Another March, more Madness. Actually, this year’s Captain’s Meeting was easier on me than some of them. The proliferation of local rules that other captains seem necessary to play a 9-hole round of golf at Ruggles Golf Course over the years makes my head spin. They’re usually prefaced with “In the interest of speeding up play”, “the course is in terrible shape”, “this is supposed to be a fun game”, etc. Why not play on your golf simulator at home against some computer or someone else playing on his VR goggles in Timbuktu?
Life isn’t fair, and as much as we don’t like it, neither is golf. My position continues to be that the “Rules of Golf” are more than adequate to play 9 holes after work. HOWEVER, as a captain I get exactly one vote, and more often than not, I’m in the minority. I continue to play in this league because I enjoy being outside and competing with and against (for the most part) good people. I’ll take the bad parts of it as long as I can still get the good. So, without further venting of my spleen, let’s get to the changes implemented as a result of this year’s Captain’s Meeting.
1) Even though almost all of the bunkers should be rebuilt by the start of the season, the option to Lift, Rake and Place a ball in any bunker remains. I’ll stand on my previous set of comments regarding this decision. The bunkers on #3 still don’t have adequate drains in them, and I don’t think there’s a plan to fix them. I’d point you to the rules of golf regarding play from a waterlogged bunker (there’s a blog entry for it).
2) 1) For the month of April ONLY, you will be able to Lift, Clean and Place (by the way, pros call this Lift, Clean and Cheat) your ball in your own fairway (NOT the General Area as I previously wrote and subsequently changed after talking to the commish). Now, you must mark the ball and place it back within a scorecard’s area behind your mark (since we can roll the ball in our own fairway in league play).
3) AFTER APRIL, you will be able to Lift, Clean and Place your ball in any fairway of any hole (EXCLUDING PAR 3’s) on which Ruggles has placed “Cart Path Only” signs. #16 is probably the poster child for this. On nights when Ruggles says “Play will be cart path only”, you will be able to LC&P on any hole.
4) Music will be allowed on the course during play. HOWEVER, you have to ask your competitors before the round if they are comfortable with the volume, music genre, or music at all. If your competitors don’t want music to be played, you must turn it off during the round. Also be respectful of play on holes around you – keep the volume low enough that it won’t impact other teams on other holes.
5) Ruggles was re-rated by the USGA over the winter and there are new slope and rating numbers for each set of tees. It may affect your league handicap to start the year.
That’s about all of the impacts to rules from the meeting. There is a redesign of #7 and #8 coming due to a new road going in from 715 down to Perryman. However, Dave Correll indicated that it would be happening this fall at the earliest and won’t impact us this year. Next year could be interesting if the redesign is started. According to Dave #7 will be up to 600 yards long with tee boxes across Romney Creek and a relocated green, and since the old house has been torn down, he believes there is space to put the tee for #8 back there and make it a dogleg right par 4. Good improvements, but in the interim while construction is in progress we could be playing #7 and #8 as par 3’s.
I haven’t been thinking about topics for this rule blog. Last year I continued my slog through the rule book and made it up to Rule 10 in June before life got in the way of writing. I suppose I could pick up from there unless I get something special to write about. I’m always looking for topics, and if you have a good idea for a topic, please email me or drop a suggestion in the forum and I’ll try to get to it. First week of April’s going to be upon us in a couple of heartbeats. Good luck this year to each and every team.