USGA announces new decisions for 2014Click to EnlargeThe USGA and R&A have announced some changes to the Rules starting next year. Technically, they released decisions on the rules and not changes.Most of us were anxiously awaiting some sort of break-through on the irritating trend of television viewers calling in potential rules violations. We did not get any ruling regarding "equity" relative to the amount of time high profile players are televised and therefore under more TV viewer scrutiny. In fact, the governing bodies essentially have re-confirmed that tournament committees should use all available resources when adjudicating violations. The only significant thing they announced was that, basically, if the naked eye couldn't see the ball move...it didn't move regardless of what the HDTV in super slo-mo shows. That ruling won't stop the phone calls and will, in fact, create more options for the committee to rule against video evidence and making it appear that certain players get preferential treatment.
