One of the flagship events on the PGA Essex schedule was held at Toot Hill Golf Club on Friday 22nd March. 32 teams took part 32 Professional all fort for the £2,000 purse.
The day was cold but the course was superb. Tees, fairways and greens all in immaculate condition.
Our PGA Pro Jack Winer got off to a rocky first hole (the 11th) having to make a 12 foot putt for par after a poor wedge into the green but got back on track nearly holing his tee shot on the island green signature hole 12th.
He went on to make a further 6 birdies, carding four 2’s out of the five par 3’s to card a -4 score of 66 and to take victory at the Toot Hill Pro Am by 2 strokes to the ever steady Rob Coles (former European Tour player).
Did I tell you how I love to confuse shop assistants by asking “Do you have this in extra medium”?
Or when a waiter asks what water I would like, I say “Two parts H, one part O please”!
Or have you been into your favourite golf store and asked for a dozen provisional balls? Which brings me onto the subject I wanted to talk about this week…
As you should know, the revised rules of Golf come into effect on 1 January 2019. See the excellent video on the subject which you can link to from the top of this post or by clicking here. One of the much discussed changes relates to “balls lost or out of bounds”.
Balls Lost or Out of Bounds: Alternative to Stroke and Distance: A new Local Rule will now be available in January 2019, permitting committees to allow golfers the option to drop the ball in the vicinity of where the ball is lost or out of bounds (including the nearest fairway area), under a two-stroke penalty. It addresses concerns raised at the club level about the negative impact on pace of play when a player is required to go back under stroke and distance. The Local Rule is not intended for higher levels of play, such as professional or elite level competitions. (Key change: this is a new addition to support pace of play)
Firstly, I can confirm that it has been decided NOT to implement this as a local rule at Abridge Golf Club as far as all competitions are concerned. However, in a friendly 4-ball, you could choose to follow this rule if agreed at the start by all players.
Of course this rule change would not be necessary if golfers used the option to hit a “provisional ball” if they suspect their first ball may be lost or out of bounds.
Which brings me back to provisional balls. I certainly don’t profess to be a rules expert myself, but it certainly surprises me the number of golfers that don’t follow the correct procedure when playing a provisional ball.
First rule is that when playing a second ball, the golfer must clearly indicate that the ball he/she is about to play is provisional, by saying “this is a provisional ball”. It’s not sufficient to say “[expletive deleted], guess I’d better hit another one” or similar. It’s not up to your playing partners to ask you “Is that a provisional you are about to hit”? If you don’t indicate clearly that you are hitting a provisional, then it becomes your ball in play and your first ball is dead, even if you find it hit a tree and now lies in the middle of the fairway!
Provisional rule basics If you declare the ball as provisional. If you subsequently find the first ball (and it’s not out of bounds), you HAVE to play the original ball. That’s a nuisance I know, if you have hit your provisional a country mile down the middle of the fairway and your original ball is found in deep doo-doo, but that’s life. Neither can you declare your first ball as “lost”. Although sometimes you might not try too hard to find your first ball in these circumstances, you can’t stop your playing partner/opponent from looking for it!
If you have omitted to declare the ball as provisional (which you may have done by choice). In this case, your second ball is the ball in play whether you like it or not. If you find your original ball, whether on the fairway or deep rough, you can retrieve it, but continue playing the second ball.
And then finally, there is the American playing golf in Scotland for the first time. After hitting his tee shot off the first out-of-bounds, he asks his local caddie, “Do you have Mulligans in Scotland”? The caddie replies “Aye, we do sir – but here we call them 3’s”!
Happy and Healthy New Year to you all!
Gary Bronziet Club Captain
Copies of the revised Rules of Golf Players Edition are available in the club house.
Well another year is almost over. I have just got used to writing 2018 and now its nearly 2019! We have had a fun filled action packed year at Abridge Ladies Section.
December has been a very busy month for Ladies Golf at Abridge. We stated with the Menorah cup to celebrate Chanukah. In a very closely run foursomes golf competition, the winners were Carol Gray and Carole Piper on a countback from Deborah Jacobs and Melanie Schlosberg. We were all treated to festive donuts.
Carol & Carole Menorah Cup Winners
Our fun Putting
Princess competition was won by Mandi Barker and Deborah Jacobs and our monthly
stableford golf competition was also won by Mandi, who played exceptionally
well despite the winter conditions.
Even though it is
very wet out at the moment our new Buggy Paths on the front nine at Abridge
Golf Club have made sure that everyone has been able to play whatever the
weather.
This week we ended the year with a fun filled Christmas themed fun competition and a prize for the best dressed trolley. My thanks to all the ladies who took the trouble to participate, and to our professional Jack Winer for judging the competition.
The Ladies set off to play
Everyone eagerly awaited his judgement and the winning entry went to Alison Levy who won a festive bottle of bubbly. However with the help of the Christmas Fairy all of our golfing ladies were winners resulting in a small gift for all who participated. This was followed by lunch with crackers and chocolate father Christmases and of course mince pies!
Alison with her best dressed trolley
We have enjoyed
some really great golf, some fun and great camaraderie. Abridge golfing ladies really
know how to enjoy themselves and love playing golf.
We have some very
exciting competitions planned for the New Year so we just have to hope that the
weather continues to be kind to us.
Wishing everyone
Happy Holidays and a great New Year.
Club Calendar This Sunday 28 October, we have the GOLD MEDAL event and a regular monthly medal for people that didn’t qualify for the GOLD MEDAL. All events from next weeks Club Calendar can be viewed here.
Captains Roll-up As an experiment, we will be having Captains “roll-up” (swindle) on Saturday 1st December. The 1st tee will be reserved between 8:00 – 9:30 am. To cater for people that like to play at different times, there will be 3 draws as follows:-
Tee off 8:00 – 8:30 am (draw to be made at 7:40 am)
Tee off 8:30 – 9:00 am (draw to be made at 8:10 am)
Tee off 9:00 – 9:30 am (draw to be made at 8:40 am)
Format will be Individual and Pairs stableford (with a twist). No need to book, just turn up on the day!
New Mobile App Great news! We will soon be releasing a new Members app for your iPhone and Android devices. You will be receiving details of how to install and register within the next week. This will allow you to :-
Check your handicap and handicap record
Check competition results and history
View your catering card account details and top up your account from your phone
View members details and create “friends” lists
View Club news
In the near future, we will also be implementing a new modernised club website, but more about that later!
Ladies London League Great news! Our ladies section finished top of the London League this season – which is a fantastic achievement considering the size of our ladies section.
Past Captains v Chigwell On Thursday a team of Abridge Past Captains (and some future past captains!) was victorious against a Past Captains team from Chigwell Golf club by 3 – 1.
Members Guests I am asked to remind members that the same guest can only play at Abridge six times a year in total. A record of such is kept in the Pro Shop.
Car Park Please note that when areas of the car park are roped off, this has been done for a reason and you are kindly requested not to park in roped off areas.
Correction A prize for the person who spotted the deliberate mistake in last weeks bulletin! The Festive Lunch for members and guests will be Sunday 16th December (not the 15th) !
Welcome to my first captain’s bulletin. I included my mugshot in case anyone has difficulty differentiating me from our past captain. I know for some people that’s a problem. Firstly, I am sure you will all join me in thanking past captainStuart Disdale for being such a great Captain and setting such a fine example. As I said at the “Drive in” on Sunday, he will be a hard act to follow, but I will do my best!
Thanks to all who attended my “Drive-in” and sharing the day with me. It was a great experience and hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. And thanks to everyone who helped make it such a great day, in particular to Lol Green for organising the competition and Brian Allsuch for taking the “official” pictures.
You can see the photos by clicking on the link below.
If you are a glutton for punishment, there is also a video – which includes the “song” in its entirety, complete with mistakes! Make sure you learn the words, as you are all expected to sing it, especially when dunking a ball in the pond on the second!
My Captain’s Away Day is booked for Wednesday, 15th May 2019 at West Herts Golf course. More details to follow, but please save the date in your diaries.
Well, that’s about all for my first bulletin. This weekend we have the Jack Stone Qualifiers. You can enter Saturday or Sunday (not both!). It’s a stableford competition off the white tees.
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