GOLF RULES VIA FRED AUGUST 2024

Seniors - Second e-mail of the day. Some of our kitty comps are won by a single point on occasions (a missed putt or a missed breach of the rules). Some observations have led the committee to look into the knowledge and application of rules by our senior section. Many members are good and many are average in their knowledge of the rules. Some, quite frankly, are diabolical with certain rules and we debated how we can improve the circumstances. The "Sheriff" for the senior section has always been Fred Court and we have asked him (having rejoined the committee) to publish a series of questions and answers, so that we might all improve our knowledge of the rules, should we need to. I thank Fred in advance for his planned contributions - please find below Fred's introduction to the series: Sheriff on the Golf Rules. As a teenager my sport of choice was “Fencing” a sport with integrity. For example if a judge missed a blade contact on your target area, but you knew contact had been made, you called “touche”, acknowledgement of a possible score against you. Many of you may say I am too pedantic with the rules but to me the same integrity should apply within the game of golf and the correct interpretation of the rules. A misunderstood application in the use of a rule will give a favourable score advantage to you against the rest of the field, therefore I am asking Seniors to take a few moments from time to time to read and understand the rules and their application, in order to create a level playing field. If a fellow competitor having scored 5 on a hole asked for 4 to be recorded, I am sure there would be a review of the play on the hole and the correct score of 5 recorded, so why do so many of us believe it correct to ignore the application of a penalty for a breach in the rules, eg. a player failing to mark the ball position where a rule permits the ball may be lifted, with one caveat, the ball position shall be marked. In competition a player has two responsibilities - the first being the correct gross score for each hole is applied to his card and second, as the attester for the gross scores on the card marked for a fellow competitor. Note a gross score is the number of strokes made plus any penalty strokes that should be applied. Monthly question and answer blogs will follow. The "Sheriff" Is back