USGA Looking At Wind As An Outside Agency On The Greens?

Ryan Herrington reports on the revelation by vice president Tom O'Toole at today's U.S. Open media day that the USGA is considering altering Rule 18-2b, which covers what happens to a ball on a putting surface that moves after a golfer has addressed the ball.

The current rule penalizes a golfer regardless of whether he or she actually caused the ball to move. The change to the rule would add a clause that if it was "known or virtually certain" that the player didn't cause the ball to move -- in instances where the wind or other outside factors were the cause -- the player would no longer be subject to a penalty.

"Having this latitude is going to be good for the players rather than to penalize perhaps unfairly," said O'Toole, who had just returned from meetings with R&A rules officials in Northern Ireland.

Reader Howard saw this item and posed a question that our rules gurus reading will probably want to answer in their typically eloquent fashion.

The thing that I found particularly interesting is that the USGA is specifically calling the wind an outside agency, but the Definitions in the Rules Of Golf specifically states that the wind is NOT an outside agency.

Thoughts?