Flexible golf rules in offing in 2019

The Royal and Ancient Club will introduce new golfing rules in 2019 to help golfers easily digest and understand them.

R&A instructor Gad Musasizi disclosed this as he conducted a Level One R&A Rules Limited course at Kitante on Monday.

Twenty golfers including professional golfers and members of the Uganda Professional Golfers Association (UPGA) attended the one-day course aimed at enlightening them on the rules of the game.

Musasizi who facilitated the course with Edwin Tumusiime and Cyril Aluku, said the course was aimed at improving the level of knowledge of rules for the players in the country.

"We are trying to enlighten our professionals, the UPGA members and other club members who would like to improve their level of knowledge about the rules. It is co-sanctioned by the Uganda Golf Union because it is one of the prime purposes they exist," Musasizi said.

"Come 2019 the R&A and the United States Golf Association will be launching new rewritten rules in a simpler language and presentation for people to quickly understand what the rules are all about. So next year we will have more people trained to understand the new rules that are coming in January 2019," Musasizi noted.

He said this was the second time the rules school was being held in the country following the first one that was held in 2015.

He said 4 officials attended the Level 2 one then, which is more detailed and at a higher level.

The students some of whom will be course marshals during the Uganda Open covered etiquette and the best principles of the rules, the dos and don'ts; at the putting green, and tackled issues about the ball moved, deflected or stopped.

They also covered lessons on dropping, assisting, interfering and loose impediments, obstructions and abnormal ground conditions, embedded ball and water hazards, lost ball, out of bounds or unplayable among others.

In the afternoon they were taken through practical demonstrations before they sat a Level 1 Examination.