Got a member who is stymied by an error on their scorecard? You could give them time to fix it thanks to a Rules of Golf clarification…
This article is part of GCMA Insights – topical content for golf industry professionals, discussing the things that matter to those who work in golf clubs.
Who hasn’t done it? It could be oversight, being in a rush, or just a bit of stupidity, we’ve all made scorecard mistakes and paid the price.
It doesn’t feel good. Yes, there is always the argument: you’ve only got one job. But in an age where a lot of scores are now submitted digitally – whether that’s through apps or on a computer – players can say they feel a little hard done by if they made an administrative error on a piece of paper.
And no manager, pro, or member of the committee relishes being the one to tell them they’re going be disqualified.
You might not remember what happened to Jordan Spieth at the Genesis Invitational last year. But it has now brought about a big change in the game, which could affect you at your clubs.
Spieth was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard – he’d certified a 3 instead of a 4 at the par 3 4th hole, and while he thought he’d shot 72, he’d made 73.
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Because the number he’d put his moniker on was lower than he’d actually scored, he’d breached Rule 3.3b (3) and the penalty for that is an early bath.
Internet rules watchers obviously didn’t think that was fair, and they weren’t the only ones. Fast forward to June and the PGA Tour, along with the DP World Tour, brought in a change to their terms of competition.
It was an amendment to what counted as a “scorecard returned” and provided players with a 15-minute window to correct any errors on their card – even if they had left the scoring area.
Once that time had passed, the scorecard was classed as in. “In general,” the body said, “all players will have the ability to correct an error within this 15-minute period which may have previously resulted in a penalty or disqualification”.
What does that have to do with you? Well, the Rules of Golf now allow your club to bring in their own version of this policy if they wish.
The latest quarterly clarifications to the rules have added extra guidance into the committee procedures.
‘Section 5A (5) – When Scorecard Has Been Returned’ says a committee or competition organiser has the “option of adopting a time-based policy when specifying when the scorecard has been returned”.
With the Rules allowing for a policy that uses a duration of time to define when a scorecard is returned, the guidance says “such policies allow a player to return to the defined scoring area and correct a scorecard mistake within that duration of time, but do not change the requirement for the player to promptly proceed to the scoring area after they finish their round”.
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Clubs that want to use such a policy are advised to determine how much time they want to allow, and when it begins, “such as when: the player left the defined scoring area, the group completed their last hole of the round, or the player’s scorecard was entered into an electronic scoring system”.
This will add to the options clubs have, with a Local Rule already available that allows committees to reduce the penalty from disqualification to two strokes if a scorecard hasn’t been “certified” by a player or marker.
It remains to be seen how many will actually take up this new option to give players time, but for every committee member who has ever had to DQ somebody for a silly mistake, or been approached in pleading fashion by a player only to have to turn them down and boot them out of the event, it’s certainly something to think about.
This article is part of GCMA Insights – topical content for golf industry professionals, discussing the things that matter to those who work in golf clubs.
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