"Golfers want to play by the rules. They just find it challenging at times for the book to allow them to do that."

The first rollout of efforts to simplify the rules of golf and their decisions was regretfully hailed as a grow the game opportunity.

Mercifully, that is not the message the USGA's Thomas Pagel brought to AP's Doug Ferguson in explaining what the world's foremost experts on golf rules have been up to.

"You can't change one piece because the tentacles ... it's going to break something else," he said. "It's tough to handle something in isolation. So let's look at everything, step back and take the puzzle part and see where we can make improvements."

The result could be the most comprehensive overhaul of the rules, which in this case might shrink the book.

The first set of rules was published in 1744, but that was specific to one club. As golf grew, and the number of clubs increased, so did the rules. The Royal & Ancient took over and produced a set of rules in 1899, which the USGA adopted. The R&A and USGA issued the first joint code of rules in 1952, and there were significant changes in 1984. Not to be overlooked is the "Decisions on the Rules of Golf," which amounts to a Q&A of specific incidents.

The most recent edition has 1,200 decisions.

"I don't like the size of the book, but it's one of those deals where you try to address the questions that come up," Pagel said. "In the future, how can you provide guidance to committees so they can get to the correct answers without having 1,200 Q&As? And that's one of our objectives."

Most exciting? Pagel reveals the first draft will be made available so that all golfers can do some beta testing.