Golfers should not be allowed on course without knowledge of the rules

What you need to know:

  • The Kenya Golf Union will be running a Level 1 Rules School at Vet Lab Sports Club next week on Monday and at Mombasa Golf Club on Saturday the same week.
  • The course, which is run with the backing of the R&A, should be made mandatory for all the people who serve in competition or course committees.

Last week, the junior conveners of Limuru Country Club invited me to talk to some young ones about the Rules of Golf.

I was very apprehensive at first wondering if I would bore the kids to tears. The Rules of Golf have been known to stupefy even the seasoned golfer and many golfers are yet to open the rulebook. Would the junior golfers appreciate the Rules of Golf that baffle majority of the adult golfers?

After the first few slides of my presentation, I knew that I had a captive audience. When they started getting answers right to some of the rules situations that I shared with them, I was over the moon.

My greatest moment came two days later when I met one of the kids who had participated. To my utter surprise and without any prompting, he was able to recite the four types of penalties and he was quick to add that he had not incurred any during his round that day.

Next week I meet their parents. The Kenya Golf Union will be running a Level 1 Rules School at Vet Lab Sports Club next week on Monday and at Mombasa Golf Club on Saturday the same week.

The course, which is run with the backing of the R&A, should be made mandatory for all the people who serve in competition or course committees.

Why anyone would want to offer himself or herself to serve in golf committees without any curiosity of the rules that govern the game is beyond me. I am referring to those fellows who have never once opened a rulebook.

Had members of all competition committees taken the interest to learn the Rules, we would not get some elementary mistakes. I am not even certain that all golf clubs have a competition committee for all their competitions.

“Do we even need these committees?” some may wonder. If there is a competition being run, there must be a competition committee or a committee that is in charge of the course.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF COMPETITION COMMITTEES

What are the responsibilities of these committees? Here are some of their key tasks:

1. Prepare the draw – the committee is required to establish the times of starting for all golfers in a competition. These are the draws that appear in the papers every Friday. Over the years however, in most clubs the times indicated have become perfunctory. They only serve to show that there is a competition taking place. Anyone is able to play whether or not they are drawn. The time of starting is no longer important and sauntering in 30 minutes late has become the norm. The only club that I know of in Kenya that still strictly adheres to this rule is Karen Country Club. One club that took this casual approach to the draw too far put a deceased golfer on the draw.

2. Provide a score card – in every stroke play competition, the committee must give each player a score card containing the date and the competitor’s name. The committee is also responsible for the addition of the player’s scores and, in Stableford competitions, for applying the handicap recorded by the player and determining the result of each hole and the total points. I have heard of cases where players were disqualified for putting the wrong Stableford points or wrong addition of their gross scores. This was not their responsibility in the first place and the committee should have just corrected the errors.

3. Set up the course and conditions of play – the committees are responsible for defining the margins of the course and even ensuring that things like ground under repair are properly defined. The responsibility of setting up the holes at which the competitions are played does not belong to the green keeper. The committee is supposed to oversee this and even ensure that every one plays under the same conditions.

Recently, I was informed of the conditions of a competition that were changed halfway through the day. Golfers who played in the morning played the ball as it lay but those that played with the captain in the afternoon were allowed to prefer their lie. Such a competition should have been cancelled since not all golfers played under the same conditions.

There are some good traditions from the past that competition committees should consider re-introducing. In the past new golfers were drawn with experienced golfers.

The draw was such that you had low handicappers playing with high handicappers (some of whom were newbies).
This had two effects; Golfers got to mingle and the knowledge of rules was shared with the newbies. Today many four-balls remain unchanged.

Some may argue that they should be allowed to play with whomever they wish but wouldn’t it be much better if we shared the knowledge of the Rules and etiquette with the newbies? How will they ever learn if they always play together?

I look forward to meeting those that are attending the Rules schools next week. If you are still wondering what the four types of penalties exist in the game, join us for the Rules school.

The author is a KGU Executive