Please remember that Club Day takes place on Tuesday 15th March, and there are still places available. This annual event, back after a two-year hiatus, marks the opening of the Ladies’ Golf season. A shotgun start will set the players off in an 18-hole greensomes competition, followed by lunch in the Roehampton Room. As is tradition, the Ladies’ section will raise funds at this event for the junior girls supported by England Golf. However, instead of a bottle stall as in years past, players have been asked to donate £5 for which they will receive a mulligan to be used at any point in their round. All players are presumed to be attending the lunch. Please make sure you fill out the google doc found on IntelligentGolf to note any dietary restrictions, or to send your apologies. Anyone who is not playing but would like to join us upstairs afterwards should please contact Louis Laville to be added to a table. Changing for lunch is encouraged.
Please note two sign-up sheets on the notice board in the locker room:
The first is for the Gold Cup – 9th April. Volunteers will be assigned to act as a guide for a group of players, helping them find their way around the Club, and answering any questions spectators might have. This is a singular opportunity to watch professionals and top amateurs negotiate our course, and I encourage you all to take part.
Please also sign up to challenge me and one of the golf professionals in a fourball better charity match. Dates, my playing partners and other pertinent details are all marked on the sign-up sheet.
Roehampton Club Teams in action:
The draw has been made for the first knockout round of the Pearson Competition. The team will face Walton Heath Golf Club. The Wallis Team also begins their campaign with home and away matches against Wimbledon Common Golf Club. Wishing all players the best of luck.
Congratulations to the winners of the following competitions:
Winners: Jenny Carter, Henrietta O’Shea and Emma Angood
Runners-Up – Lucy Dickson, Susan Major and Valerie Patten
Division 1
Name Points
1st Sandra Drum 36
2nd Therese Swanson 35
3rd Catherine Cooper 33
Division 2
Name Points
1st Caroline Dewar 35
2nd Anna Tingle 31
3rd Lucy Dickson 29
Shout out to Annabell Fuller who recorded her first hole in one on the Mark Bostick Golf Course at the University of Florida. She went on to finish tied fourth(+2) helping her Florida Gators team to shared team victory in her home event, The Gators Invitational.
This week, Regenerate’s Chief Executive Andy Smith has travelled to the Romania/Ukraine border to support the charity ‘Dare 2 Dream’ in Romania. ‘Dare 2 Dream’ is taking food, clothes and medicine to an organisation on the border in the town of Siret. There is a just-giving page for donations: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/heartukraine
With the huge number of knockout competitions beginning in March, both internal and external, I thought it might be a good idea to highlight the places where the Rules impose different penalties for stroke play versus matches. Anywhere the rule book calls for a General Penalty, the punishment will be two strokes in stroke play and loss of hole in match play. A general penalty applies when a breach of a rule results from your own actions, the actions of your caddie, or the actions of another person acting with your authority or knowledge. This penalty applies for a breach of most Rules, where the potential advantage is more significant than where only one penalty stroke applies. In all other situations, the punishment will be one stroke for all formats.
Common situations that incur the general penalty, and therefore loss of hole are:
◊ Hitting the wrong ball (rule 6.3) is a two-shot penalty in stroke play (it is only two shots, not two shots for every time you strike the wrong ball, but as soon as the mistake is discovered, you must go back to find correct ball) and immediate loss of hole in a match.
◊ Lifting or deliberately moving your ball (perhaps by accidentally hitting it with your practice swing) is only a one-shot penalty (rule 9), however, if you fail to put the ball back in its original position, you have now hit from the wrong spot, and will incur a two-shot penalty or lose the hole (Rule 14.7). Similarly, if you move your ball on the putting green at the request of your opponent, and then forget to move it back before taking your putt, you incur the General Penalty of two shots or loss of hole.
◊ If a ball moves as a result of the player removing a loose impediment (twigs, stones, etc), the player receives a one stroke penalty in any format; however, if she does not move the ball back to its original spot, it is loss of hole, as above.
◊ If a player has to take a drop, and she does not follow the correct procedure, she is not punished but must re-drop the ball properly. If a player drops her ball in the wrong way, but she hits it anyway, the penalty incurred depends on where the ball came to rest after it was dropped. If it landed in the correct relief area, she is assessed a one-shot penalty under both formats. However, if the incorrectly dropped ball rolls out of the correct relief area, it is a general penalty and two shot penalty or loss of hole (Rule 14)
◊ A player must play her ball as she finds it and may not improve her lie in any way. Doing so incurs the General Penalty (Rule 8). Actions that are prohibited include moving, bending or breaking growing or attached natural objects, immoveable obstructions or tee markers, building up a stance, or altering the surface of the ground in any way. A player may avoid a penalty be restoring the original conditions before she hits, for example returning a tree branch to its original position, replacing an illegally moved boundary marker, etc.
There are many more examples of places where a player might lose a hole, and I would be happy to add to the list if anyone has any suggestions. Always carry a rule book or have the R&A app on your phone, and never concede a hole without making absolutely certain that you have incurred the more punitive General Penalty as opposed to a simply being assessed an extra shot.
