Introduction to Ask Linda columns

January 16, 2008

Permit me to introduce myself. I play in a golf league at Ramblewood Country Club where I serve as the rules consultant. I work for the South Jersey Golf Association (SJGA), where I am the Tournament Director for the men’s tournaments and also serve on the committee that runs the women's interclub team matches. I have studied the rules of golf for several years, and I attended the USGA four-day workshop on golf rules in 2006. I will once again attend this class next month (February, 2008), as there have been some changes to the rules this year.

I started my “Ask Linda” column in 2005 at Ramblewood Country Club in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and have since expanded my audience to include the captains of the SJGA interclub teams, SJGA tournament players, and other interested golfers I have picked up along the way. Basically, a golfer will call or e-mail me with a rules question. Up until today I e-mailed the question and answer to every reader. I have now joined the 21st century and will post the questions and my answers on my blog. In composing my answer, I change the questioner’s name to “Lulu” (in honor of the smart and sassy comic book character), and also create fictitious names for any person named in the question. I want people to seek answers to their questions without fear of embarrassment.

I have updated the 34 columns I wrote over the past three years to conform with the 2008 Rules of Golf published by the United States Golf Association (USGA). If you have saved these columns, it would be best to toss them out and replace them with the edited versions on my new blog– some of the information in those old columns is now outdated or incorrect, due to the 2008 rules changes.

In the Golf Rules section of my blog, I plan to go into greater detail explaining many of the rules of golf. Eventually I would like to address all of them, but for now I will begin with those rules that are most commonly misunderstood and misinterpreted. If there is a particular rule you would like me to explain, please let me know and I will make it a top priority.

If you wish to subscribe to my blog, click on "Subscribe to Ask Linda: Golf Rules You Can Understand by E-mail" in the upper right-hand corner of my blog and follow the simple directions. If you subscribe, then every time I write a new column, you will receive it via e-mail. You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each e-mail.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading my columns. Please send me your questions via e-mail or phone so that we may all continue to learn together and share an occasional chuckle about the persnickety rules of golf.

Linda Miller