Dear Members,

Last week, I started advising you of changes that will come into effect on 3 September 2018, and this week, I would like to advise of two changes that you will notice on our course at the beginning of September.

Firstly, we will be changing the colour of our tees to align ourselves with international standards. Our back tee will change to yellow, our white tees will remain white, our yellow tees will now become blue tees and our front tees will remain red. There will no longer be men’s tees, ladies tees, senior tees and junior tees. Our four different tees will now be referred to as the Yellow Course, White Course, Blue Course and the Red Course. The other change that you will note is that we will only have two courses open on any given day. You will either be able to play the Yellow or Blue Course on some days, or the White Course or Red Course on other days. Next week, I will explain how your handicap will change when playing the different courses.

The other topic that I would like to share with you all this week is Slow Play. I would really appeal to all members to start playing “Ready Golf”. This has been adopted at a number of clubs around South Africa and is proving to be extremely successful. Also try putting out, instead of marking your ball between each putt.

Helpful tips for speed of play
These tips have nothing to do with rushing your play, but rather with simply being ready to play, and with using common sense and good etiquette on the course.

• Play “Ready Golf” – where order of play is based on whose ready, not on who’s away.
Use the time you spend getting to your ball to think about the next shot – the yardage, the club selection. When you reach your ball you’ll need less time to figure out the shot.

• Look ahead – NOT behind – Keep up.

• Take extra clubs – Never walk back and forth.

• Forget TV golf – Line up your shot/putt before your turn to play.

• Move and park the cart to the (next) tee side of the green.

• Get off the green and on to the next tee.
When leaving the green and returning to your golf cart, don’t stand there fussing with your putter or other clubs. Get in the cart, drive to the next tee, and then put away your putter.

Likewise, mark your scorecard after reaching the next tee, not while lingering on or near the just-completed green.

• If a ball is lost:
Don’t ask your playing partners to help you search for a lost ball – unless you are absolutely certain there is time for them to do so (e.g., there is no group behind waiting). If the course is crowded, your partners should continue moving forward, not slow things down further by stopping to help your search.

• Leave your cell phone in the car.

• If you lose your way – PICK UP! The next hole is a new start.

On a lighter side, I was fortunate to play in the Hellenic Day last weekend and the format was an Alliance with scrambled drives. What I did learn from this fun format is that I need to put some serious effort into my driving, or alternatively look for a sponsor of a high tech new technology driver. Although I was crunching my drives down the middle of the fairway, my playing partners always chose the drive that was 50-60m ahead of mine. The end result was that I shot 73 off 11, and went home feeling like a pro.

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The latest Rules and Regulations Edition 6 can be found on the website or by clicking here.