CSANews 102

Golf By David McPherson As I write my latest column, it’s officially the first day of spring. After a month of Mother Nature showing her many moods, the birds are chirping and that “tradition unlike any other” – The Masters – is only a couple of weeks away. What these signs and signifiers of the changing of the seasons mean is that golf in the northern hemisphere is not too far off. What better time to ruminate on the rules, as one readies for your first tee time. The first known Rules of Golf were drawn up in 1744 in Edinburgh for the world’s first ‘open’ golf competition at Leith by the Gentlemen Golfers of Edinburgh, who would go on to become The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Referred to as ‘The Articles and Laws at Playing Golf ’ – there were 13 principles outlined in this document. In 1952, the rules became uniform worldwide as the USGA and the R&A joined forces to issue a single rule book. Decade by decade, the rule book grew. By 1970, it was 75 pages comprising about 18,000 words. By 2003, it was 132 pages, in smaller type, comprising nearly 40,000 words. Just look at the size of this tome and you see where the confusion begins. These are not like the rules for your favourite board game, which you can scan and learn in minutes. Even veteran links’ lovers, after a lifetime of golfing, still struggle to comprehend the sport’s rigid rule book. Today, The Rules are updated every four years through the work of the Royal &Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland and the United States Golf Association (USGA). A joint committee of these associations, on which the Rules Chairman of Golf Canada sits, is charged with revising, modernizing and improving the Rules of Golf and the Decisions on the Rules of Golf. These two documents form the complete Rules of Golf that are used universally throughout the world of golf. It’s amazing to discover that there are only 34 rules that govern golf. The reality is that within those 34 guidelines, are myriad sub-rules and sub-sub rules written in a language that is far from plain language. No wonder few in the game (including the six million Ruminations from the Rough The Rules of Golf illustration by Lorenzo Del Bianco Rule: noun. 1 One of a set of explicit or understood regulations or principles governing conduct or procedure within a particular area of activity. ‘Competition was artificial, and took place according to codes of rules and the conventions of fair play.’ - Oxford English Dictionary 40 | www.snowbirds.org

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