It’s 2019 and Golf’s New Rules Are In Effect

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2019 is finally here, and that means the new Rules of Golf are now in effect.  I don’t know about you, but I find some of them to be unnecessary and some to be kind of dumb.

If you need some help with the new rules, check out the PGA Tour’s summary of the biggest changes.

The new rules affect:

  • How to drop the ball
  • How to take relief
  • Eliminated some of the dumber penalties
  • How bunkers are treated
  • “Water Hazards” are now “Penalty Areas”
  • What’s allowed on putting greens
  • How to deal with lost of provisional balls
  • How to deal with embedded balls
  • What to do with unplayable lies
  • No more getting alignment help from a caddie or partner
  • And more…

In other words, the game is going to be slowed down because no one will be sure what to do in any situation.

 

Box Before Ball for Proper Lower Body Shift

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I saw this tip from Martin Hall and Blair O’Neal on GolfChannel.com and was sure I had seen it before.  Sure enough there was a blog post from December 14, 2014 called “Box Before Ball for More Power and Better Ballstriking“.  If you watch them both you’d swear Martin was reading a script, down to his comment on how Sara Brown and Blair O’Neal hit their shots.

Here the videos are.  We’ll start with the newer one with Blair O’Neal:

And here it is from 4 years ago with Sara “No H” Brown:

Ho Sung Choi Wins Casio World Open on Japan Tour

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Ho Sung Choi won the Casio World Open on the Japan Tour, which is pretty incredible to believe after you’ve seen his golf swing.

Here he is on the 18th hole finishing off the tournament.

 

Aaron Rai Wins in Hong Kong (but made 207 10 foot putts in a row when he was 15)

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https://www.golfmonthly.com/news/tour-news/aaron-rai-wins-honma-hong-kong-open-169578

Aaron Rai won the Honma Hong Kong Open by a shot over Matthew Fitzpatrick, but it was something said during the broadcast that really got my attention.

After Rai made about a 8 footer for par on one hole the commentator said something about how the putt would be no big deal for him because when Rai was 15 he set a world record in a putting challenge by making over 200 consecutive putts of 10 feet.

I had to go look this up, and sure enough I found it (World Puttmaster Record Smashed). Rai made 207 putts in a row, beating the old record of 136.

In case you’re really interested, this is the Lee Westwood Putt Master but it doesn’t appear to be for sale any longer:

Mickelson Beats Tiger in 22 Holes at “The Match”

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It took 22 holes, but Phil Mickelson won “The Match” against Tiger Woods, and the $9 million prize.

Here are some highlights:

MIckelson failed to birdie the first hole, so lost the $200,000 side-bet to Tiger (which goes to a charity of Tiger’s choice). However, he did manage to win 3 out of 4 closest-to-the-pins, worth $100,000 each.

I did not watch it live, and the highlights were a little underwhelming. Both players shot 3-under 69s, with Tiger having 6 birdies and 3 bogeys, and Phil having 3 birdies and no bogeys.

In the post-match press conference, Phil says (somewhat jokingly) this gives him “bragging rights” over Tiger from now on.

I’m sure next American Thanksgiving there will be another “The Match”.