A field of 64 completed for the trophy - the 2012 holder was John Cummins.
The winner
Terry McAuliffe (16) score 41 points
r/u
Bill Morton (28) score 39 points
There has been a large improvement in carts driving on the fairways. Almost without exception few member carts are observed being driven on the fairways and near the greens. Thank you. Casual golfers are still seen to ignore the advice signs and we are thinking of different and more ways to remind them.
We have 6 golfers who have accepted an invitation and volunteered to review the stroke index of the holes on the course.
A simple (an over simple) explanation for the terms:
The par for a hole is what a scratch golfer on a normal day would expect to score on the hole.
The par for the course is what a scratch golfer could go around the course in on an average day.
It's more complicated than that of course and involves the length of the hole and many other factors, such as the relative elevation through the hole, obstacles and suchlike.
The stroke index. Each hole has a relative difficulty, for example there are easy par 4s (that could be our 1st) and harder par 4s (e.g. our 17th) and this relative difficulty is different for players of different handicaps. For example, a player on a higher handicap of say 32 may not clear the water hazard on the 1st in normal circumstances, but a player, on say 18, can. In setting the stroke index for each hole (commonly) it is set for players of all handicaps as our one is.
When a player has a handicap of 0 or scratch or 18 or 36 there is no problem as they get 0, 1 or 2 shots per hole spread over the round equally, however where a player has a handicap of say 10 or 28 the stroke index becomes important as it 'gives' shots on some holes and not others.
The idea is to be as equitable to all golfers on all handicaps. A tall order. The relative difficulty of each hole for golfers on all handicaps can be found quite easily from the statistics of competitions played on the course. However it is not quite so simple. An extract from an email I sent recently to a member illustrates one of the problems.
"Based on a pure statistical analysis of scores on each hole the asymmetry of easy and difficult holes at our course means that we end up with a stroke index that reflects that difficulty - without favour, i.e. some of the hardest holes are at the end on the round for example and so have a stroke index that reflects that. During my time at the club the sequence in which we play each hole has been changed once and the stroke index changed several times. "
Our new course rating/slope has yet to be received from the NSW Golf Association but independent of that we can look at the order in which strokes are given on different holes. The USGA on its website has excellent reference material and details some suggestions and guidelines on how the stroke index can be determined. The slope is a measure of how our course par rates against other courses for bogey golfers (those around 18 handicap or so). So the idea here is that when we play on another course our handicap can be modified rated on the degree of difficulty our course has for a bogey golfer versus how difficult their course is rated the same way. eg Our course could be easy for a bogey golfer whereas another course could be difficult for a bogey golfer. So that means when we play there our handicap in calculation will be higher. The whole idea is to be equitable so that golfers can play against other golfers of different handicaps derived from different courses. It may all seem a bit esoteric but this subject of handicapping and the stroke index as well as the slope rating does and will produce vigorous debate now and into the future.
So my thanks to those gentlemen who are about to work on this. It's not easy but I have full confidence that this task will be taken on with a determination and ability that the task deserves.
It should be noted that this drop zone is only for relief from the immovable obstruction not for relief in conjunction with any other rule, i.e. it is not a drop zone if one takes an 'unplayable lie' or if one falls foul of the 'water hazard'. A drop zone for those rules in this situation would have to be defined under a local rule relevant to Rule 28 and Rule 26.
There is, of course, no line of play relief for immovable obstructions, that option is only for temporary immovable obstructions. The nets are not.
As said by Gardner Dickinson - "They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that."
all the best
Kevin