The 2024 REGL Rules are up and on the website, and they've also been dispensed to all of the captains for play starting next week. I’d suggest a full read before your first league match.
Discussion of rule changes happens quite a bit during the off-season. I’d like to think that maybe this blog has something to do with it, and I continue to hold out hope that someday the REGL will play using only USGA rules and we won’t need to resort to local rules. A man can dream.
Your commish, Brian Finley, asked me to sit in as one of the player’s representatives at the annual “Executive Steering Committee” meeting, where the league officers talk about the upcoming league season and frame the list of discussion points for the annual Captain’s meeting. It’s a good discussion and we bring up a lot of topics and frame some rule change proposals.
As always, speed of play, minimizing levels of aggravation, keeping the league fun are pretty much the guiding principles behind the discussion, but then the floor gets opened to potential rule changes. My first request to the committee was to eliminate any use of the phrase “Winter Rules”. If you want a “Why”, please see my blog entry from last year entitled “The Confusion Factor of Implied Rules” – located here: The Confusion Factor of Implied Rules (apg-regl.com). That request was passed during the Captain’s meeting. You may still move the ball in your own fairway to get a preferred lie, but no lifting or cleaning. The only exception to that may be if we’re playing “Lift, Clean and Place” that night or if you’re playing a par 4 or 5 that the Ruggles staff has deemed Cart Path Only (#16 often gets that tag early in the season). The commish says that a sign will be posted at the check-in table if we’re playing Lift, Clean and Place over the whole course on a league night due to recent rain.
My second and third requests were an attempt to eliminate the option to Lift, Rake and Place in all bunkers during league play. Call me a throwback, but I think that bunkers should be penal and require the player to execute a good shot to put themselves on the green. I also feel that a players should be able to play a wide variety of bunker shots under different lies and sand conditions and should except the consequences of whatever the bunker has thrown at him. I attempted to make the argument that almost all of the bunkers at Ruggles are decent and maintained well enough to make bunker play fair for everyone. The exception continues to be the left-hand bunker on #3 which just doesn’t drain very well at all. Even when it’s dry, it’s typically not been tilled and becomes baked concrete. I argued if we made #3’s left bunker ground under repair and offered a free drop outside of the bunker, then we could play the course’s bunkers with the standard group of rules found in the USGA rule book. However, at the captain’s meeting, these two rule proposals were not discussed in synergy, and we voted on each (#3 bunker Ground Under Repair, and getting rid of Lift, Rake and Place) individually. #3's left bunker is now Ground Under Repair and you can drop outside of that bunker without penalty. Lift, Rake and Place is still allowed at the player’s option for all of the other bunkers. I for one, don't plan on using the option.
Speaking of Ground Under Repair, the swamp in front of the 11th green has still not been addressed by the Ruggle maintenance staff. There’s apparently a leak in the sprinkler system there. Feel free to use the “Abnormal ground Condition” rule (I think it’s Rule 16 in the USGA Rules of Golf) to get free relief from the swamp by finding your nearest point of relief where you don’t bring up water with your feet or where your ball is located – no closer to the hole. If it’s plugged in there, pull it out. If you’re certain it went into the swamp and you can’t find it, play another ball (no penalty) from your point of nearest relief (estimating where you believe the ball entered the swamp).
Lastly, we’ve been trying for a few years to figure out what to do with players who cannot seem to get through a 9-hole round in under 80-90 strokes. Last year there was a twosome who combined for close to 200 strokes one evening. That many strokes means play gets bottled up behind that group and since we have 3 “Team Net” points in a match, we really need holes to be completed to figure out how to award those points. What to do? Here’s the text of the adopted rule:
“If a player reaches a score of 9 strokes on a given hole and has not finished the hole, a member of the
opposing team has the option to concede remaining strokes on that hole for a score of 10. There is no obligation to offer concession, but if offered by the opponent, it must be accepted, and the player must pick their ball and not finish the hole.”
So, here’s an example. You’re playing well after 5 holes and your two 18-handicap opponents are not. It’s hot, you’re up by a very comfortable margin, you and your partner have both won your singles matches, and you have a 10-ft birdie putt on the 16th green. Your partner has a short chip upcoming and looks like he’s going to make par or maybe bogie on the hole. You’re each giving two strokes on the hole. Your opponents have both slung their drives in the trees on the right-hand side, have both dropped near the cart path and chipped out into the fairway and sunk both of their balls into Romney Creek. Neither got their dropped ball over the creek and had to hit yet another and one of them put their ball into the trees on the left, one on the right. Neither found his ball and both take a penalty drop where their balls went into the trees. The way this hole is going, you may not make it back to the clubhouse before dark. There's a group in the fairway and one on the teebox at this point. “What are you laying?”, you ask each of them, and they each reply “9!”. You now have the option to end each of their holes with a 10 on each scorecard by conceding the remaining strokes on the hole. But it is an option – you don’t have to offer them a 10, and you can make them finish the hole if you like, or if you think the score could make a difference in the outcome of the match.