CAPTAIN'S BLOG - NEWS

Fridays at our club. Starting with daylight saving a lot has been happening at the club. Kevin has three clinics at the club, starting at 11:30, 1:30 and 4:30 – details can be seen by clicking here. The 12 hole competition, run by Robert Eriksson, starting off for the first time with 48 players. The 4 hole competition, for those wanting a shorter game, starts off at 4:30. Both of these are role-up starts, which means that golfers for the 12 hole comp play off the 1st tee, making up a 4 with whoever is there at the time. Likewise for the 4 hole comp but their start time is from 4:30 on.
 
On Fridays, starting around 5pm or so, we have a member-cooked BBQ. The first was a sausage sizzle, advertised as “not gourmet, but nice”, and the second was hamburgers which were very well received. Paul, Ray, Bob and I were the “chefs” with Leonie and Wendy as servers. On these two Fridays there would have been between 60-80 people and it is a nice way to finish the week and, of course, no need to cook an evening meal, an added attraction. Everyone is welcome. Eddie Cochrane bought a large group and others, new to the club, also came.

There are lots more photos - please click here
 
We will be continuing with these each Friday but when the first Friday meal is on there won’t be a BBQ that night. kb

Sunday 18th Oct. The Captain organised a 'Grudge Match' between 'Bowral 1' & 'Bowral 2' - the club's teams competing in the White Horse Cup this year. Bowral 1 won. --  all agreed a great day.

​A Rules Seminar was conducted at the club Wednesday 14thy October by Rod Clarke from Golf NSW. Commencing at 6.30 pm for members of our club and other clubs in the area,  Rod went through the 34 Rules of Golf explaining in detail the Rule, it’s interpretation and where you find it in the handbook. There were many questions and unique situations put forward which Rod handled as a professional, offering his vast knowledge and experience of the subject matter. Closing at approximately 10.00pm, all agreed it was a very fruitful exercise. Barbara Clayton offered the ladies an insight into the seminar by encouraging participants to share a pertinent point of what they had learnt from the experience and has suggested, the club hold and informal session to further explain the rules to all members. Watch this space. pc

Marking Balls. Last year, while captain, I mentioned the necessity for marking one's golf ball with an identifying mark when playing.  The rule says “6-5.  Ball The responsibility for playing the proper ball rests with the player. Each player should put an identification mark on his ball”  - note it says ‘Should’.
There has been several instances recently of players hitting the wrong ball. Why the necessity?
 
From the decisions:-
“27/10 Player Unable to Distinguish His Ball from Another Ball Q. A and B hit their tee shots into the same area. Both balls were found but, because A and B were playing identical balls and neither had put an identification mark on his ball, they could not determine which ball was A’s and which was B’s. What is the ruling? A. Since neither player could identify a ball as his ball, both balls were lost – see Definition of “Lost Ball”. This incident underlines the advisability of the player putting an identification mark on his ball – see Rules 6-5 and 12-2.”
 
It may not seem to matter in the competitions we play, but it certainly does when the competition may involve a championship and things get more “precise”. In fact, it matters all the time. When we see a playoff in the PGA you will see the referee being shown each players ball with an identifying mark on it and that is the other part of the picture. If you know your own identifying mark and the referee hasn’t seen that mark as yours, then that can also place one in a difficult position.
 
There are 34 rules in golf and there may be some local rules introduced. The permitted local rules are all covered in the appendix of the rule book. I can remember when I did my rules examination 8 or 9 years ago, when a question came from the floor about the legality of a certain procedure, the gentleman running the rules seminar/exam replied: “you can do that if you like (i.e. something against the rules), but if you do that you won’t be playing golf”. And the last thing to say on this, when we play in a competition we have ourselves and a card marker. Each of us is playing against the entire field, so it would be quite unfair for a card marker to say “that’s OK” at a minor infraction because then they would be speaking for every other competitor in the field.  kb

The new Rule of Golf on anchoring that will come into effect for all golfers in club golf, social golf, and professional golf on 1 January 2016.  The new Rule’s reference number in the 2016 Rules of Golf book will be 14-1b.
 
The R&A has produced some resources to assist committees with the implementation of this new Rule.  A new reference document released last week is attached for your reference. . please click here