Winter Rules?

[HomerJSimpson]

I see where Gary is coming from but to be honest if them is the rules and if I can find a good lie then why not take advantage. Of course there's a law of diminishing Homer returns that often dictates that as soon as winter rules and pick and place arrives my driving goes to pot and so becomes of no use to me in the rough

 

[Deleted member 18588]

Teeing up ?!

Never witnessed a club teeing up on fairways ?

Something we had to do in many parts of the country in the summer of '76. (talk about showing my age!)

 

[garyinderry]

Would rather they close the course

Happens at my course in Ireland. I didnt take advantage and hit driver for 2nd shots on par 5s like many others do during the winter league. Didn't seem right to me. I put the tee right into ground. I take bit mahoosvie divots so it made next to no difference to me. Other times I won't even bother teeing it up.

Its still much better than carrying around a mat or moving to the semi as that ruins the angle to the green on the approach.

 

[garyinderry]

As an aside, my course back home is a workhorse, a lot of great work done on drainage. Hardly ever closed, only for ice, rarely for being sodden.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Happens at my course in Ireland. I didnt take advantage and hit driver for 2nd shots on par 5s like many others do during the winter league. Didn't seem right to me. I put the tee right into ground. I take bit mahoosvie divots so it made next to no difference to me. Other times I won't even bother teeing it up.

Its still much better than carrying around a mat or moving to the semi as that ruins the angle to the green on the approach.

Being able to tee it up and then hit another driver is wrong - thought golfers would have the self restraint to not do that

Had to use mats in Cyprus

 

[delc]

If you play golf in the winter, the ball flies less far through the air, there is less run on the fairways, and the ball is prone to picking up mud. Allowing lift clean and place just about compensates for these factors, so no reason why you can't run qualifiers during the winter. Our club does!

 

[duncan mackie]

just to tidy up a few more misconceptions (Foxy only picked up some!)

1. the biggest reason for the standard 'winter rules' is to enable players to clean mud off their ball; this is especially true on the tour but equally true at most understanding clubs. For clay based courses this can be a must to enable any reasonable golf - when every ball on the apron and fringe has a chunk of clay attached the game becomes a bad joke. As this doesn't happen in the summer (much) it's more of a leveling than improving factor!
2. CONGU, through the local golf unions, effectively police the use of such local rules (just to keep Gary happy ) and fulfil this through a generally permitted period and club specific approval to any periods outside this (in rare situations they can offer a blanket extension).
3. No 2 has led some clubs to simply apply the LR during the permitted period

A better LR is to use the lift clean and replace option provided; unfortunately people (generally) don't understand this one and have difficulty cleaning a ball and putting it back in exactly the same poor lie.....on the one hand, and get confused with the rule in place at most other clubs - so it doesn't get used.

There can be an element of course protection in that if the ball is placed on a tuft of grass many will sweep it (relatively cleanly) off the surface - obviously that doesn't apply to forum players who will still be hitting their 190 yd 8 irons with appropriate divots

And then there's the extension of 25-2 to include through the green areas - many would argue that this should always apply (to me there's an obvious logic that if a ball embeds TTG the R&A suggest the rule should be in place (and is permitted to be in place as it's outside the CONGU preferred lies restrictions) so why not just have it in place (I know the argument is that it would be accidentally abused....

Anyhow back to the introduction of winter rules - where I play it gets decided by the Course Manager, Director of Golf and me :thup:

 

[Foxholer]

I'm sure you will agree that it is not proper golf when clubs implement teeing up during winter. your club may not but many do.

A Local Rule requiring or allowing 'teeing up' would make any competition Non-Qualifying! That's the first I've ever heard of an established club requiring teeing up. I've seen it on 1 course that had been converted from a 9 to an 18 hole layout and teeing up or move to semi was allowed/recommended.

Imo, Winter Rules, as per the samples, are a reasonable compromise that allow Qualifying comps to be held throughout the year while making the comp 'fair' for everyone.

 

[garyinderry]

All comps during winter all non-qualifying. Last one was two weeks ago afaik. Always has been. Its done to protect the course. It does get wet up in the north west of Ireland for 6months. The course is still very much playable all year.

 

[fundy]

Went into place on monday at ours for the mnidweek medal - utterly laughable in that the course is in desperate need of rain as its currently getting burnt out in several spots!!

We play qualifiers all winter, with winter rules, would be pretty unhappy if we didnt and the course is fully playable, it hardly makes that much difference just allows you to clean mud off and the greenskeepers to leave the fairways a touch longer

 

[Foxholer]

All comps during winter all non-qualifying. Last one was two weeks ago afaik. Always has been. Its done to protect the course. It does get wet up in the north west of Ireland for 6months. The course is still very much playable all year.

Course very much playable, but no qualifiers? No real sense imo. How does not playing qualifying comps - but perhaps playing non-qualifying ones? - protect the course?

Different if they use mainly temporary greens (or any with the bucket holes). But simply playing off (measured) forward tees is no reason either imo!

 

[Oddsocks]

Anyhow back to the introduction of winter rules - where I play it gets decided by the Course Manager, Director of Golf and me :thup:

Sounds lie a decision that's made on the first tee of a bounce game

 

[HawkeyeMS]

All comps during winter all non-qualifying. Last one was two weeks ago afaik. Always has been. Its done to protect the course. It does get wet up in the north west of Ireland for 6months. The course is still very much playable all year.

If the course is playable, there should be qualifiers. Maybe not as many but not playing qualifiers in the winter with no good reason is just wrong IMHO.

 

[delc]

in fact i wish we had been on them last Sat.... was in the biggest divot i've ever seen, luckily i topped it or it would have been twice the size if id got club on it

The best way to get out of a divot hole is to hit down on the ball and try to create an even bigger divot hole. Surely two shallow divot holes are better than one really deep one! In any case golfers should replace divots in the fairways.

 

[patricks148]

The best way to get out of a divot hole is to hit down on the ball and try to create an even bigger divot hole. Surely two shallow divot holes are better than one really deep one! In any case golfers should replace divots in the fairways.

yes, not with the size of that one, at least 3 inches deep. The only way i would be able to get it out would have been able to go sideways... straight into the deepest rough on the course

 

[Ads749r]

The way I see it is that if a club changes to winter rules on the same date every year then it takes confusion out of when winter rules is. It opens it up to too many questions getting asked by players not knowing is it winter rules or not whilst stood in the fairway. 1 simple rule that was probably voted in by bickering old men anyway.

 

[garyinderry]

Course very much playable, but no qualifiers? No real sense imo. How does not playing qualifying comps - but perhaps playing non-qualifying ones? - protect the course?

Different if they use mainly temporary greens (or any with the bucket holes). But simply playing off (measured) forward tees is no reason either imo!

Maybe 'they don't get a big enough turn out for comps in winter. There is usually a sweep on a Saturday and turkey comp on a Sunday. The weather can get pretty grim. I've seen some results of sweeps with very few players.

I think everyone is happy enough to play winter leagues, spring leagues and turkey comps and wait til the good weather to come back around to play qualifying comps.


I will ask the handicap sec next time I see him. He will probably says there is hardly enough light at times to run full comps and do you want to play in that weather?

 

[duncan mackie]

Maybe 'they don't get a big enough turn out for comps in winter. There is usually a sweep on a Saturday and turkey comp on a Sunday. The weather can get pretty grim. I've seen some results of sweeps with very few players.

I think everyone is happy enough to play winter leagues, spring leagues and turkey comps and wait til the good weather to come back around to play qualifying comps.


I will ask the handicap sec next time I see him. He will probably says there is hardly enough light at times to run full comps and do you want to play in that weather?

such arguments have significant credit if you no longer schedule competitions, but fail dismally if you still run them but designate them NQ !!!

note - technically if there is no CONGU rules reason they aren't Q comps it's against CONGU policy to run them as NQ at all :thup:

 

[delc]

yes, not with the size of that one, at least 3 inches deep. The only way i would be able to get it out would have been able to go sideways... straight into the deepest rough on the course

Divot holes usually point approximately towards the hole, so don't understand why you had to play out of one sideways!

 

[6inchcup]

we play comps in winter but we have a winter h/c,we also dont play shots from the fairways unless using a mat if no mat drop in first cut ,cant see a problem with that and know a lot of courses do this.
Winter is out of season for golf and most golfers pick and chose when they play short days mean we play less,winter temp greens mean the greens will be in pristine condition come summer,what would we sooner have churned up fairways and damaged greens or close courses for 4 months completely or be sensible and play a slightly different game for the good of the course.