For those of you who haven’t gone away for Christmas, hopefully you are getting a chance to relax after the Christmas rush by getting out onto the golf course. The recent rain has helped freshen up the fairways, and the greens are in excellent condition, ideal for scoring some low numbers to put towards your Summer Eclectic record.
Its not too late to pair up for the Miners Arms Bowl, but Sunday is the last day for playing your first round. Already a lot of very good first round scores have been recorded but with 2 further rounds to be played (one in January and one in February) its still wide open.
Interclub
Only 4 weeks now until the first round of Interclub so interested players should use the rounds you play over the holiday season to hone your match play skills. If you haven’t already advised the club of your interest in participating, please do so by emailing the club. We will be having more practice & trial matches on the weekends of 13th and 20 January – both Saturdays & Sundays. Spots will be made available in the calendar closer to the time. In additional, and to accommodate players who may be away or unavailable on those weekends, we encourage you to arrange your own practice matches against players on any day prior to the competition start date of 27 January. Simply mark your card “Interclub Trial” and hand it in to someone in the office. It will be kept for the Interclub Captains, Jay, Mark and Carl to review and to help them select their teams. Remember that we’d like 15 in each team if possible, so please encourage your playing partners to join in.
Rule Changes
Earlier this year the R&A and USGA published a number of proposed rule changes that would take effect on 1 January 2019, primarily to simplify certain rules and to help speed up play. Our understanding is that these changes are still planned but note that one rule change will take effect from 1 January 2018, by clubs adopting a local rule to its effect. This rule change eliminates the 2 stroke penalty for signing an incorrect score card, if the incorrect score was due to an unknown penalty. This change has resulted from the fall out from Lexi Thomson incurring a 4 stroke penalty during the final day of the US Open, being 2 strokes for incorrectly replacing her ball after marking it on one of the greens the previous day (as pointed out to the officials by a TV viewer) and 2 strokes for signing an incorrect score card that day (incorrect because it didn’t include the 2 stroke penalty for incorrectly replacing her ball, even though she didn’t know she had incurred the 2 stroke penalty). Most people should agree with this rule change, and had it been in place prior to the US Open, such that Lexi incurred only a 2 stroke rather than 4 stroke penalty, then Lexi would have won the event.
The exact rule change that the R&A and USGA recommend clubs adopt wef 1/1/2018, by modifying the Exception to Rule 6-6d, is as follows:
Exception: If a competitor returns a score for any hole lower than actually taken due to failure to include one or more penalty strokes that, before returning his score card, he did not know he had incurred, he is not disqualified. In such circumstances, the competitor incurs the penalty prescribed by the applicable Rule, but there is no additional penalty for a breach of Rule 6-6d. This Exception does not apply when the applicable penalty is disqualification from the competition.
Click here to refresh your memory as to the rules changes proposed for 2019:
Proposed rule changes 2019
Golf Ball Differences
Wondering whether those golf balls you got for Christmas are the right ones for you? This little chart might help you decide, courtesy of The Grateful Golfer:
Dominant Eye
Do you have a dominant eye - most people do. Look at something on the wall across the room. With your index finger and thumb make a circle. Place the object in the circle – be sure you can clearly see the object in the circle (perhaps dont do this on New Year's Eve!). Close your left eye – did the object move? Close our right eye – did the object move? Whichever eye was open with no movement is your dominant eye. Having determined your dominant eye, you might find your putting improves if you position this eye above your ball.
Sponsor Speak
The eighteenth hole is a great finishing hole in that in can be relatively easy to par, despite being rated one of the harder holes on the course, but also very easy to stuff up. If a match play round is still undecided going into the 18th, then the game is still very much alive as anything can happen. It is sponsored by Haus Property Management, Wellingtons leading rental property management firm with over 40 years in the business. Click here to go to their website:
Haus
View up the 18th valley in 1968 from the where the green is about to be built.
Happy golfing, play safely,
Your KGC Committee