Rules of Golf
RULES OF GOLF
Effective January 2019
As the governing body of golf in Canada, Golf Canada holds the exclusive right to govern, publish and distribute the Rules of Golf in Canada.
The Rules are typically updated every four years through the work of the R&A and the United States Golf Association. A joint committee of these associations, on which the Chair of Golf Canada’s Rules and Amateur Status Committee sits, is charged with revising, modernizing and improving the Rules of Golf. These two documents form the complete Rules of Golf that are used universally throughout the world of golf.
For clubs or committees in charge of competitions, the Conditions of Competition and Standard Local Rules that Golf Canada implements at all championships is posted for your reference. In addition, a list of local rules that should be considered is available on this website.
RULES OF GOLF PUBLICATIONS
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Player’s Edition of the Rules of Golf‘Player’s Edition of the Rules of Golf’: An abridged, user-friendly set of the Rules with shorter sentences, commonly used phrases, and diagrams. Written in the “second person,” The Player’s Edition is intended to be the primary publication for golfers
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Full Rules of Golf‘Full Rules of Golf’: The full edition of the Rules will be written in the third person and will include illustrations. The Rules of Golf is intended to be the primary publication for officials and is expected Golf Club Committees and Referees will use the publication as their primary Rules of Golf resource.
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The Official Guide to the Rules of GolfThe Official Guide to the Rules of Golf: This “guidebook” replaces the Decisions book and will contain information to best support committees and officials. It includes interpretations on the Rules, Committee procedures (available local rules and information on establishing the terms of the competition), and the Modified Rules of Golf for Players with Disabilities. It is a “long-form” resource document intended as a supplementary publication.
- Videos
- Visual Assets
- Rules of Golf
- Player’s Edition
- Poster – Top 20 Rules Changes for 2019
- Clarifications of the 2019 Rules of Golf (Updated April 1, 2022)
- Model Local Rule G-11 and Additional Guidance
- 2022 Golf Canada Local Rules and Terms of the Competition
- COVID-19 Rules of Golf & Rules of Handicapping Guidance (updated April 2022)
- Official Guide
- Rules of Golf App – iOS
- Rules of Golf App – Android
- Search and browse the Rules of Golf on the R&A Rules Explorer
- Visual Search on the R&A Website and App
- Quiz on the R&A Website and App
- R&A Rules Modernization website
- USGA Rules Modernization website
- Green Reading Material Resources
The top 10 Rules Essentials will allow every golfer to learn the essentials of the new Rules of Golf in a fun and user-friendly way. There will be 10 short videos to explain the most commonly used Rules.
The Committee Toolkit has been designed to help those responsible for preparing the golf course for general play and for those running and administering competitions at all levels. The “Toolkit” aims to help Committees familiarize the Committee Procedures section of the Official Guide, and to better understand the changes that they need to make to reflect the new Rules. The toolkit also includes a ‘Local Rules Creator’. The purpose of this is to helps Clubs and Committees with the process of updating Local Rules.. Of course, the amount of space available on scorecards is limited and with that in mind, short form Local Rules are also available.
The List of conforming drivers and conforming golf balls are universal lists used by all golf associations.
1. List of conforming driver heads
2. List of conforming golf balls
NEW – R&A Equipment Rule