Was 2019 A Good Year For Golf?

Fergus Bisset considers a notable year for the sport that witnessed progress and success, growth and decline, prosperity and deficiency...

On January 1, 2019, the most significant reworking of the Rules of Golf for a generation came into operation. The objectives were to simplify, increase fairness and speed up play. There were early grumblings within the professional ranks and, like any significant alteration to an established code, the transition has taken time.

The changes to increase fairness, like no penalty for being struck by a rebounding ball, have been received well at the club level. But the flag-in rule hasn’t quite worked as expected, and anecdotal evidence suggests many are yet to figure out what a three-minute search looks like. Overall, though, the rule changes are positive, making golf more accessible and quicker to play.

With regards pace of play, ‘ready golf’ appears to be increasingly in use and is having a positive impact. At top amateur tournaments, competitors are encouraged to play when ready and round times are decreasing. This is filtering down to clubs and will hopefully continue to do so. The more it’s talked about and tried, the more it will become the norm.

In the pro game, the shifting of the USPGA Championship to May condensed the four men’s Majors into a four-month spell. This allowed increased focus on the season-ending series on both the PGA and European Tours, which was good news for the sponsors. However, for the top players and fans to have to wait eight months from the hugely successful Portrush Open until the 2020 Masters for another Major seems too long.