This month I have a few items to explain about the rules for 2019, the affect those changes will have for Metro Seniors, and our tremendous progress in pace of play.
If you saw my presentation at the meeting you may have heard the term “flagstick dancing”. We simply mean we don’t want the flag taken in and out repetitively. We want you to work out a system with the other golfers in your foursome. For example, if someone needs the flag in until they finish putting out, and no one else does, let that player go ahead and putt out and then hold the flag for the rest of you. If we don’t work out some type of a system among ourselves like that, it could be bad for our pace of play numbers. We have our rounds down to less than 4 ½ hours in just the three years we have been working on it. We would hate to go backwards over this new rule. PLEASE insure the flagstick is all the way down in the cup and standing straight for the next group.
You may have noticed that on the tour the caddies cannot line up their player shots anymore. Unfortunately, that same USGA rule applies to us during all of our events. You are not allowed to line up your partner’s putt or shot. This doesn’t mean you can’t help your partner pick the line. You just can’t stand behind him/her while he/she is addressing the ball. The penalty for doing so is 1 stroke, and your opponents should be more than happy to remind you of that.
One of the most talked about rules violations is “The Gimmie”. Everyone knows what it is, and I think everyone knows the league is trying to eliminate the terms “that’s good” and “it’s a Gimmie” from all of our golfer’s vocabulary. If you pick up on any hole before your 8th stroke, your score will be 9. Let’s keep it fair and play by all the rules across all our divisions as we are competing for the Championship. If you witness rules violations and don’t want to say anything to the person who violated that rule, you can e-mail me directly at rules.questions@gkbrown.net. This will help direct our efforts to see that we all play by the same rules.
It’s important to remember, Metro Seniors has declared all penalty areas as red staked penalty areas. There are some areas on the course that are not marked that we will also be considered red staked penalty areas. They include grass or weeds more than a foot tall and heavy woods and sometimes fences at the boundary of the courses. This means that you can take a two-club relief no closer to the hole, from wherever your ball last crossed the margin of the penalty area. In some cases, this may be on the other side of the penalty area. Add one penalty stroke and play on.
I look forward to a great and fun season. I hope we all have at least a couple of exceptional rounds this year.
Thank you for taking the time to read our Rules Roundtable. I hope you find it enjoyable and informative. Please let me know if there is anything you’d like to see in future installments of the Rules Roundtable. This is the Member’s blog so please post your questions and we will try to answer all of them all.
If you didn’t get an opportunity to see the rules presentation at our general meeting or maybe you just couldn’t hear it very well. I have included the link below which should allow you to see and hear the complete presentation. We tried to post it under the rules tab, but the sound and automation doesn’t work.