30 Jun 2009 at 19:03 | Published by: JJM | Views: 7413 | News search

A typical golf ball. Photo not related to the new WMF-licensed ball.  (Photo by John Mittler 2008)

Some months ago WMF board issued a new regulation that bans from minigolf competitions any golf balls which have not been licensed by WMF. Only one company has become interested in marketing WMF-licensed golf balls so far: 3D company sells golf balls with WMF logo and year 2009 marked on the ball.

The new regulation says that WMF-licensed golf balls will be allowed in competitions during the year marked on the ball and the next two years. After this, the ball will not be allowed in competitions any more.

New rules normally come into effect only after they are approved by WMF Delegates Conference, which has meetings only once in every two years. However, WMF board has the right to issue "regulations", which are meant to come immediately into effect, without waiting for approval by WMF Delegates Conference. No clear guidelines seem to exist, how big or small the "regulations" issued by WMF board are allowed to be, and which issues they are allowed to touch.

Majority of WMF member countries are slow to ratify new rules or regulations into their national rulebooks. Many countries hand-pick their favourite rules for quick ratification, and endlessly avoid ratifying some rules which are not interesting in the opinion of the national minigolf leaders.

Some months ago Sweden took an interesting step away from WMF "diff" rules (which specify how to decide tied scores), by cancelling this rule, which according to WMF is a global rule for all countries. USA has a long history of avoiding WMF rules related to minigolf balls or golf balls. WMF board will probably keenly follow the ratification of this regulation in USA. But the truth is that USA is not avoiding WMF rules any less or more than most other WMF member countries in the world.

The golf ball offered by WMF might not be quite as palatable for the American taste as hoped: our information is that the ball marketed by 3D company is not on the USGA list of golf balls approved for professional golf. Both American minigolf federations (USPMGA and PPA) traditionally allow only golf balls which are approved by USGA for professional golf.

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