11/12/18 - SCGA Rules Workshop

Zoikes!  There are a lot of rule changes!

Some of the big ones:
You can putt with the flagstick in.
You can ground your club in a bunker.
You can remove loose impediments in a bunker.
No penalty for accidentally moving your ball while searching for it.


More details to follow, more info here:

http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules-hub/rules-modernization/major-changes/major-changes.html

11/3/2018 - Rancho Bernardo Inn (Club Championship)

We had our Club Championship today.  I was not in contention on the first tee, and was less so with each successive hole.

The greens are pretty speedy at RBI compared to what I'm used to.


On #1, I putted off the green from the back of the green with my third stroke.  The ball was nestled down, but since I was just off the green, so I chose to use my putter again for my fourth stroke.  The ball popped into the air and my putter hit the ball a second time, and it went into the hole.  Per Rule 14-4, that's a one-stroke penalty.  But I wasn't sure if I had to replay it or anything.  Nope.  I scored a 5 on the hole.

Our club offers a prize in each tourney for low putts.  Our rules for that are fair, and probably pretty standard:

• Putts are counted from your first putt on the green.  So if your putt rolls off the green, then your next shot still counts as a putt (even if you don't use a putter).
• It does not count as a putt if you use your putter from off the green (if you have not yet been on that green).

The committee decided that the penalty stroke did not count as a putt.  I wasn't in contention for low putts anyway.

Double-contact is not a penalty starting in 2019.