R&A and USGA see sense during their next rules review and change this to ­something sensible once and for all. While they are at it, why not ban ­caddies lining up their players too? Not only does it look awful on TV, it’s an advantage only for someone who can afford a caddie. That can’t be right in my book.

On a more positive note, the ­European Tour is off to Castle Stuart this week, a more stunning course it is hard to find. I call it a novelty links, much like its counterpart Kingsbarns, designed as a links test for tourists in many ways, and both done brilliantly.

I’m looking forward to getting on to some crisp links turf for a couple of weeks with The Open to follow on the more traditional course at Troon. The links season lasts two weeks, but it is a great two weeks. I hope that I can make an impression on at least one of these events, the way my season has panned out so far that would be a real delight.

Tagged David Howell, Dustin Johnson