As a practitioner of the modern day Rules of Golf and charged with the task of advising the R&A’s Rules of Golf Committee, my main role is to figure out how the Rules affect the playing of the game in the Asia Pacific region. The Quixotic nature of the game demands rule making that not only appears fair but also is consistent with local conditions and topography that simply may not be prevalent in other regions of the world. In Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, clubs would like to declare all forested areas as Lateral Water Hazards, which is not possible. In India, suspending play due to fog, be it in Delhi or Kodaikanal, is permitted by a specially approved local rule. Heavy rain-prone areas in India have ditches and run offs that are declared as obstructions rather than Water Hazards, as per the definition. The list goes on.
The oldest code
John Rattray, Captain of the Golf of The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, signed into existence, on March 7, 1744, the first set of 13 Rules. 270 years on, it is remarkable how the basic ideas of these 13 Rules have remained. Article 1 signified that the playing conditions around the hole was almost similar to the rest of the area and hence teeing it up within one club length of the hole was passé. Nowadays, courses like those in Mission Hills, China need a buggy ride (half a km) to get to the next teeing ground. Articles 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 have remained largely intact, the current rules just being more verbose.
Watter or watery filth
There is a magnetic attraction between a golf ball, particularly a new one, and water hazards on a course. The great Arnold Palmer himself was not spared, prompting him to say, “One thing I’ve learned over time is, if you hit a golf ball into water, it won't float.”Article 5 has morphed into Rule 26-Water Hazards.
Scholar’s holes and Soldier’s lines
British author, Kenneth Chapman, whose book The Rules of the Green , a treasure trove on the history of the Rules of Golf, reckons that Article 13 is probably Golf’s first local rule. He opines that the soldiers’ lines had something to do with Scottish King James II’s edict “Ye fut bawe and ye golf be utterly cryt done and not usyt” . His grandson, James IV, went one better when he decreed “In na place of the realme be usit fut bawis, gouff or uthir sic unprofitable sports” . Figure these out.
A code of honour
The 1901 British Amateur Champion John Low, rightly remarked, “The first rules must have been very simple, for the manner of play is not complicated; but we do not have those earliest rules, which were probably more or less a code of honour for men who know nothing of golfing sin or golfing law.”
Ishwar Achanta is an international golf administrator and council member of the Indian Golf Union.
