WOGA, continued from page 10
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were Alex Hack of Marlow, Faith Hopkins of Bartlesville, Emile Jackson of Edmond North, Joie Patterson of Chandler and Faith Stewart of Deer Creek. Go to www.woga.us to register online.. WOGA is excited about the 2019 season and the great venues for events. The highlight will be the 101st State Amateur Championship scheduled July 22-25 at Oak Tree Country Club on the East Course. The WOGA Stroke Play Championship will be held June 10-11 at Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville. Other events include the Stableford Partnership on April 29-30 at Lincoln Park and our Senior Championship will be May 20-21 at The Trails Golf Club. WOGA’s 69th Girls Junior State Championship is June 18-19 at Quail Creek. The age requirement has changed to include girls who will not have reached their 19th birthday on or before June 17, 2019. The annual WOGA Partnership will return to Shangri-La Resort on Aug. 19-20, and the season will conclude with the annual WOGA Cup on Sept.30-Oct.1 at Oakwood Country Club in Enid. For information about these tournaments, or the WOGA Junior Fundraiser Tournament, please visit our website at www. woga.us or call 918-760-4255.
New rules speed up play
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I think we are all going to be happy about the way the Rules provide the means to speed up play and, possibly, shave off some strokes. Let me explain. Rule 5 provides that a round of golf is meant to be played at a prompt pace. There is the strong suggestion that each player complete the stroke within 40 seconds after he becomes able to play without interference. Forty seconds is fair so look for Committees to use it in pace-of-play policies. The concept of “Ready Golf” is also approved. In match play, if you are ready and your opponent is still looking at yardage, agree among yourselves that you will play to save time. In stroke play, without regard to who is away, if you can safely play without distraction, you will proceed. Look at it as each player moving at his own pace rather than as a member of a group, each taking turns. Rule 13 applies to greens and it provides that the player is permitted to putt with the flagstick in the hole. Not only will this save the time of removing/replacing the flagstick, if left in the hole it will serve as a backstop for the moving ball. The pros got their first
OGA Rules Director
opportunity to leave the flagstick in at Hawaii and the general feeling was disbelief at how much it helped. It would be great to shave four of five strokes off your score and save time while doing so. Rule 17 pertains to “Penalty Areas.” The new term essentially covers what was called water hazards, but since the Penalty Area can include other spaces, the word “hazard” became obsolete. With the authority to include other spaces, such as extreme rough, they can mark such areas so that a player need not return to the spot of the previous shot for a lost ball, he will simply take relief where the ball crossed the margin into the Penalty Area. In this same respect, the Committee can adopt a Local Rule which provides relief for the player who does not play a provisional ball and then finds his original ball out of bounds or lost. Using this procedure, the player can create a forward relief area and does not have to return to the spot of the previous shot under stroke-and-distance. It will take some time for us to become familiar with the revised Rules. For help, go to the new rules guide at www.okgolf.org.
GOLF OKL AHOMA • APRIL/MAY 2019