The World Handicap System, launched in January 2020, includes safeguards designed to protect the integrity of your Handicap Index®. One of them is the playing conditions calculation (PCC). What is it ...

Net Double Bogey explainerSince its founding in 1920, the Green Section has led the USGA’s efforts to improve golf course playing conditions and sustainability through research, education, course ...

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 ...

New Rule: Players continue to drop a ball when taking relief, but the dropping procedure is changed in several ways as detailed in Rule 14.3: The new procedure means that there is greater consistency ...

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 ...

Sand Valley Resort, in Nekoosa, Wis., has been chosen by the USGA as the host site for four USGA championships, beginning with the U.S. Mid-Amateur in 2026. The 2029 U.S. Junior Amateur, 2030 U.S.

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 ...

One word that is likely to come up a lot during the 123rd U.S. Open Championship at The Los Angeles Country Club is barranca. A barranca is a steep-sided ravine, gully, or gorge of varying width and ...

When you hit a shot that you think might result in a lost ball or in your ball coming to rest out of bounds, you have the option of playing a provisional ball to save time.

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 ...

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.

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 ...