The USGA's new AI bot could solve golf course rule debates for good

In the last few months, we've reported on many of the most ridiculous rules the game of golf has squirrelled away in its lawbook. 

The game has laws to cover everything from getting your ball lost amid autumn foliage, to putting your water bottle on a green, to having it embedded in a piece of fruit. The problem, of course, is having them all to hand.

A new tool planned for launch over the next year, however, plans to change that. Devised by the USGA in collaboration with Deloitte, Rules AI will aim to put a virtual rules official in the palm of every golfer, directly embedded into the governing body's own handicapping tool.

“Our goal has always been to ensure the Rules are accessible and that golfers can find the information they need to play the game fairly, enjoyably and with confidence,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan. “By combining our expansive historical data with modern AI technology, we are providing a bridge between tradition and innovation. Rules AI is designed to continue making the Rules of Golf easier to navigate and meet golfers where they are—on the course and on their mobile devices.”

Per an announcement from the USGA, the tool was developed as a response to the rising instances of golfers consulting AI chat tools like ChatGPT to solve rules questions while out on the course. While these tools can sometimes hallucinate answers, however, Rules AI has, per GolfWeek's report, "been trained on official Rules content, decisions and more than 25,000 real questions previously submitted by real golfers and answered by USGA Rules experts."

“The most important part of this was to be comfortable that we were able to create a system that would know when it didn't know the right answer,” Craig Winter, the USGA’s director of Rules of Golf told Golfweek in an interview. “(We needed to know) it wasn't going to provide the hallucinations that you often see, and, frankly, incorrect answers that it was very confident in producing.”

Rules AI will enter its pilot phase this year, rolling out in phases across select clubs in the USA. The goal is to have it available to all GHIN users in spring 2027, with eventual plans to also roll the tool out onto third-party scoring apps.

You can keep an eye out for updates on the app by visiting the USGA's website.