After one of 2025’s biggest rules controversies, USGA, R&A make update

Call it the Paul Mitzel update. Or the Akshay Bhatia one. Or the Korn Ferry sixsome update. 

Any of those could work. Each refers to incidents in which a player or the player’s caddie claimed to have mistakenly ridden a cart during play, only to receive either a two-stroke penalty or a loss of a match-play hole for doing so — but now, following a 2026 update to the Rules of Golf by the USGA and the R&A, similar occurrences may receive no punishment at all. 

That comes via added words to Model Local Rule G-6, which spells out the prohibition on the use of motorized transportation. In one area, a paragraph was added, and it reads this way:

“A Committee can also later approve a ride that was accepted by a player under the mistaken belief that it was allowed, such as when it was reasonable for the player to believe that the person who offered the ride was authorized to do so as part of the competition.”

Would that have helped Mitzel, six Korn Ferry Tour players, Bhatia and others who were involved in situations where carts were ridden, a rules no-no? Maybe. For one, Model Local Rules are in the hands of the tournament or governing body — they can be enforced, or they can be ignored. And “committees” could decide against players’ cases. 

The most recent known occurrence of accidental cart use came during last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur round of 64, where Mitzel’s caddie used a cart from the green of the first hole of a playoff to the second hole — and a rules official penalized Mitzel a loss of a hole, which subsequently cost him the match. However, in a story written by Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine (which you can read here), Mitzel said that his caddie had been asked if he wanted a ride by a shuttle driver who had just taken the players from the last hole of their match to the first hole of the playoff, and he also said a shuttle was in use on another part of the course. 

“I have to think anyone in that situation takes the ride when a shuttle driver asks if they want to hop on really quick and not think anything of it,” Mitzel told Romine. “… My caddie doesn’t deserve any fault. He’s the man and an awesome friend. I’d do the same thing in his shoes. We were having so much fun, it’s too bad.”

Bhatia’s incident also featured a caddie. 

According to a story written by the Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner (which you can read here), the looper for the then-16-year-old had stopped to use the bathroom on the 14th hole during the 2018 U.S. Amateur and then was given a ride to the green by someone who he thought was a USGA official. But the person wasn’t, and Bhatia lost the hole. 

“The gentleman was wearing a USGA pullover,” Bhatia’s caddie, Chris Darnell, told Lavner. “I asked if I could get a ride to the green to keep up pace, and he said yes. So I hopped on the back, got up to the green, hopped off and thought nothing of it.”

Then there was the Korn Ferry Tour incident. 

At the 2023 Lecom Suncoast Classic, two threesomes — Mason Andersen, Wilson Furr and Alejandro Tosti, and later Ashton Van Horne, Boo Weekley and Jared Wolfe — were penalized in separate occasions for taking shuttle rides from a green to a tee box. The incidents occurred on two different routes: from 9 green to 10 tee for Van Horne/Weekley/Wolfe and from 18 green to 1 tee for Andersen/Furr/Tosti.

The penalties, which were first reported by Monday Q Info’s Ryan French, seemed to come from a combination of oversight and bad luck. Players receive tournament-specific rules sheets for events, which would lay out things like where transportation is and is not allowed — but, according to French, the event didn’t have a locker room, so it wasn’t posted there, but it was still available in player dining and online via player portals. In addition, the tournament was allowing a shuttle from 7 green to 8 tee, as well as shuttles from the range to starting tees.

But there was confusion. In another story written by Golf Channel’s Romine (which you can read here), Tosti said he was the first to walk off the 18th green and noticed a volunteer sitting in the same shuttle they rode in to the 10th tee, where they started play. The KFT told French the cart was there because it had stopped while the players putted.

“I asked the guy, ‘Are you giving rides to the first tee?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, jump in,’” Tosti told Romine. “I know that I cannot jump in a cart that is not official, but this was almost like organized. It almost seemed like someone sent this guy to give us a ride. It was ready, waiting for us to walk off the green and give us a ride to the first tee, and that guy apparently was not supposed to be there.”

Below is the complete wording of Model Local G-6, as written in the Rules of Golf:

G-6 – Prohibiting Use of Motorized Transportation

Purpose. A Committee can choose to prohibit players from using any type of motorized transportation such as a golf cart during a round. This is appropriate when the Committee views walking as an integral part of playing in the competition or when it believes that the use of motorized transportation would be unsafe or might damage the course.

In adopting this Local Rule, the Committee can allow motorized transportation in limited ways, such as to take players from one hole to another when those holes are far apart or allowing members of the Committee to give a player a ride when they will play, or has played, again under penalty of stroke and distance.

If a player accepts a ride without the permission of the Committee, the Committee can waive the penalty if it would have authorized the player to ride in that situation had the request been made. For example, if a player who had lost a ball and needed to return to the teeing area accepted a ride from a volunteer when there was no Committee member available, the Committee could waive the penalty if members of the Committee would have given the player the ride if asked.

A Committee can also later approve a ride that was accepted by a player under the mistaken belief that it was allowed, such as when it was reasonable for the player to believe that the person who offered the ride was authorized to do so as part of the competition.

But, when motorized transportation is not allowed by Local Rule, it is a principle of the Local Rule that players should walk the entire course, so authorization should not otherwise be given if a player has been given a ride forwards when they have not already walked that distance. For example, if a player stops to buy a refreshment after playing their tee shot, and then asks a volunteer for a ride forward to their ball, this is not a situation where it is reasonable for a ride to be later approved by the Committee and the penalty under the Local Rule should be applied.

Model Local Rule G-6

“During a round, a player or caddie must not ride on any form of motorized transportation except as authorized or later approved by the Committee.

[A player who will play, or has played, under penalty of stroke and distance is always authorized to ride on motorized transportation.]

[Players and caddies may ride on the shuttle between holes [identify hole] and [identify hole].]

Penalty for Breach of Local Rule: The player gets the general penalty for each hole during which there is a breach of this Local Rule. If the breach occurs between the play of two holes, it applies to the next hole.” (Updated January 2026)

Editor’s note: The USGA and the R&A also updated or added additional Model Local Rules, and the PGA Tour will be using them. To read more on that, please click here. 

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