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If you're new to the system and posting your initial three scores to establish your Handicap Index®, the maximum hole score you can post is par + 5. Once your Handicap Index has been established, the ...

The Rules of Amateur Status are effective from January 2022 and the supporting Guidance Notes were last updated as of December 2024.

This content was first published in Golf Journal, a quarterly print publication exclusively for USGA Members. To be among the first to receive Golf Journal and to learn how you can help make golf more ...

Learn more about the 2023 updates to the Rules of Golf below. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to the Rules Department any time at rules@usga.org or 908-326-1850.

A strict prohibition on touching or moving loose impediments or touching the ground in a water hazard has never been practical, and so a series of exceptions had to be recognized in previous Rule 13-4 ...

The following content was first published in the monthly digital edition of Golf Journal. To be among the first to receive access to Golf Journal, the USGA’s Members-only quarterly print and monthly ...

The resources below have been created to educate golfers on the 2024 updates to the World Handicap System, which went into effect in the United States on January 16th, 2024.

There is no longer a penalty if a ball played from the putting green hits a flagstick left in the hole. Players are not required to putt with the flagstick in the hole; rather, they continue to have ...

There is no longer a penalty for merely touching the line of play on the putting green (the term “line of play” applies everywhere on the course including the putting green, and the term “line of putt ...

The shape, slope and condition of many putting greens today increase the chances that a ball at rest on the putting green might move, and it can be difficult to determine whether a player caused the ...

Below are common questions related to the reinstatement of a golfer’s amateur status. The Rules in their entirety, including Guidance Notes, can be found at www ...