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 ...

Since 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 consulting, technology tools ...

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.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Aeration is viewed by many as a negative term, but it is an essential program to keep playing surfaces healthy and in good condition. Though it comes with a temporary disruption, without it, playing ...

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 [email protected] 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 ...

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 USGA and The R&A have proposed a Model Local Rule (MLR) that gives competition organizers the option to require use of golf balls that are tested under modified launch conditions to address the ...