I think we’ve emphasized this in the last two entries, but we play stroke play rules in REGL even though we combine elements of stroke and match play in our league. The used of stroke play rules is to allow each player to record a nine-hole score each and every night that they play which allows for handicaps to be adjusted each week. In many leagues your handicap would not change at all during the season – we happen to have dedicated (and I should say Really Dedicated) handicappers would do the adjustments for more than 300 players each and every week. Fran Lauer and Dave Edwards are very special people and they deserve our thanks.
There’s another reason for using stroke play rules, and that’s to protect the field. Now, you’re saying, “Todd, each team’s playing a match against just one other team on the same hole, so that’s a bunch of crap!”, and you’d be right except for the fact that each and every week one team from each division wins $20 for being the team with the low net score for the night. Therefore, it’s important that teams don’t disregard rules and allow for lower scores to be recorded for their matches and not any others. In general, though, traditional stroke-play-only events need to emphasize that every player is playing against EVERY OTHER player in the competition and that all players need to be treated equally (they need to play the same course under conditions (as much as humanly practical – we don’t have control of the weather) that are the same (same hole locations, same tee locations).
Stroke play events are the most commonly encountered on golf tours all over the world. All of the major tournaments are now stroke-play events. Figuring out the winner is easy – you look to see who’s atop the leaderboard at the end of the event. Committees can also elect to determine the winner as the player with the least number of net strokes after handicaps are factored, but most of those tournaments just result in a bunch of hard feelings about the validity of someone’s stated handicap.
One crucial element of every stroke-play event is the scorecard. A score must be recorded for every hole, and that score must be recorded by the designated marker for that day. I think the PGA tour still uses your playing companion as the marker. They record your score and confirm it after each hole, you record the score after each hole and you go over the cards each day in the scoring tent. Once the scorecards have been certified by the committee they are frozen. If later the scores have been found to be wrong, a player might be disqualified unless the committee feels that there were reasons to accept a revised score. In general though, if you sign for a score that is lower than it should be, pack your bags. If you sign for a higher score, the higher score becomes your score for that round. Since we have elements of stroke play in REGL, we have our own scorecards (complicated as they are) that must be signed by both parties before being turned in for the night.
We employ handicaps in our league and those numbers are crucial to figuring out 1) who’s one each individual hole in their singles match, 2) which team wins each hole point, and 3) which team wins team net. Therefore, it is crucial that each player knows his CURRENT POSTED HANDICAP before heading out to his assigned tee each night, and that he communicates his correct handicap to the other team. The penalty for not providing a correct handicap can be harsh. If you communicate a handicap higher than your current posted handicap (thus guaranteeing that you will receive more strokes in your match than what you are entitled), you will be disqualified in a traditional stroke play event. If you communicate a lower handicap than your current posted handicap, that lower number becomes your handicap for the event (even though it’s not as large as it should be).
I do remember one championship match a few years ago in which one of the competitors assumed his handicap hadn’t changed prior to that match and he gave the wrong number to his competitors and it affected the outcome of the match in some way, so be careful and always consult the website or the tee sheet on each league night to get your handicap correct.
Speaking of handicap strokes and adding up scores, in a conventional stroke play event, the competitor is not required to be able to add or subtract – he just has to put down the number of strokes he made on each hole. The committee is responsible for adding those scores and applying the handicap. In REGL? Also true, you can sign the card with only the hole scores for each player on the card as long as you have each player’s full name and the team numbers as well. HOWEVER, you are asked to please total up all of the scores so that if the handicapper can’t read one of the hole scores, he could potentially figure out what that score is if he has the total.
In traditional stroke play events, it’s also a requirement that each competitor holes out on every hole. If he doesn’t and elects to play a shot on the next hole, the player will be disqualified. In REGL? Not so much. We can concede putts within the length of the flagstick. However, there is no longer a Mercy Rule (put in place for REGL for a few years) where a player can pick up and move on when he’s still outside the length of the flagstick from the hole, and there is no REQUIREMENT that players have to concede ANY putt.
Many of the REGL Local Rules are meant to speed up play. There are nights at the beginning and the end of the season when it’s tough to see, and there are nights when you get stuck behind a slow group. I have noticed this year that we’ve been done in plenty of time for my partner and I to commiserate over a cold beer and still enjoy the sunset, so I believe we’ve found just about the perfect balance between speed of play and the spirit of the rules of golf. However, I thought I’d put out some thoughts regarding some things we could all do each night to speed things along:
1) Pick up a scorecard and fill out as much information as you can PRIOR to meeting your opponents. Find out exactly what your handicaps are when you register and it doesn’t hurt to write down your opponent team handicaps as well. Find out where you’re starting your round and what team you’ll be playing.
2) Mark your balls before you roll out to the course. I always try to mark some up before I walk out onto the putting green. Your mark should be one that you recognize as your own.
3) Make sure you have all the stuff you’ll need prior to leaving the clubhouse area (scorecard, all clubs, balls, rangefinder, GPS, cell phone, tees, rain gear, partner, rule book, ball marker, jacket, etc.).
4) Starting time is 5:05 or just after “To the Colors” is played. That means both teams should be ready to swing clubs as the music stops, which means you have to factor in the time it’ll take you to get from the clubhouse to the tee box. If you’re starting on Hole 7 or Hole 17, get an early jump.
5) We’re encouraged to pay with pre-paid tickets this year, so pick those up in advance. I like to swing by the clubhouse at around lunchtime after the morning traffic has died down – the people in the clubhouse seem to be a lot less grouchy when they aren’t under stress.
6) Clean clubs make for better strokes – polish them up the night before, not on the 1st tee.
7) Brush up on the rule book and the REGL local rules in your spare time. A run through both every once in a while never did anyone harm. Better yet, pull up this website and breeze through the blog entries you may have missed or forgotten. Knowing the rules and how to employ them will save you time and energy the next time you find yourself in a sticky situation.