Altering club setting could get you ejected

Agnes Nyakio follows the progress of her tee shot from the 18th hole during the 2018 Kenya Open Ladies Strokeplay title at Sigona Golf Club on June 2, 2018. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Should there be a need to adjust a club, the only time to make it is before the round.
  • Her Ladyship and I are currently in a good place. We may have our ups and downs, and here and there, on less faithful occasions, I may have other mistresses.
  • We however have an understanding that we shall not try to make any changes. Especially not during a round.

I first met the lady at a friend’s house after I gave him a ride home following a round of golf where we got rained out earlier this year.

It was love at first sight. There was a dignified look about her accentuated by her all white attire.

I took her out to the golf range at the Golf Park the very next day. She was a nice weight with a good touch. She was, it soon became obvious, just what I had been looking for ever since my painful separation with my former love, due to irreconcilable differences.

The lady, a TaylorMade driver, is now a permanent fixture in my golf bag. This, after playing for over one year without a driver. We have had a very good time, her Ladyship and I.

Her willing compliance with all my intentions to drive the ball long and straight, has me smiling a lot more on the golf course. She has sent golf balls whizzing through the air to great distances that I never imagined ever reaching.

Last Friday however, my relationship with her Ladyship was a trifle strained at the beginning of my round. I must say that I was to blame.

I was playing with the gentleman who introduced me to her Ladyship and was trying very hard to impress him, which led me to swing with more vigour than I normally would.

We were missing fairways and ending up in the rough on the right.

At some point, my playing partner took her Ladyship and started examining her setting. I could see what he was thinking as he tried moving her settings with his fingers.

Her Ladyship has some weights that can be adjusted to curve the ball to the left (also known as draw) or to the right (a fade).

Until that point, all my shots with her Ladyship were straight and to the right, what is known as a push. At that point in the round, I would really have benefited from a slight adjustment on her Ladyship to give me a draw. That way my tee shots would have been in the middle of the fairway.

It is a good thing that her Ladyship’s settings for a draw or a fade are not so fickle. This is because making changes to the settings of a club during a round is a definite no-no.

A golfer must complete a round of golf with the clubs that he or she chose at the beginning of the round without any adjustments to their settings.

Changing the settings of club mid-round can earn one a disqualification.

If I for example decided to make an adjustment on her Ladyship to give me a draw to compensate for the push, and then I went ahead to strike the ball with club, then I would be disqualified on that round. This penalty applies in both stroke play and match play.

If I made the adjustment and then someone warned me about not using her Ladyship in her altered state, then the penalty would be loss of hole in match play or a two stroke penalty in stroke play.

I would then have to declare her Ladyship out of play for the remaining holes and resist all temptation to take her out of the bag for the remaining holes.

If it so happened that I made the adjustment but went on to play several holes without noticing my error and without using her Ladyship, at the conclusion of the hole where the breach was discovered, I would lose two holes in match play or get a four strokes penalty in stroke play.

That would be two strokes at each of the first two holes at which the breach occurred.

The problem with adjustable golf clubs is that once one makes an adjustment during a stipulated round, then they cannot escape being penalised.

It will not matter if the player realised the mistake and returned the club to the original setting. It would be impossible for the altered club to be restored to the exact way it was originally.

For that breach, the player will lose the hole being played in match play or earn a two-stroke penalty in stroke play. He must then declare the club out of play to avoid further penalties.

Should the player adjust the club in between the play of two holes, then the penalties would apply to the next hole.

Should there be a need to adjust a club, the only time to make it is before the round.

Her Ladyship and I are currently in a good place. We may have our ups and downs, and here and there, on less faithful occasions, I may have other mistresses.

We however have an understanding that we shall not try to make any changes. Especially not during a round.