End of season competitions still running
October 22, 2010
The late fall marks the traditional end of the golf season in the Cape Region, and so the competitive events at the local clubs are also coming to a conclusion.
On September 12 the Nine-Hole Ladies Golf group at Sussex Pines Country Club held one of its last Ladies’ Day events for this year, with a straightforward gross and net tournament.
Cass Hall took first place in the first flight gross category, followed by Lynn Sullivan. First flight net honors went to Betty DeBoer, with second place going to Ellen Sobieski.
In the second flight, Louise Byrd won first place in the gross category, with Judy Freed taking second place. Linda Lewis won the net competition in the second flight, followed by Carmela Coleman.
Coleman also won the low putt competition, with a mere twelve putts among the nine holes. Perhaps she should be offering to give lessons in chipping.
Sussex Pines CC also held its final Friday Night Mixer event for 2010, on October 15. Fourteen teams participated, with seven playing the front nine and seven playing the back nine.
Cass and Joe Hall won first place on the front nine, along with Louise and Jack Boyd. Sue and Primo Toccafondi finished in second place, tied with Judy and Blase Gavlick.
On the back nine, Anne and Buck Emory took first place honors, tied with Mary Berl and Scott Lanham. Second place went to Carol and Tom Love, along with Laraine and Barry Kasprow.
Resist the temptation
Golfers who have a tendency to hook their tee shots when they least expect it have good reason to be wary of the eleventh hole at Shawnee Country Club.
The 424-yard par 4 (a par 5 from the red and green tees) is long, straight, and bordered on the left by the back yard lots of Shawnee Acres. This out-of-bounds area can sometimes be remarkably alluring to a tee shot that is struck with more verve than accuracy.
When that happens, the already unhappy golfer may be tempted to take a swing at their golf ball lying just over the line, in hopes that no one will notice, instead of trudging back to the tee box with a stroke and distance penalty.
If anyone else does notice, however, the Rules of Golf take a dim view of this form of cheating, as emphasized in a recent USGA Ruling of the Day.
As the USGA notes in this situation, “A ball lying out of bounds is no longer in play and thus is a wrong ball….”
By definition any ball out of bounds is not considered a “Ball in Play”. Furthermore, the Rules definition for “Wrong Ball” includes the player’s ball when it is officially no longer the “ball in play”.
If this infraction took place during a match play contest, the player would lose the hole. In a stroke play event, the player first incurs a two-stroke penalty. Then, the player has to finish the hole, by taking the original stroke and distance penalty that he was trying to avoid in the first place.
There’s also the social outcast penalty to be avoided, so one is best advised to resist this particular temptation.
Wrote too soon
A few columns ago, I mentioned that my golfing rounds in October are often among my better ones of the year. I surmised that many other Cape Region golfers shared that experience in September and October.
Naturally, this being golf, my actual experience since writing that column has not matched up with that past reality.
I now plan to just shut up about it and hope for the best, especially during the club’s closing breakfast tournament that’s coming up soon.