The PGA Tour is making a significant rules changes for 2026 — and you might not notice it if you’re not paying attention.

Perhaps the most important change was shared by world No. 37 Michael Kim. The PGA Tour is changing how players can take relief on days when rounds are contested under “preferred lies” rules, which is more commonly known as lift, clean and place.

Players will no longer be entitled to relief that extends up to a full club length. Rather, players will only be allowed to move their ball no farther than the length of the official scorecard, which is basically the length of a standard piece of paper (about 11 inches). Players will still have a green sticker on those scorecards issued by the Tour to players before each round, indicating that preferred lies are in effect.

The same rules will apply, where a player cannot move their ball any closer to the hole from where they find it.

The scorecard-length measure for relief under lift, clean and place conditions is used on other golf tours, including on the DP World Tour, where Kim won the FedEx Open de France last fall. Using the scorecard keeps more in spirit of having preferred lies, giving the player an opportunity to move their ball slightly to accommodate for poor course conditions, rather than potentially changing the look of a shot entirely.

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The PGA Tour told players that their philosophy when allowed preferred lies hasn’t changed, reserving it for rounds when there are cases of “extreme mud throughout the golf course, when relief from temporary water takes a player outside the fairway, or when poor fairway conditions are likely to negatively impact the competition.”

There are five other changes shared by the PGA Tour with its players that will be in place starting next week at the Sony Open in Hawaii:

  • Players will now receive embedded-ball relief when their ball winds up in any unrepaired pitch mark in an area cut to fairway height or less, including those of other players.
  • Players will now be penalized one stroke, not two strokes, if they caused their ball to move and then played their next shot without replacing the ball.
  • Players can now be given line-of-play relief from immovable obstructions when as far as two club-lengths off the putting surface, and this will now include holes or ground under repair caused by the removal of these obstructions, provided both the ball and immovable condition are in an area cut to fairway height or less.
  • Internal out of bounds can now only be observed for shots hit from the tee box, while internal OB not enforced on shots hit from any other part of the course.
  • Distance-measuring devices will not be allowed on the PGA Tour but will be allowed on the PGA Tour Champions, Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas (with the slope function and other non-linear distance features turned off). The PGA of America allows DMDs at their championships, so they would have to change that regulation on their own for the PGA Championship.