Another year, another Captain’s meeting, and more rule changes.
I’m gonna vent a little bit, and if you don’t agree with me, I don’t care – get your own blog.
Before I let off some steam, I want to say “thank you” to Brian Finley who volunteered to be our commissioner since the middle of last year. You talk about thankless jobs – the commissioner must herd more than 70 teams of cats and manage 4 divisions over two nights of league play plus playoffs and 2 tournaments per year. Without a commissioner, this league would fold up in a heartbeat. Same goes for our league handicappers (Fran and Dave). Good people – they need good care and feeding, so say “thank you!” whenever you see them – they deserve at least that.
I guess the biggest change will be Ruggles itself. As of last week, the nines have been switched. Old #1 is now #10, etc. We still have to use up all of the old REGL scorecards, so it’s going to be a bit confusing. My suggestion is to go to your hole each night with both a front and a back nine scorecard just in case. Your hole assignment will be per the new hole numbers, so #13 is now the old #4….
There were a couple of rule change proposals on the agenda at the captain’s meeting. The USGA is encouraging players to “play it forward” and keep the fun in the game. Part of that involves a “new” handicap system adopted in 2020 and fully implemented this year. According to Fran and Dave, the new software they bought for tracking handicaps and running the league is fully capable of implementing the new handicap calculations. Even though it’s new, the principals involved in calculating your handicap index (course slope and rating) are the same, and I suspect the league will still go with your best 4 of the last 6 scores (the standard in the World Golf Handicap system is best 8 out of the last 20). One result of the new calculation is that you will never have to adjust a player’s handicap based on what tees they play in relation to what you’re playing. The gold-tee player no longer gives up an extra handicap stroke to a white-tee player (supposedly, that difference will already be baked into the handicap number). I was having a tough time getting my mind around that until I did a good bit of research. Under the old handicap system, the course rating (per a given tee) wasn’t used UNLESS players were playing from different tees. Now the course rating is compared to par and is part of the handicap calculation for everyone everytime. There was some discussion on whether players should be able to pick any tee to play for the season (white, gold, red (even if you identify as a man)). I guess even blue and black tees could be considered. After a good bit of smacking that one around, we decided to leave the old rules in place (normal tees for men will be white, red for women), and men could (at their option) move up to the gold tees (combination of age and handicap exceed 75).
The second rule change (enacted over my grumbling) involves playing out of the Ruggles bunkers. Apparently being able to rake and drop a ball (enacted last year) was not “fair” enough. You can now rake the bunker and PLACE the ball in a favored position (I guess as close as possible to where the ball came to rest in the bunker in the first place). If your ball was embedded in the face of the bunker, you can rake and place it, but “you might have to push the ball into place” to get it to stay. I haven’t seen the final wording of this “rule”, but that’s the gist of it.
Editor's note: Here's the wording right out of the revised REGL Rule Book:
"Due to the condition of the bunkers typical during league play, the decision was made to allow players to lift, rake, and place, whenever a player’s ball is in a bunker. The objective of this rule is to provide the player a suitable lie and is not intended to give the player an advantage by raking and creating a “tee”. If the ball is plugged in the bunker, the player may lift, rake and place, but if the ball will not remain in its original resting place, the player may need to press the ball into the sand so it stays in place. Once placed, the ball is “in play” and no further adjustments are permitted. This rule is a local rule and all other USGA rules concerning bunker play remain in effect (e.g. casual water in bunkers, etc.)."
For those of you who don’t know the background, IN GENERAL (absent a local rule), you must accept the lie you get in a bunker. Bunkers are supposed to be penal, and they are to be avoided. However, the playing populace of Ruggles golf course during the morning and afternoon hours are notoriously allergic to rakes. Lots of footprints, craters, etc. There were promises to send someone out before league play to rake (didn’t happen), and then the drumbeats started. We ended up with a “rake and drop if you want to” rule last year. I didn’t agree with adopting the rule then, and now allowing for someone to place the ball is way past my limit – but I’m just one captain.
Bunkers are supposed to be “testy”. There’s art involved in getting out of a bunker and snugging a ball up close to the hole. The guys on tour are exceptionally gifted in this area. Yeah, they play from “pristine” bunkers, but they also get some fried eggs and embedded balls on occasion. They deal with that by practicing those very same shots. As I said, bunkers are to be avoided and they generally mean that unless you work some magic, you’re going to drop a stroke to par. There is supposed to be guesswork involved – “How much sand is under my ball?”, “How compact is the sand?”, “How far under the sand do I need to go?”, “How can I get out of this bunker?”. By raking and placing, you’re answering most of these questions that should be left to guesswork. By being able to place the ball in a preferred lie, you’re just cheating – pure and simple. Do you have to rake and place? No. For those that do take advantage of this rule without a good reason to do so? You should probably feel a good bit of shame. For my part, I won’t be raking or placing and I can hold my head up and go to sleep at night knowing I didn’t cheat.
My other recommendation regarding bunker play is to practice. There are plenty of videos out there (as usual, some are great, others not very helpful) that give you some useful tips, but the key is practice. And don’t just practice when the sand is soft and fluffy and don’t always play from the bottom of the bunker. Practice close to the lip, off the downslope, off hard lies, fried eggs, embedded balls. Play shots out of the bunker with every iron in your bag. There is a practice bunker between the (old) 18th hole and the end of the driving range at Ruggles. Usually there is a rake there and hardly a soul around. If you struggle with bunker play, while you’re out for a practice round, drop a ball in a bunker at each green and hit a ball or two (rake the trap when you’re done). Whack away until you gain some confidence, and you’ll never fear a bunker shot again.