During 2018, there was a lot of chatter between the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) about changing certain rules in golf to speed up play and to ultimately further grow the game. On January 1st, 2019, the new rules of golf were officially put into play. The next week they were used in the first PGA Tour Tournament of the year at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. The three biggest rule changes were that players were now allowed to leave the flagstick in while putting, players now have to drop the ball from knee height instead of from shoulder height, and caddies could no longer help players get lined up. The USGA and the R&A thought that they were making changes that were going to benefit golf and to help grow the game. Instead, the new rules brought a lot of controversy and negative attention to the game. The first major incident occurred with Haotong Li who was given a two-shot penalty for having his caddy help him get aimed for a putt when the caddy clearly was not helping Li at all. Another similar incident occurred with Denny McCarthy. His caddy was standing behind him while he was walking into the ball. McCarthy was also given a two-shot penalty for the caddie’s actions. Some of the top players in the world turned to Twitter to argue the rule, which caused McCarthy’s penalty to be overturned. Many top players in the world such as Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka have been very harsh towards the new rules. Only two months into the new year, the new rules of golf, which were meant to grow the gave have done just the opposite by bringing a lot of negative attention to golf.
This photo shows the USGA Headquarters located in Far Hills, New Jersey. The USGA has been the driving force behind the rule changes in golf. Ever since the new rules went into effect in January, the USGA has been the center of a lot of controversy in the golf world.
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/2/5/122561697/published/flagstick.jpg?1551667882)
One of the controversial rule changes was that players are now allowed to put with the flagstick in. In previous years, players were penalized if they made a putt with the flag in. Players as Bryson Dechambeau and Adam Scott have been proponents of the change and think putting with the flagstick in gives them a distinct advantage over players who do not. On the contrary, many players think the new rule makes the game look foolish. The one thing that is certain is that the original intent of the rule was to speed up play and it has done the complete opposite.
This image shows Bryson Dechambeua taking a drop under the new rules. The new rule, which states players must drop knee height has drawn little praise and much criticism from the majority of the professional players.
This image shows Denny McCarthy preparing to hit his second shot on the 17th hole during the third round at the Waste Phoenix Open. McCarthy was penalized two strokes because his caddy was standing behind him while he was standing over the golf ball. What is not seen is that McCarthy actually backed off the ball and his caddie moved to the side before the ball was actually hit. The week before Hatong Li was penalized for a very situation which moved him from third place to twelfth place and cost him roughly $100,000. This specific situation caused the golf world to erupt in anger and to take the anger out on Twitter by specifically calling out the USGA.
Justin Thomas responded directly to the USGA about Denny McCarthy’s penalty. The video Thomas responded to shows the shot where McCarthy got penalized. The Tweet went viral among the golf community and led to many other prominent figures in the golfing world tweeting out similar tweets. The McCarthy penalty was rescinded the next day mainly because of the draw back the penalty received from the vast majority of the golfing world. The photo also shows the majority of the golfing worlds opinion about the new rules.
This image shows Ricky Fowler taking a drop during the Honda Classic last week. Fowler is mocking the new drop rules, which state that you must drop from knee height. He is showing the professionals view of the new rule that dropping from knee high simply looks stupid and unprofessional. The video of Fowler’s drop once again went viral in the golfing community and showed the golfers views towards the new rules.
The controversy between the golfing community and the USGA reached a high point when the USGA directly called out Justin Thomas for his criticism of the new rules on Saturday. Thomas was very active on Twitter on Saturday afternoon. He was once again very critical of the new rules after Adam Schenk was penalized on Saturday at the Honda Classic for a similar situation as McCarthy. It will be very interesting to see what the USGA does about the new rules because it is very clear that more people are against them than for them.
The controversy in the golf world regarding the new rules has drawn a lot new coverage in the golfing world during the new year. The images I chose do a great job showing the main highlights of the story. The first image I picked set the scene and identified a major player in the golfing news: the USGA. The next two photos showed the new rules being applied during the first few weeks of the new rules. Both images carried no controversy with them. They simply showed the new rules in action. The next three images showed some major events that played a role in the controversy surrounding the new rules. The McCarthy incident was the first major rules incident that occurred on the PGA Tour. I then went into that situation in more detail with Justin Thomas’ critical tweets of the ruling. The next picture of the Fowler drop showed criticism of a different rule and show how there are many complaints about the new rules. I finally concluded with the USGA’s tweet directed at Thomas to show how the story is ongoing and will lead to much more controversy in the golfing world. I arranged the photos in this way strategically. The photos play off of each other in a chronological order. I first set the scene and then got more specific with each photo. This arrangement allows for the viewer to see how the news in the golf world has developed over time.
I do not think this type of reporting can be impactful in today’s image-saturated environment. The nature of having mostly photographs makes it very hard to get into the details of the actually story. It was hard to tell the story and to give all the necessary information about the story because the pictures did most of the talking. In a perfect world, I think the combination of images and text will allow for the best way of consuming information.
I do not think this type of reporting can be impactful in today’s image-saturated environment. The nature of having mostly photographs makes it very hard to get into the details of the actually story. It was hard to tell the story and to give all the necessary information about the story because the pictures did most of the talking. In a perfect world, I think the combination of images and text will allow for the best way of consuming information.