Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods led the praise for golf's proposed radical rules overhaul with the former expressing the belief that the "revolutionary" modernisation and simplification could stop people turning away from the game.
The sweeping changes - labelled "the biggest in a generation" by David Rickman, the R&A director of rules - have been almost five years in the making. The governing bodies's mission was to make the rulebook easier to understand and to make it fairer by removing some of the pettiness. The number of rules will be reduced from 34 to 24 and be written in much more straightforward prose.
Among the proposals - due to come into effect from January 1, 2019 - are allowing players to repair spike-marks on greens and reducing the permitted time for the search for a lost ball from five minutes to three, a move, which among others, the authorities hope will also help tackle the scourge of slow players.
The revelations did not come as a shock to the professionals, as the R&A and USGA had hosted briefings on both the European and PGA Tour's this year. Mike Davis, the executive director of the USGA, even took McIlroy to lunch to explain the plans.
"I think it's great and I told Mike that," McIlroy said. "What's happened over the last couple of years with some rulings and high-profile things that have happened at crucial stages in tournaments, people look at that who might want to get into the game and are like, 'you know the rules are too complicated, I don't want to get into all of that'. Making them more modern to move with the times is good."
