News

Major ChangesThe following are the main changes to the Rules of Golf that took effect on January 1, 2019. The items covered on this page are organized into nine categories. Within each individual item ...
This content was first published in Golf Journal, a quarterly print publication exclusively for USGA Members. To be among the first to receive Golf Journal and to learn how you can help make golf more ...
Scoring, articles, photos, videos and all content related to the 2021 U.S. Amateur Championship, conducted by the USGA at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club.
Are you an average golfer? And what would it mean if you were? After all, this is golf, a sport of such random, unforeseen outcomes it tends to mock the notion that anything hews to an average – or ...
The USGA's new Rules of Golf will go into effect on January 1, 2023. Explore additional resources on these changes here.
Sand Valley Resort, in Nekoosa, Wis., has been selected by the USGA to host four future amateur championships, starting with the 2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur.
5. More light goes a long way. Shade extends frost delays by preventing sunlight from melting the frost. Pruning or removing trees that shade primary playing surfaces can improve the course’s overall ...
A strict prohibition on touching or moving loose impediments or touching the ground in a water hazard has never been practical, and so a series of exceptions had to be recognized in previous Rule 13-4 ...
New Rule: Rule 17.1d removes the option to take relief on the opposite side of a red penalty area (the new term that includes what was previously called a lateral water hazard): This means that, when ...
There is no longer a penalty for merely touching the line of play on the putting green (the term “line of play” applies everywhere on the course including the putting green, and the term “line of putt ...
Prior to the invention of the wooden tee at the turn of the 19th century, golfers made tees out of sand. Courses would supply each hole with a box of wet sand from which the golfer would fashion a ...
New Rule: Under Rule 13.2a (2): There is no longer a penalty if a ball played from the putting green hits a flagstick left in the hole. Players are not required to putt with the flagstick in the hole; ...