00:00Joel, I actually find the rules of golf
00:01really quite confusing and a bit boring, to be honest.
00:03Yeah, they are quite complicated, actually, aren't they?
00:05I mean, is there anything that you've changed about them?
00:07I've got a few ideas, actually.
00:08Have you? I've got a few ideas as well.
00:10Shall we go talk about them?
00:10Yeah, let's do it.
00:19Right, so to kick us off,
00:20I think this is probably the most obvious rule
00:21that most golfers want to change, Dan.
00:23It's having relief from a ball in a divot.
00:25100%. If you asked 1,000 golfers now
00:27what rule would you want to change tomorrow,
00:29I think 999 would say I want relief from divots
00:33in the fair way.
00:34We'll come on to that in a second.
00:35But, you know, I've hit a perfect drive down here,
00:37got a flick with a wedge in,
00:39I've got to play out of this putrid divot here
00:41that someone's had a right hack at in a previous life.
00:44So, yeah, simple as that, right, Joel?
00:46Are you in agreement with me here?
00:48No, I'm not in agreement.
00:49I'm the one out of 1,000 that don't agree
00:52you should get relief from a divot.
00:53I think there's far too many gray areas here.
00:57Obviously, you can see your ball is obviously in a divot,
00:58but there'll be other situations where you've got old divots
01:01where they've been mostly kind of recovered,
01:03but there's still a slight indentation.
01:06You could argue that pretty much everywhere on the fairway
01:08there's been a divot at some point,
01:10so how do you categorise a different age of divot?
01:12You know, if you've got a bad line in the fairway,
01:13it doesn't look like a divot.
01:14Could you claim there's a divot?
01:16I think there's just too many gray areas for you to actually
01:18define what a divot is and therefore apply a consistent rule.
01:22So you think it'd be too much of a slippery slope
01:24if this actually came into effect?
01:25Yeah, and you could argue that obviously it's unfair that you get relief from
01:30animal holes, rabbit scrapings, that sort of thing.
01:33You get free relief from those, so why not just extend it to a divot?
01:36But for me personally, I just think it's too messy.
01:39I think it'll slow down play as well.
01:40I think there'll be an awful lot of players calling over their playing partners.
01:43Can you check if this is a divot?
01:44Is it not a divot?
01:46You know, what is it?
01:46Is it just a bad line in the fairway?
01:48And then, you know, what happens if you get in a divot in the rough or the semi-rough?
01:52That is a bit of a muddy area, even I think people who want this rule to come into place.
01:57Especially if it's not clear if you're quite in the fairway or not.
02:00Yeah, yeah, it's even more.
02:01It gets very muddy.
02:02I still think it should come into place somehow.
02:05The rules makers in the world need to figure that out, figure out those gray areas.
02:08Let us know what you think.
02:09Are you one of the 999 or are you one of Joel's mates?
02:16Right, so another rule of golf we would like to change refers to the number of clubs you
02:20are allowed to carry in your bag.
02:22Dan, talk us through exactly how you would change it.
02:25Yeah, quite passionate about this one actually.
02:26I think 14 is way too many golf clubs.
02:28A, it's heavy, right?
02:30It's expensive.
02:31I think it takes a little bit of skill out of the game as well when you've got
02:33a club that does these sort of very minute things you might get out once or twice.
02:37So no one knows why it's 14 clubs, by the way.
02:40It came into effect in about the 1930s when steel shafts started getting used instead of hickories.
02:45But it's the rule now, I think it's rule four, no more than 14 golf clubs.
02:48I would reduce it to 10.
02:49Nice round number.
02:51Let's take four clubs out of the bag, make it a bit lighter, make it a bit cheaper for people.
02:55Bring that skill back in where you've got to, you know, finesse different kind of shots,
02:59you know, half shots, 50% shots.
03:00So with that in mind, Joel, I'm going to ask you now.
03:03Okay.
03:03Take your 14 clubs that you probably carry at the minute.
03:06Which four would you get rid of if this rule came into place?
03:08Really good question.
03:09For the record, I am totally in agreement with this.
03:11Oh, excellent.
03:12But yeah, in terms of the clubs, I would say I could definitely do without my lob wedge.
03:16A hundred percent.
03:1760 degree wedge.
03:18I pretty much only use it out of bunkers.
03:19And I think I could get away with using a 54 or a 56 quite comfortably.
03:23I think I'd get rid of my three wood.
03:25I only really tend to use that on second shots into par fives, but you know,
03:28I can use a hybrid and flick a wedge in.
03:30I think my five iron as well.
03:32I mean, those are three clubs that I think could easily be taken out.
03:35I don't think I'd see a massive drop off in performance or scores as a result.
03:38I agree with you on the lob wedge.
03:40I love my three wood, so I keep it.
03:42I'd take, I'd only play odd iron.
03:44So I'd go five, seven, nine wedge.
03:46So I lose my six and my eight, my lob wedge.
03:49And then...
03:50Your four iron?
03:51I don't carry a four iron.
03:52I probably would if I carried 14.
03:54Probably, realistically, one of my hybrid or three would.
03:57I'd have to have to sit down with myself and really work out...
03:59Look at your Arcos data, maybe.
04:00Exactly.
04:00See which one's doing the same job as the other.
04:02So yeah, come on.
04:03I need your 14th.
04:04I need the fourth club out of here.
04:06Um, yeah, I'd probably get rid of my...
04:08One of the wedges, maybe, the gap wedge.
04:10You'd get rid of the gap wedge, couldn't you?
04:11Anyway, yeah, I think a great rule.
04:12We're both in agreement on this one.
04:13Let's get 14 clubs down to 10.
04:19Right, so I'm just thankful, Dan.
04:20We found some shade.
04:21Yes.
04:21A beautiful sunny day here at Pagliaro Golf Course in Madeira.
04:24But I'm a bit disgruntled, Dan, because my drive off this 18th hole,
04:28it's come down the left, it's kicked left.
04:30This guy's stood there in your way.
04:31And this guy is going to cause me a lot of issues.
04:34Yeah.
04:34Because the other post is in line here, going back past the camera.
04:38So the ball is just out of bounds.
04:40I've found it.
04:41As we all know, the penalty is very severe when it comes to out of bounds.
04:45I have to take stroke and distance, so walk all the way back to the tee,
04:48because I haven't hit a provisional ball,
04:49so I didn't think it was going to be out of bounds.
04:51All the way back to the tee, play three off the tee.
04:53So if I hit a good drive, make a distance to this one, playing four from the third.
04:58On a part four, which it is.
05:00That is actually crazy, how severe the penalty is for out of bounds.
05:03Obviously, going back to the tee slows down play a lot.
05:05You've got that walk of shame, that embarrassment factor as well.
05:08But I think a fair and reasonable penalty, in my opinion, would be,
05:11if you've dropped it or you haven't found it,
05:14but you can reasonably, with some certainty,
05:17know where your ball has gone into the out of bounds.
05:19I think you should be able to drop a ball, in bounds, the point that it kind of crossed the
05:23out of bounds line.
05:24As you would do with red posts and yellow at the minute, right?
05:26Exactly, with a penalty shot, so playing your third shot,
05:28so obviously you've got a penalty, you've been disadvantaged by going out of bounds,
05:33but the penalty is not so severe.
05:35I think it's a fairer penalty.
05:36That's a much fairer way to deal with out of bounds, I think.
05:38And while we're here on out of bounds, I think we're both in agreement,
05:41internal out of bounds, sack it off entirely.
05:43Yeah, absolutely, I can't stand it.
05:44I mean, I know there's a safety element to it, but yeah,
05:47internal out of bounds between two holes, you know, if you hit a wayward drive
05:51and it's sitting perfectly on another fairway, but you're randomly out of bounds,
05:55it doesn't make any sense to me.
05:56Yeah, and I think, alongside the divot one we spoke about earlier,
05:59this will be a really, really popular one with golfers back home.
06:06Right, Dan, that was a nice round, wasn't it?
06:08Very enjoyable, thanks for that, Joel.
06:09It's time to sign our scorecard.
06:11It is.
06:11I believe there's a rule that you might want to tweak with disregard.
06:14I think there's a chance to change this now.
06:17And so the USG and the RNA brought a new rule in, in 2023,
06:20a model local rule that meant you wouldn't get disqualified anymore
06:23for not signing the card, which I think was a good rule.
06:26Do you agree with that?
06:27I think it was always a bit harsh, isn't it?
06:28That you don't put your little squiggle down.
06:30It's often just the sort of blind scribble anyway, isn't it?
06:33You get DQ'd.
06:34That's now a two-shot penalty.
06:36However, it's only a model local rule,
06:38which means clubs don't have to adopt it if they don't want to.
06:40I think it should be written and entrenched in the rules now
06:44that if you don't sign for your scorecard,
06:46if you forget to put a signature on there,
06:48it's just a two-shot penalty, which I think is penalty enough
06:50for what is really a stupid mistake that we should all be doing anyway, right?
06:54There's something else written on the scorecard there as well.
06:55Yeah, so at the bottom of this one here, it says like this video
06:58and subscribe to the Golf Month YouTube channel for more videos like this,
07:02which I think is pretty sound advice.
07:07So one rule that we want to change that I hadn't actually considered before
07:10comes down to putter design, Dan,
07:12in particular the alignment assistance you get from putters
07:16and also on golf balls as well.
07:17I think you've got quite a drastic change that you'd like to make.
07:20Well, this is a really interesting one
07:21when we were brainstorming ideas for the video.
07:24What did we, we sat down as a group and said,
07:25what do we want to change?
07:26And Joe, our colleague said,
07:27I think we should get rid of alignment aids on putters.
07:29And I said, well, okay,
07:30let's maybe get rid of them on balls as well.
07:32And the more I thought about it, I think the more I like it.
07:35So there's rules in place at the minute.
07:36Don't know the exact ones that say you allowed them
07:39and the height they're allowed in the club
07:40and the substance that you can use and, and, and, and, and.
07:43I would personally wipe it clean.
07:45And that's from putters.
07:46So you can see here on my spider, which I do love,
07:49and I do use this quite a lot.
07:50Sort of two alignment aids here, right?
07:52You've got the line going down the middle
07:52and the Y that they use, the white Y.
07:55And then on golf balls like this, I mean, again, really popular,
07:58but I'm sorry, TaylorMade, Callaway, Bridgestone now, get them gone.
08:02Let's wipe it clean and bring a bit more skill back into the game.
08:06I guess, you know, not having it all lined up.
08:07You've got to know where you put a head's face in.
08:09If it's open, if it's closed,
08:10you've got to trust your alignment with the ball, stuff like that.
08:13I think it's a really interesting one.
08:15And one, the more I think about it, the more I'm into.
08:17Yeah.
08:17I think if you look, think about other sports, you know, snooker, for example,
08:21you don't have alignment assistance from your queue.
08:23You could argue using lines on the ball or features like we've got on that TaylorMade,
08:28a tall response stripe, slows play down a lot when you're trying to line it up perfectly.
08:32You love fast play, don't you? I've noticed that.
08:34I do love fast play. I don't like messing around too much.
08:37So getting that precisely right can take a lot of time.
08:40So yeah, there's definitely a case to make for simplifying the design of the clubs and the balls
08:45a little bit, bring us more skill back into the game and best putters probably still come through.
08:51Yeah. And I think it's just, look, I'm not going to align it. You knock it down nice and easy
08:55and you just hold putts like that. You don't need the alignment aids.
08:59You've just demonstrated it.
09:00Thank you. Let's wipe them off completely.
09:02But let us know about that one because it's a bit more of an interesting one.
09:08Okay then, Joel, next rule change, please. What have you got for us?
09:10So we're going to talk about the teeing area, Dan. So this all comes under rule 6.1b.
09:14It's fascinating stuff.
09:15It's my favourite rule, that one.
09:16As everyone knows, the teeing area relates to the straight line from the front of the tee markers,
09:21two club legs back, and then a parallel line along here. This is your teeing area.
09:26But if you don't tee your ball up in the teeing area and play your shot, you get the general
09:31penalty,
09:32which is two shots. And you have to correct your mistake, i.e. play another ball from within the
09:37teeing area. Now, in my opinion, that is a very harsh penalty in a situation where you're not really
09:44gaining a massive advantage. So for example, if I tee the ball accidentally, say here,
09:49you know, just in front of the tee markers, I've gained a couple of inches.
09:53It's not worth it, is it? It's not worth the penalty, right?
09:56I'm not gaining a huge advantage by doing this, and therefore I feel like the two-shot penalty,
10:01plus correcting your mistake, is very harsh. I think the one-shot penalty, like I understand that
10:07you need to protect the game, and you can't have people teeing up way in front of the markers,
10:12but in this particular situation, I think the penalty is too harsh.
10:16Okay, I think I tend to agree with you, Joel. Where's the line, though, literally? Because,
10:22you know, it's like VAR and offside, isn't it? It's like, oh, well, a toe, they shouldn't give it
10:25them. Let's make that not offside. Okay, cool. How far does it go? And you could get some person who
10:31just
10:31keeps nudging themselves up. But I don't think you, I think there's hardly anyone who would go and tee,
10:34you know, if you're playing this way, no one would tee up over here. No, okay, that's fair.
10:37People would only make the mistake, you know, within like a 12-inch range, and I don't think
10:42you're gaining the line. Okay. I think so. I understand your point. Yeah.
10:45But my kind of main gripe is the penalty is too harsh. Agreed. I think so. And most of the
10:50time,
10:50people do this on accident, right? Exactly. And it's worth pointing out, in match play,
10:54there's no penalty. You can, your playing partner can ask you to play it again, or if you've hit it
10:59into
10:59the rubbish, they can say that that shot counts and that's fine. And I understand, you know,
11:03if you're teeing up the other side of the... Yeah, so that was my next question though.
11:06What if, you know, what if it's a hybrid to play for position, but you're not good with it,
11:10a hybrid? Yeah. So if you keep coming back and back and back, I want to hit a driver now.
11:14You've probably gained more advantage going that way than you do this way. I think so.
11:17Because you can, if you're, like you say, if you're in between clubs and you've got the
11:20club that's going to go too far, if you go too far back, then you can, it becomes a perfect
11:25yardage.
11:25So I kind of understand it. So I'm okay with it this way, less okay with it this way. Okay.
11:29Yes,
11:29I definitely understand your point. I think the rules have got to just sort of relax a bit, man.
11:33You know, chill out a little bit and this would be a great way of doing it.
11:39Probably the most dramatic and drastic of the ones we've spoken about. It could change the game
11:43forever. Talk us through it. It's a humdinger, Dan. Yeah. I think we should ban tees. Bang. Boom.
11:48Have that. I think the privileges that are extended to golfers on the teeing area versus the rest of
11:53the golf course are excessive. Okay. I mean, I've got my phone. I can reel off some of the things
11:57that you
11:58can do on a tee. In between these two sticks. You can't do anywhere on the golf course.
12:03Okay. Tees can be up to four inches long. Yeah.
12:06You can alter the surface of the ground. You can make indentations with your foot or the club.
12:11You can move, bend, or break grass. We know you can't do that on anywhere else on the golf course.
12:15You can remove objects in the teeing area. You can press down sand and soil. You can remove dew,
12:21frost, and water. You can do all sorts of stuff. You've got carte blanche here to do what you want
12:24with the golf ball, right? Exactly. And you don't want to see that.
12:26But, you know, placing the ball on a tee on the ground, on the teeing area, on the ground,
12:31is enough to give you a good enough lie to be able to gain an advantage versus where you are
12:36on the rest
12:36of the golf course. Yeah. And then you've got the argument about the golf ball going too far
12:41and how the tee is pretty much directly responsible for golfers being able to launch the ball higher
12:47with less spin because they're able to attack the ball on the up because the ball is raised above
12:51the ground. Whereas if you put the ball on the ground, you would see lower ball flights with more
12:56spin, less distance. You would definitely increase the level of skill that would be required to hit the
13:02shots correctly with a lower lofted three-wood or maybe if you still want to hit a driver. I think
13:06it
13:06brings the skill back into the game. It produces less distance. It solves an awful lot of problems.
13:11It does. Can I just pitch a couple of questions at you? Of course you can. I think people might
13:14be
13:14shouting at home, right? So, broadly on board with it, I think it's a fun idea.
13:20Would it rule out that club entirely from existence? What about golfers who struggle with their driver at
13:25the minute to get it up in the air and off the ground? Those are my main steps actually. Yeah,
13:29obviously they'd be unpopular with golfers who struggle with their driver and obviously a lot of
13:33golfers are used to playing the ball, you know, on a tee, raised up. But I think people would get
13:38used to hitting driver off these sorts of flies. And yeah, they might play a slightly higher lofted
13:42driver as a result or a lower lofted three-wood, like I've said. But I mean, I could demonstrate
13:46one. I mean, we see driver off the deck anyway, don't we? I mean, that is from the more skilled
13:51players, but maybe that'll bring that element of the game back into the sort of high handicaps of the
13:56world. You know, on teeing grounds, you can get some pretty good lies. Because that is still now,
14:01and we'll show it in close up. Sat up fairly nicely. It sat up pretty nicely and I haven't
14:06hit a lot of shots today, so this could go horribly wrong, but let's give it a whirl.
14:13Oh, Joel. Look at that. That is your first swing of the day. First swing of the day,
14:18just down that right-hand side of the fairway. It's probably gone a good, you know, 250 yards.
14:22And that's fine. That's all you need. So that's bringing the skill back into it. Look, I know I'm a
14:25relatively good golfer, you know, three handicapper, but the high handicappers, they're probably going to
14:30struggle with these sort of lies, but I do think removing tees altogether and the privileges you
14:35get around preferring your lie, you know, using your wedges to raise up the ground and that sort
14:39of thing you see Laura Davies do. I think that needs to be banished from the game altogether.
14:43And wouldn't it be fascinating to watch the professionals play all these great golf courses
14:47that we can then come see back in the game again? You know, the rollback argument is we don't see
14:51some of the great old courses anymore because they're bombing it too far. Wouldn't it be great to see those
14:54golf courses back? And it's that risk-reward as well. Do you want to risk hitting a driver off the
14:59deck,
14:59off the tee, in case it goes horribly wrong? Yeah. But obviously you get rewarded if you hit it like
15:03that, you do still get some pretty good distance. It's a fascinating one, Joel. I think one, some
15:07food for thought for you guys watching at home. I think probably a really good rule to crown off
15:12that video. Yeah, there's going to be a lot of comments, I think. Well, let us know. Would you
15:15like to see that? I'm feeling a lot of anger because some golfers aren't, lots of golfers aren't that
15:20great and they're going to struggle with that, but I'm feeling lots of positives on the rollback
15:22perspective. But is it, I was going to say, is it a better solution than rolling back the golf ball
15:26for
15:26everybody? I would say yes. I would say yes as well. So let us know if there's any that we've
15:29missed that you would like to see. But for now, from Madeira, thanks for joining us.
