Tournaments and Rules

Rules

  1. Local Rules
    • Environmentally Sensitive Areas: These are identified as penalty areas with a green top. Do not enter. Drop with a one stroke penalty.
    • Staked Trees, Flower Beds, French Drains, Internal Fences and other Man-made Objects: If swing or stance is impeded, free relief. Drop within one clublength of nearest point of relief.
    • If the ball is lost or out-of-bounds, re-play a provisional OR for a two stroke penalty, find the nearest spot on the fairway and drop a ball. (Model rule E-5)
    • MAX score of "4 over par" on every hole to help with speed of play (7-8-9 rule).
    • Inadvertent breach of rules will result in a score of MAX on that hole.
    • Free relief for a sprinkler head around a green:
      1. The sprinkler head must be on or within two club-lengths of the putting green; and
      2. The sprinkler head must be within two club-lengths of the ball; and
      3. The sprinkler head must intervene on the line of play between the ball and the hole.
    • Provisional Ball for Ball in Penalty Area (Model Rule B-3): Usually under Rule 18.3, a player is not allowed to play a ball provisionally if it is known or virtually certain that their ball is in a penalty area. But in unusual cases, the player cannot see whether the ball is in the penalty area; it would unreasonably delay play if the player had to go forward to look for the ball.
      Local Rule: In such situations, the player may play a provisional ball under penalty of stroke and distance.
      1. If the original ball is found outside the penalty area, the player must continue play with the original ball and must not play the provisional ball.
      2. If the original ball is not found within the three-minute search time or is known or virtually certain to be in the penalty area, the player may:
        • Continue to play the original ball as it lies in the penalty area. All strokes with the provisional ball do not count.
        • OR; Continue to play the provisional ball, in which case the original ball must not be played.
      Note: If you use this option, you lose the ability to take a drop for the original ball from the penalty area.
    • Everyone will play to a maximum Handicap Index of 26.
    • Other Local Rules: Please see local scorecard for a list of all other local rules.
  2. Pace of play
    • The scorecard shows suggested time of finish for each hole.
    • Please write your actual finish time on each hole.
    • At the minimum please keep up with the group in front of you.
    • Maximum search time for a ball is 3 minutes. If lost, use out-of-bounds local rule below.
    • To avoid risk of playing the wrong ball, please mark you ball and identify the marking before starting your round or hole.
  3. Scoring
    • Please make sure you enter your scores in the GolfGenius app after each hole. If you have trouble signing in to the app, use your group GGID printed on your scorecard.
    • You also need to fill out the official paper scorecard. After the round, hand over or send a picture of the scorecard to ofgc.officers@gmail.com
  4. Winter Rules
    • When ground conditions warrant, the committee may declare "Winter Rules" in effect for a tournament.
    • Under Winter Rules, free relief is allowed from all bare ground areas anywhere on the course (other than bunkers and penalty areas). Lift, Clean and Replace within one scorecard length, no closer to the hole.
    • If your ball is in water in a bunker: Drop a new ball within one club-length of the nearest point of complete relief no nearer the hole; OR
      If relief is not available no-nearer the hole, take maximum available relief (i.e. can be nearer the hole but in the bunker); OR
      Take a one-stroke penalty and drop the ball outside the bunker.
    • If your ball on the green and there is water on the green interfering with your line of play: Replace the ball on the nearest point of complete relief no nearer the hole ( The new point may or may not be on the green).

Schedule and Format

  1. The club strives to play one tournament every month. The details and location are announced about one month before each tournament.
  2. In the event of extreme weather conditions, an event might be cancelled or postponed. The decision will be made by the Tournament Committee and communicated to all members.
  3. The majority of tournaments will be net stroke play events.

Flights

  1. Flights in golf tournaments are used to group players based on their skill levels or handicaps. This system ensures fair competition by allowing players to compete against others with similar abilities.
  2. There will be two flights for every tournament: Lower handicap players will play in the Rye flight and higher handicap players will play in the Bourbon flight.
  3. If there are 8 players or less in a tournament, the flights will be combined (i.e. no flights).
  4. For each tournament, the handicap cutoff between the two flights will be the midpoint of all players' handicap indexes. This might results in some players playing in different flights from tournament to tournament. However, this will ensure that the competition remains balanced and fair.

Prizes

  1. Following prizes will be awarded for each tournament:
    • Lowest gross finisher across all flights.
    • Top 2 (lowest net) finishers in each flight, excluding the lowest gross winner.
    • Closest to the pin on par 3s.
    • Longest drive on a designated hole.
  2. In case of a tie, the winner will be decided using the USGA tiebreaking rules (e.g. matching scorecards, back 9/6/3/1 scores, etc.).
  3. Guests playing in a tournament are eligible for all prizes except the flight based low net prizes.
  4. The prizes can be in the form of cash or merchandize and are dependent on the number of participants in the tournament. The target prize pool is expected to be about $400 per tournament. These are the target value of prizes awarded for each tournament:
    • Lowest Gross: $40
    • Top 2 in each flight: $40 / $30 each
    • Closest to the pin: $20
    • Longest drive: $20

Social Gathering

  1. Given the social aspect of the golf club, post round gathering will take place after each tournament.
  2. All members are encouraged to attend the post round gathering to socialize and discuss the day's events.
  3. A round of drinks and snacks will be provided by the club at these post round gatherings.

Player of the Year

  1. At the end of the year, a PoY trophy will be awarded to one player in the club.
  2. The winner will be decided using a points system. Points will be awarded based on the player's performance in each tournament.
  3. The best 8 tournaments in a year will count towards a player's PoY points.
  4. Only OFGC members can win the player of the year award. i.e. no points are awarded to guests.
  5. Points will be awarded to top 10 finishers in each flight as follows:
    • 1st place: 100 points
    • 2nd place: 90 points
    • 3rd place: 80 points
    • 4th place: 70 points
    • ... and so on ...
    • 10th place: 10 point
  6. In case of a tie at the end of the year, the sum of last 4 tournaments net scores will be used to break the tie. If still tied, the last 2 and finally last tournament will be used.

Handicaps

  1. All tournaments will be played using the player's current GHIN index. If a player's index is not available, the player will play with a 0 handicap.
  2. All net score tournaments will be played to a maximum handicap index of 26.
  3. A special handicap index can be assigned to players who's index needs to be adjusted (e.g. because of an injury). The special index will be determined by the Handicap Committee using the following formula: Use at least last 5 and up to 20 applicable rounds played by the player. Using the average of the lowest (up to 8) differentials of those rounds, the index will be 90% of the average.
  4. The Handicap Committee reserves the right to lower Handicap Indexes at any time if it is determined that a player's handicap index is inconsistent with tournament scores.
  5. At the discretion of the handicapping committee, a special handicap index can be applied to a player that posts exceptionally low tournament scores. Using tools such as the USGA Handicap Review tool, the committee will determine if a player's index needs to be adjusted. e.g. players index for all future tournaments can be set to the the average of the lowest two tournament scores differentials of the year. This adjustment of index will be in addition to the Exceptional Score Handling by USGA/GHIN.