Over the last few months there has been a rash of high-profile penalties called on players by television viewers, some of which have led to disqualifications because the players inadvertently signed incorrect scorecards before learning of the rules infractions. This past week Camilo Villegas on the PGA Tour and Padraig Harrington on the European Tour were both disqualified for rules violations that were reported after they signed their scorecards. Villegas tapped down a divot as his ball was rolling back down a slope toward the divot. Harrington replaced his ball on the green and the the ball rotated forward two dimples. Both players were gentlemen about the disqualifications, but it is getting to be ridiculous.
Tim Finchem, PGA Tour Commissioner, intends to ask the USGA to review the Rules of Golf, but he is not advocating that the penalty related to signing an incorrect card be changed.
He said he wants a “full and thorough review” of the rule, so golf officials can ask if there is a better way to penalize players. Interestingly, Finchem did acknowledge that the professional tours have a right to set their own rules for a tournament, but he would rather retain the USGA as the rule-making body.
One suggestion is to assess the two-stroke penalty even after the card has been signed, provided the player was not aware he had broken a rule, but not disqualify him. This creates some problems if it affects the cut line or the winner of the tournament, in addition to making a subjective determination as to whether the golfer knew or should have known that he violated a Rule of Golf, but it is clearly better than the present Rule. My suggestion is to retain the honor system among the players and not permit television viewers to call in rules infractions. If a golfer blatantly violates the Rules of Golf and does not report himself or herself or has a number of unreported, unknowing violations, suspend the golfer. If the unreported violations continue, then ban the golfer from the tour for a number of years or for life, after giving the golfer all of the due process protections that are appropriate before denying a person his or her livelihood.
Showing posts with label USGA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USGA. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Golf Lingo - Part 5
It is time once again for a fan favorite, "Golf Lingo". This is Part 5 of the series. "Golf Lingo - Part 4" was posted on January 20, 2010. If you click on the defined term you will link to the post in which it was used. Even if you cannot walk the walk with your golf game, if you can talk the talk you can hold your own at the bar after the round.
Blind Shot. A shot in which the golfer cannot see the intended target for that shot (e.g., over a hill, behind a line of trees, to an elevated green or out of a deep bunker).
Bump and Run. An approach shot to the green usually played with an 8-, 7- or 6-iron. The ball is typically played from the back of the stance, stays low and then runs up to or on the green.
Double Eagle. A double eagle is a score of three under par on an individual hole. Double eagles are more rare than holes-in-one. To record a double eagle, a golfer would have to make a hole-in-one on a par-4 hole or make a 2 on a par-5 hole.
Fringe. An area of grass immediately off of the putting surface and surrounding the green.. Generally, grass in the fringe is higher than on the fairway and green, but lower than the rough. Players often use their putters when their ball is on the fringe. See Texas wedge.
Gorse. Gorse is very thick, gnarly high rough, more similar to shrubbery than grass. It is oftentimes found on British and Scottish courses.
Grooves. The indentations on the face of all irons, which help to impart spin on the golf ball and help the ball get airborne. The groove controversy relates to the shape of the grooves ("u" or "v" shaped), the depth of the grooves and the distance between grooves and the sharpness of the grooves. Due in part to the grooves, professional golfers were able to impart sufficient spin on the ball from the rough to stop the ball on the green and even to spin the ball backward. The USGA and R&A are further regulating the grooves on irons to put more of a premium on hitting the ball in the fairway and penalizing a player that hits the ball in the rough. The driver does not have any grooves because the intention is to reduce spin so the ball flies longer.
Ground Your Club. Touching the head of the golf club to the ground behind the ball at address or before the forward swing. You may not ground your club in a hazard.
Handicap Differential. The difference between a player's adjusted gross score and the USGA Course Rating of the course on which the score was made, multiplied by 113, then divided by the Slope Rating from the tees played and rounded to the nearest tenth, e.g., 12.8.
Hiding in the Weeds Rule. A situation where your playing partner knows that you are about to play out-of-turn, thus violating Rule 10 of the Rules of Golf, and he allows you to commit the violation and based on the outcome of your shot, the playing partner either invokes the Rule and requires that you re-hit your shot or does not invoke the Rule and allows your shot to stand. Under the "Hiding in the Weeds Rule", the playing partner is deemed to have "unclean hands" and cannot invoke Rule 10.
Loose Impediment. From the Official Rules of Golf, "Loose impediments" are natural objects including: stones, leaves, twigs, branches and the like, dung, and worms and insects and casts or heaps made by them, provided they are not: fixed or growing, solidly embedded, or adhering to the ball. Sand and loose soil are loose impediments on the putting green, but not elsewhere. Snow and natural ice, other than frost, are either casual water or loose impediments, at the option of the player. Dew and frost are not loose impediments.
Perimeter Weighting. Invented by Karsten Solheim and made famous with the Ping Eye2 irons. The weight of the golf club is distributed more evenly around the club by moving more weight to the heel, toe and sole. Perimeter-weighted clubs are more forgiving for off-center hits for the average golfer. The professionals generally play "blades" where most of the weight is right behind the center of the clubface since they rarely hit off-center shots.
Stroke and Distance. The penalty imposed under USGA and R&A Rules for a lost ball or ball hit out-of-bounds. The player incurs the stroke for the lost ball or ball hit out-of-bounds, takes 1 penalty stroke and must make his third stroke from the same spot where the original ball was last played.
Thin. A mis-hit shot in which the clubhead strikes the ball near its midpoint or slighly lower. A thin shot generally travels lower and longer than anticipated.
Tiger Pelts. Also known as "beaver pelts"; these are large divots taken by a golfer, generally with his short irons. The tiger pelt probably emanates from the large divots that Tiger Woods used to take with all of his irons.
Tight Lie. Any lie in which your ball is sitting on bare dirt, very short grass or similar position in which there is very little grass beneath the golf ball.
Thank to About.com:Golf and the USGA Official Rules of Golf for some of these definitions.
Blind Shot. A shot in which the golfer cannot see the intended target for that shot (e.g., over a hill, behind a line of trees, to an elevated green or out of a deep bunker).
Bump and Run. An approach shot to the green usually played with an 8-, 7- or 6-iron. The ball is typically played from the back of the stance, stays low and then runs up to or on the green.
Double Eagle. A double eagle is a score of three under par on an individual hole. Double eagles are more rare than holes-in-one. To record a double eagle, a golfer would have to make a hole-in-one on a par-4 hole or make a 2 on a par-5 hole.
Fringe. An area of grass immediately off of the putting surface and surrounding the green.. Generally, grass in the fringe is higher than on the fairway and green, but lower than the rough. Players often use their putters when their ball is on the fringe. See Texas wedge.
Gorse. Gorse is very thick, gnarly high rough, more similar to shrubbery than grass. It is oftentimes found on British and Scottish courses.
Grooves. The indentations on the face of all irons, which help to impart spin on the golf ball and help the ball get airborne. The groove controversy relates to the shape of the grooves ("u" or "v" shaped), the depth of the grooves and the distance between grooves and the sharpness of the grooves. Due in part to the grooves, professional golfers were able to impart sufficient spin on the ball from the rough to stop the ball on the green and even to spin the ball backward. The USGA and R&A are further regulating the grooves on irons to put more of a premium on hitting the ball in the fairway and penalizing a player that hits the ball in the rough. The driver does not have any grooves because the intention is to reduce spin so the ball flies longer.
Ground Your Club. Touching the head of the golf club to the ground behind the ball at address or before the forward swing. You may not ground your club in a hazard.
Handicap Differential. The difference between a player's adjusted gross score and the USGA Course Rating of the course on which the score was made, multiplied by 113, then divided by the Slope Rating from the tees played and rounded to the nearest tenth, e.g., 12.8.
Hiding in the Weeds Rule. A situation where your playing partner knows that you are about to play out-of-turn, thus violating Rule 10 of the Rules of Golf, and he allows you to commit the violation and based on the outcome of your shot, the playing partner either invokes the Rule and requires that you re-hit your shot or does not invoke the Rule and allows your shot to stand. Under the "Hiding in the Weeds Rule", the playing partner is deemed to have "unclean hands" and cannot invoke Rule 10.
Loose Impediment. From the Official Rules of Golf, "Loose impediments" are natural objects including: stones, leaves, twigs, branches and the like, dung, and worms and insects and casts or heaps made by them, provided they are not: fixed or growing, solidly embedded, or adhering to the ball. Sand and loose soil are loose impediments on the putting green, but not elsewhere. Snow and natural ice, other than frost, are either casual water or loose impediments, at the option of the player. Dew and frost are not loose impediments.
Perimeter Weighting. Invented by Karsten Solheim and made famous with the Ping Eye2 irons. The weight of the golf club is distributed more evenly around the club by moving more weight to the heel, toe and sole. Perimeter-weighted clubs are more forgiving for off-center hits for the average golfer. The professionals generally play "blades" where most of the weight is right behind the center of the clubface since they rarely hit off-center shots.
Stroke and Distance. The penalty imposed under USGA and R&A Rules for a lost ball or ball hit out-of-bounds. The player incurs the stroke for the lost ball or ball hit out-of-bounds, takes 1 penalty stroke and must make his third stroke from the same spot where the original ball was last played.
Thin. A mis-hit shot in which the clubhead strikes the ball near its midpoint or slighly lower. A thin shot generally travels lower and longer than anticipated.
Tiger Pelts. Also known as "beaver pelts"; these are large divots taken by a golfer, generally with his short irons. The tiger pelt probably emanates from the large divots that Tiger Woods used to take with all of his irons.
Tight Lie. Any lie in which your ball is sitting on bare dirt, very short grass or similar position in which there is very little grass beneath the golf ball.
Thank to About.com:Golf and the USGA Official Rules of Golf for some of these definitions.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
I Love My Ping Eye 2 Clubs
I do not want to get embroiled in the new groove rule and risk a lawsuit from Phil Mickelson, but I am interested in the legal twist. Ping (or Karsten Manufacturing Corporation as it is legally known) is an icon in Arizona. According to legend, Karsten Solheim started Ping out of his garage and first invented the Anser putter and then the cavity-backed, perimeter weighted golf club, which was a great boon to the amateur golfer. Unlike the "blade" golf club used by professional golfers at the time, the cavity-backed, perimeter-weighted club was much more forgiving of "off center" shots and "thin" shots because more weight was at the base and perimeter of the club. Ping irons also used square grooves, rather than the standard v-shaped grooves (or more precisely, wider grooves and less distance between grooves), which was meaningless for the weekend golfer, but made a huge difference for the PGA Tour players because the width and location of the square grooves allowed the player to impart significantly more spin on the golf ball, especially from the rough areas. In my humble opinion, the Ping Eye 2 golf club is the greatest golf club ever made. I still have my original pre-1990 Ping Eye 2 golf clubs, which I gave to SO and she somehow lost my 7-iron!
In the late 1980s Mark Calcavecchia, a Phoenix resident, was one of the first PGA professionals to endorse and use Ping irons. Calcavecchia finished in the top 10 money winners for four consecutive years from 1987 through 1990. But even more impressive, Calcavecchia could spin his ball like no one's business, whether from the fairway or the rough. Calcavecchia was not the straightest driver on the Tour, but it did not matter in most PGA Tour events because he was still able to spin the ball from the rough. In 1987, Mark Calcavecchia won the Honda Classic hitting an 8-iron shot from the rough that miraculously stopped on the green. The USGA and PGA Tour were apoplectic and tried to outlaw the Ping Eye 2 clubs.
In August 1987 Ping filed a lawsuit against the USGA and Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Phoenix. Ping later filed a $100 million antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Ping was a relatively small Arizona company represented by a local Arizona law firm, O'Connor Cavanagh, against the giant USGA and PGA. The USGA suit was settled 1n 1990 about a week before the trial was set to start. As part of the settlement, the USGA agreed to drop its ban on the use of Ping Eye 2 irons and Ping agreed to stop producing the Ping Eye 2 iron with the "non-conforming" grooves and begin producing a club with conforming grooves and (this is where the "aw shucks" small-town lawyer snookered the big city lawyer) any Ping Eye 2 iron produced before April 1, 1990 was grandfathered and would forever be deemed legal under the Rules of Golf.
Fast-forward to 2010 and the "New Groove Rule". Phil Mickelson creates an uproar on the PGA Tour when he decides to pull out his old Ping Eye 2 wedges from his Arizona State University days and the "forever be deemed legal under the Rules of Golf" settlement language comes back to bite the USGA and PGA Tour on the butt. In the original lawsuit Ping claimed that it was trying to protect all of the golfers that purchased Ping Eye 2 golf clubs believing that they were conforming. I am hopeful that John Solheim, the President of Ping and the son of Karsten Solheim, will magnanimously agree to waive the "forever legal" provisions of the settlement agreement for professional tournaments, but that the original settlement agreement will still apply to those amateurs that continue to use their beloved Ping Eye 2 clubs.
In the late 1980s Mark Calcavecchia, a Phoenix resident, was one of the first PGA professionals to endorse and use Ping irons. Calcavecchia finished in the top 10 money winners for four consecutive years from 1987 through 1990. But even more impressive, Calcavecchia could spin his ball like no one's business, whether from the fairway or the rough. Calcavecchia was not the straightest driver on the Tour, but it did not matter in most PGA Tour events because he was still able to spin the ball from the rough. In 1987, Mark Calcavecchia won the Honda Classic hitting an 8-iron shot from the rough that miraculously stopped on the green. The USGA and PGA Tour were apoplectic and tried to outlaw the Ping Eye 2 clubs.
In August 1987 Ping filed a lawsuit against the USGA and Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Phoenix. Ping later filed a $100 million antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Ping was a relatively small Arizona company represented by a local Arizona law firm, O'Connor Cavanagh, against the giant USGA and PGA. The USGA suit was settled 1n 1990 about a week before the trial was set to start. As part of the settlement, the USGA agreed to drop its ban on the use of Ping Eye 2 irons and Ping agreed to stop producing the Ping Eye 2 iron with the "non-conforming" grooves and begin producing a club with conforming grooves and (this is where the "aw shucks" small-town lawyer snookered the big city lawyer) any Ping Eye 2 iron produced before April 1, 1990 was grandfathered and would forever be deemed legal under the Rules of Golf.
Fast-forward to 2010 and the "New Groove Rule". Phil Mickelson creates an uproar on the PGA Tour when he decides to pull out his old Ping Eye 2 wedges from his Arizona State University days and the "forever be deemed legal under the Rules of Golf" settlement language comes back to bite the USGA and PGA Tour on the butt. In the original lawsuit Ping claimed that it was trying to protect all of the golfers that purchased Ping Eye 2 golf clubs believing that they were conforming. I am hopeful that John Solheim, the President of Ping and the son of Karsten Solheim, will magnanimously agree to waive the "forever legal" provisions of the settlement agreement for professional tournaments, but that the original settlement agreement will still apply to those amateurs that continue to use their beloved Ping Eye 2 clubs.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
USGA Handicap Index
Notwithstanding my poor play recently, it is time to get serious about getting a USGA Handicap Index. The purpose of a USGA Handicap Index is to permit golfers of all levels to compete on an equitable basis. In addition to posting your 18-hole scores, in order to properly calculate your USGA Handicap Index, you need to post the course rating and slope rating. This allows golfers to match handicaps on an apples-to-apples basis taking into account the difficulty of the courses played and the course on which you are competing. The handicap system is also supposed to discourage "sandbagging". But most importantly, you need a USGA (or R&A) handicap index to play at St. Andrews!
The first step to obtain a USGA handicap index is to join a licensed golf club. This does not mean that you have to become a member at a private country club. I probably should not hold my breath for an invitation to join Portmarnock Golf Club or Phoenix Country Club. The USGA, through its state organizations, licenses its member clubs (both private and public golf courses) to use the USGA Handicap System. You can search on-line to see if your club is a USGA Handicap System licensed club. You can also form your own club! The USGA Handicap System manual, which explains all procedures, can be purchased for $3.00 plus shipping through the USGA Order Department (Golf House, P.O. Box 708 , Far Hills , New Jersey 07931 ).
You have to post at least 5 18-hole scores to get a USGA handicap index. Once you post 20 scores, your Handicap Index is calculated using your 10 best scores, relative to the Course Rating and Slope Rating. The Handicap Index is not your average score for 18-holes, but measures your top performance by discarding ten of your last 20 scores. Your Handicap Index also factors in Course Rating and Slope Rating.
Course Rating is the USGA's determination of the playing difficulty of a course for a scratch golfer under normal course and weather conditions. It is based in part on the length of a course, the difficulty of the putting greens and other factors that affect a scratch golfer's scoring ability. Bogey Rating is the USGA's determination of the playing difficulty of a course for a bogey golfer under normal course and weather conditions. And Slope Rating is determined using the following formula: Bogey Rating minus Course Rating multiplied by (5.381 men, 4.24 women). For example, Pine Valley Golf Club in Pine Valley, New Jersey, is consistently ranked as one of the very best and most difficult golf courses in the United States. From the regular tees, the course rating is 72.7, the bogey rating is 101.2 and the slope rating is 153. The highest slope rating under the USGA Handicap System is 155! You can check the Course Rating, Bogey Rating and Slope Rating for any USGA member club at this site. For some reason, when I search certain clubs the site only shows the women's ratings and not the men's ratings. I wonder if the USGA is trying to tell me something!
I am off to play Sim Golf at Bunker Indoor Golf and Training Center. I will report to my followers tomorrow. I wonder if I can include my score for purposes of calculating my USGA handicap index?
The first step to obtain a USGA handicap index is to join a licensed golf club. This does not mean that you have to become a member at a private country club. I probably should not hold my breath for an invitation to join Portmarnock Golf Club or Phoenix Country Club. The USGA, through its state organizations, licenses its member clubs (both private and public golf courses) to use the USGA Handicap System. You can search on-line to see if your club is a USGA Handicap System licensed club. You can also form your own club! The USGA Handicap System manual, which explains all procedures, can be purchased for $3.00 plus shipping through the USGA Order Department (Golf House, P.O. Box 708 , Far Hills , New Jersey 07931 ).
You have to post at least 5 18-hole scores to get a USGA handicap index. Once you post 20 scores, your Handicap Index is calculated using your 10 best scores, relative to the Course Rating and Slope Rating. The Handicap Index is not your average score for 18-holes, but measures your top performance by discarding ten of your last 20 scores. Your Handicap Index also factors in Course Rating and Slope Rating.
Course Rating is the USGA's determination of the playing difficulty of a course for a scratch golfer under normal course and weather conditions. It is based in part on the length of a course, the difficulty of the putting greens and other factors that affect a scratch golfer's scoring ability. Bogey Rating is the USGA's determination of the playing difficulty of a course for a bogey golfer under normal course and weather conditions. And Slope Rating is determined using the following formula: Bogey Rating minus Course Rating multiplied by (5.381 men, 4.24 women). For example, Pine Valley Golf Club in Pine Valley, New Jersey, is consistently ranked as one of the very best and most difficult golf courses in the United States. From the regular tees, the course rating is 72.7, the bogey rating is 101.2 and the slope rating is 153. The highest slope rating under the USGA Handicap System is 155! You can check the Course Rating, Bogey Rating and Slope Rating for any USGA member club at this site. For some reason, when I search certain clubs the site only shows the women's ratings and not the men's ratings. I wonder if the USGA is trying to tell me something!
I am off to play Sim Golf at Bunker Indoor Golf and Training Center. I will report to my followers tomorrow. I wonder if I can include my score for purposes of calculating my USGA handicap index?
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