A day after the R&A issued a two-stroke penalty to Bryson DeChambeau at the Open Championship for inadvertently improving the area of his swing path for his second shot on the fifth hole during the second round, R&A CEO Mark Darbon shed a little more light on how the penalty came to be in an interview with BBC Radio.
In the Rules of Golf, Rule 8.1 states that a player is prohibited from improving the “conditions affecting the stroke.” That includes the player’s lie, the area of his intended stance, the area of the player’s intended swing and the player’s line of play.
The R&A celebrates ten years of Greenlinks at Royal Birkdale, with the Open Championship achieving a 93 per cent cut in on-site emissions and zero waste to landfill for the past five years.
On the heels of questionable behaviour from fans towards Wyndham Clark at the US Open, the R&A announced overnight that a code of conduct will be enforced at this year’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
The R&A revealed the 12 players overnight, a diverse group of golfers representing various paths to The Open and backgrounds. Here’s a quick introduction to each.
To get you ready for the major, we offer this Open Championship primer, answering some of the frequently asked questions about golf’s oldest major championship.
Ireland’s Claire Dowling will take over as captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews for 2026-2027, becoming the first woman to serve in the role.
The dates for the event are August 3-6, later than The Open is traditionally held in order to accommodate the 2028 Olympics being played that July in Los Angeles.
[Photo: Ashok Kumar/R&A/R&A via Getty Images] Korean Jeongwoo Ham and Australia’s Cameron John have qualified for the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale through the Asian Tour’s Singapore Open. RELATED: Cameron John completes three-win season at The National Tournament Ham will make his debut in The Open after winning the Singapore Open by two shots with Read more…
The USGA announced this week that after seeking comment on changing the implementation date for the new testing rule that could initially reduce elite driving distance by 15 yards, it is in fact now proposing that the rule not go into effect until 2030.
The R&A Sustainable Agronomy Service and the USGA Green Section will work with the global golf league to advance agronomic standards in its 14-event season that spans 10 countries and five continents.
This latest announcement indicates that golf’s ruling bodies are considering comments to do away with the two-year interim period, implementing the rollback rule for both elite golfers and average golfers starting in 2030.
Australian Golf Digest
