The 32nd edition of The Rules of Golf came into force on January 1, 2012, and under the four-yearly cycle in operation since the 1950s, it is now time for the 33rd edition, effective January 1, 2016 (a copy of which is included with this magazine). This time, the headline act is Rule 14-1b, the well-publicised ban on directly anchoring the putter – or indeed any club – that stems from a growing desire for the golf stroke to involve simply a free-swinging club.
More of Rule 14-1b later, but before that, why every four years? “It's two-fold,” David Rickman, executive director of Rules and Equipment Standards at The R&A, tells me. “One is that with golf being a self-regulating game, we don't consider it helpful to golfers for a…
