In the past few weeks we’ve talked about the basic structure of the game of golf, the equipment, the course and competitions. Hopefully I haven’t bored anyone to death – it’s fairly dry stuff. If I have bored you to death, good luck in the afterlife and I hope there are golf courses in heaven.
Golf’s fifth rule establishes rules to play a round of golf. But what is a “round”? I believe this term stems from the fact that most golf courses start from the clubhouse and end there as well. The front nine is usually denoted as “out”, while the back nine is “in”. The committee running the competition will establish how many holes are needed to complete the round, but by rule, this number is always less than or equal to 18 holes. (I hear a but coming…. “But Todd, what about 18 hole rounds that end in a tie and they play on in sudden death?”.)
In competitive events, a round can end in a tie, or if the committee decrees that there must be a winner, the round can be extended a hole at a time (we typically call that sudden death), the round can be extended by a determined number of holes (at the Open Championship they play 3 holes in which the winner will be the competitor with the fewest number of strokes for the 3 holes), or (as in the U.S. Open (currently)), the competitors will start a new round the next day.
There are important differences in the rules if a round continues or if you begin a new round. For instance, if you’ve damaged a club and you start a new round, the club can be replaced. Between the rounds you can seek advice – not so if continuing a round.
In match play, you and your opponent(s) must be playing in the same group on the same hole – which makes sense because knowledge of your opponent’s situation is a key factor in how you play a given hole. In stroke play events, you are required to play with the group the committee establishes unless you are granted permission to play with another group during the round.
It’s important to understand when a round starts, stops, and is suspended.
Your round starts when you make your first stroke, which makes sense. However, you are also given a tee time by the committee. For the Ruggles Evening Golf League, that is supposed to be 1705 hours. Very few of us look at our watches to start play, and we typically wait until “To the Colors” has finished and figure that’s close enough to the tee time. In terms of Rule 5 however, you must never start your round earlier than your given tee time and you must be ready to play at the given tee time. The penalties for violation of these timing rules can be severe. In general, if you start your round earlier than 5 minutes before your assigned tee time or 5 minutes later than your assigned tee time you will be disqualified from the event. Starting within 5 minutes of the tee time will get you the general penalty (two strokes in stroke play, loss of hole in match play) unless there are circumstances that delay play (a group ahead has not cleared the fairway, etc.) Generally, if you’re ready to play at your given tee time, there are no worries. If you’re not, be prepared for either the general penalty or disqualification unless the committee rules in your favor for extenuating circumstances.
REGL also has local rules for late arriving players that are a bit more lenient. Most of us work here on the Proving Ground and often that work leans beyond the scheduled workday. Sometimes that necessitates a substitute player being called in or leads us to a frantic ride into the Ruggles parking lot at 1655. We all understand these things, but they should be the exception. I’ll try to summarize those rules briefly. If you arrive to a match in progress where the participants have all played their second shots from the 2nd competitive hole, you’re out of luck. You can play out the rest of the round, but your scores won’t count and your partner will have to play the two opponents by himself using the REGL “single player” rule. If you arrive to the match when all of the participants have played their second shot on the first hole, you’ll receive a score 3 greater than your singles-match opponent’s score on that hole and you’ll be able to play out the round. If you arrive prior to all players playing their second shot on the first hole, hustle over to the tee box and play without penalty.
The 1940 U.S. Open was the most famous example of starting a round at the wrong time. A group of 6 players (unheard of these days, 4 is typically the most you see on the first tee today) teed off early. Apparently there was a storm coming and everyone wanted to get off the course as soon as they could to avoid the worst of the weather. As a result they all teed off before their given tee time. All six completed play and all six were disqualified. I’ve never played it, but there is a course in Wilmington named after one of those six, Ed Oliver. Ed shot a final round 71, which would have put him in a playoff the next day with Gene Sarazen and Lawson Little. Unfortunately, not to be.
A round ends in match play when the match has been decided, and in stroke play when holing the final stroke on the last hole. In REGL, a round could be finished by a conceded stroke.
So, let’s talk about suspending and restarting play and implications involved in both. Generally, a stroke play event can only be suspended by the committee or their representative EXCEPT when a player “reasonably believes there is danger from lightning” in which case he will immediately make the committee aware of suspension. In match play, players may mutually agree to suspend play if the committee allows it and the competition is not delayed, but when one of the parties wants to resume, the other party must also resume. Suspension of play beyond these allowed reasons will lead to disqualification for the player.
The committee can issue two types of suspensions. The first is if the players or the course is in immediate danger. Think lightning, hail, tornado. In those cases, players must immediately mark their balls (or leave them in place) and seek cover. Play STOPS. This is the most common suspension of REGL play. Our new commissioner, Mr. Brian Finley (thanks for your service, Brian) put out a message last week about teams continuing to play after Ruggles blows the horn. If Ruggles blows the horn, there is a good reason and you should mark your ball with a tee, coin, etc. (in case we get to go back out) and immediately walk, run or ride back to the clubhouse. Typically we don’t have enough time to complete the round after getting called back to the clubhouse, but maybe there will come an evening when we can go back.
The second type of suspension has to do with course condition (think casual water on the greens) or darkness. In these cases, the competitors have the option to complete the hole they are on if any of them have made a stroke on the hole. In match play, if one competitor does not want to continue the hole, no one can play out the hole. In stroke play, each competitor may elect to finish the hole. If the group is between holes and the order for suspension goes out, they may not start the next hole.
We don’t encounter rounds suspended by the committee for anything other than immediate danger in REGL (at least not to date). However, I have played right up until it’s quite dark (especially late in the year). Although we don’t have a local rule to address darkness, I would think that teams would be able to agree when it has become too dark to play and the round is not finished. In these cases, I would think a note on the back of the card would let the league know to apply the rules for incomplete rounds in terms of scoring. The same argument could also be applied to greens that become unplayable due to rain.
There are also applicable league rules for tied rounds during the playoffs. In a playoff you have to have a winner, which may necessitate coming back the next day to decide the winner if there is not enough available light.
Let’s talk about resuming the round. Obviously, you want to continue from the place where you suspended play. The committee will give a time to resume or blow a horn to resume play. Just like a tee time, you don’t start early and you better be ready to play or you’ll receive the general penalty. If you’ve marked your ball, try to find your mark. If you can’t find it, estimate the location where you last saw your ball or marker and drop a ball (doesn’t have to be the ball you picked up from that location). If you have found your marker, replace the ball and lift your mark. If you just left the ball there you can mark, lift and replace it with another ball if you wish. If you know that your ball or the ball marker moved during the suspension you must estimate the original position to the best of your ability and drop a ball as close to that point as possible. Failure to return the ball to the original position prior to the suspension will result in the general penalty of two strokes.
That’s enough to swallow for one week. Next week we will talk about practicing on the course before and during the round as well as addressing everyone’s favorite topic – Pace of Play!
Here’s hoping the weather will cooperate. I’ve heard that rain got Monday’s round cut short and Tuesday was a complete washout. We’re in that goofy beginning of summer region when those pop-up thunderstorms seem to always visit Ruggles Golf Course.