Golfweek

On his way to winning the Deutsche Bank Championship, Charley Hoffman hit a shot off a cart path rather than take a free drop.

Later, Hoffman explained his decision: He likes to do this because he thinks he can control the flight of the ball.

Then he added that he frequently wears his caddie’s tennis shoes while hitting off a cart path.

While this is permissible under the Rules of Golf – the player and caddie are a team, if you will – it caught many veteran rules officials by surprise.

“In all the years I’ve been officiating, I’ve never heard of this,” said Ed Gowan, executive director of the Arizona Golf Association and a veteran official at the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Amateur.

From Dustin Johnson’s two-stroke penalty on the last hole of the PGA Championship, to Juli Inkster’s Safeway Classic disqualification for swinging a club with a weighted attachment on the end, to Sarah Brown’s incorrect disqualification and removal from the golf course at a Duramed Futures Tour event, 2010 has been a strange year for the rules.

It is Hoffman, though, who has become something of a poster boy for critics who claim the rules are woefully out of date. The caddie-player relationship harkens back to a time when most golfers employed caddies for a round of golf. In today’s world, caddies are an endangered species.

“The rules can be ridiculous,” short-game instructor Dave Pelz said. “I recommend tearing up the rulebook and starting over.”

If swapping shoes with a caddie seems preposterous, how about caddies standing behind their players to provide proper alignment? The argument against this is simple: Aiming a golf shot, whether it is a drive or a putt, should be part of the individual examination in golf. Using a caddie for alignment seems like cheating.

“I have a great respect for the rules,” said Jim Gibbons, former executive director of the Oregon Golf Association, “but caddies lining up their players is something that bothers me. I officiated at the U.S. Women’s Open, and it seemed like everybody was doing it.”

Bottom line: If it’s acceptable under the rules, players and caddies will do it.

On the other hand, caddies have been at the center of controversial disqualifications.

On Father’s Day, 2000, Mark Johnson, a 43-year-old lieutenant colonel in the Army, had built an 11-stroke lead in the final round of the Arizona Mid-Amateur Championship. Because it was Father’s Day, he had asked his 14-year-old son, Seth, to caddie for him.

During the round, Seth handed his dad’s putter to one of his friends, 12, who was walking with the group. That got Johnson disqualified for having two caddies. With the two boys in tears, he picked up his ball and went home.

To their credit, rulesmakers from the U.S. Golf Association and R&A looked at the Johnson situation and changed the rule. It now calls for a two-stroke penalty, not disqualification.

Rules are constantly being scrutinized. The USGA and R&A issue rules revisions every four years. In many cases, the rules are softened in favor of players.

A golfer once was penalized two strokes for removing goose droppings from the putting surface with a ball-mark repair tool. Cleaning the goose poop with a clubhead or by hand (don’t accept any handshakes at the end of the round) would have been just fine.

So the rules were changed: Today, golfers can remove loose impediments (primarily bunker sand, although animal excrement is considered a loose impediment) with a variety of methods, including a sweeping motion with a towel or cap (or a repair tool).

Johnson may have been disqualified for having a second caddie, but all golfers are permitted under the rules to have a second person (in addition to the caddie) carry an umbrella and hold it over the player’s head (except when a stroke is being made).

The rules can be complex, and rules officials gain certification by scoring 90 percent or higher on a rigorous rules test.

“I don’t know of a tougher test,” Gibbons said. “I’ve taken college tests, and I’ve taken the certified life (insurance) underwriter’s test, and the Rules of Golf test is harder.”

No wonder. Decisions on the Rules of Golf is a book that has grown to 543 pages, including an appendix on golf-equipment decisions. The book reflects official rulings on more than 1,200 real-life golf incidents.

Which brings us back to Charley Hoffman. If the PGA Tour’s resident nonconformist hit his ball into a muddy hazard and wanted to keep his clothing clean, he could exchange his entire outfit with his caddie.

Why stop at the shoes?