Saddlebrooke Ranch Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 THE SCORECARD Golf Days............2 Relief Situation and Procedures.....6 The Board and Committee Chairs.10 Patronizing Our Sponsors.12 Remember Our Sponsors.. 13 Mark Your Calendar.13 I M NOT THE ONLY TURKEY WHO PLAYS GOLF AT SADDLEBROOKE RANCH 1
Saddlebrooke Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 Bob Christianson our Resident Humorist, Treasurer and one of the better golfers at the Ranch How To Protect Our Golf Days During Over Seeding As usual this year s golf course closure felt like watching our favorite sporting events on TV live with every single commercial running every 3 minutes. Don t get me wrong. Watching grass grow day in and day out for weeks on end is great. Particularly since we all know we don t have to worry about mowing the stuff ourselves. It s even somewhat educational if one stops to ponder just how miraculous Mother Nature can be when she sucks down some rye and gets a daily hit of fertilizer and reclaimed water up her nose. Before I digress any further I want to spend a little time here discussing several activities (some good, some bad & some ugly) which many of us attempt to keep our minds from wondering during the month of over seeding. My hope is that we all use the following information so as to better plan, prepare and execute during next year s over seeding doom and gloom. First of all, whatever we end up doing during over seeding we must be careful to not end up giving away any of those days of the week we worked so hard to reserve as our golf 2
Saddlebrooke Ranch Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 days prior to over seeding. Just think of this for a second. Haven t we been successfully orchestrating all our home responsibilities during our non-golf days? Right! So we certainly do not want to fall into the trap of agreeing to use any of our previously reserved golf days for something that could possibly become a weekly routine and thereby interfere with any of our golf days when the course finally opens up again. With that understood let s talk a little about what some of us did during this past month when our course was closed. As for me, in order to stay focused on maintaining my hard fought golf days I made sure I continued to block out on my calendar Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and sometimes Friday. I added notes (see suggested activities listed below) regarding what I planned to do for myself on each of those days so nothing else could be accidentally inserted by my spousal unit or anyone else.you know what I mean, right. Of course many of us cannot go a whole month without playing some golf somewhere. For these extreme golfers a considerable amount of time was eaten up in front of their computers checking the Arizona Golf Association s official Course Over Seeding & Closure Schedule covering every single golf club in Arizona. Once a few were found that were under 2 or three hours drive away and were either in a preseed stage of ripped up, scalped or full of holes fairways and/or greens or post-seed stage of cart path only restrictions we (I mean they ) would spend the rest of our (I mean 3
Saddlebrooke Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 their ) golf day at home lobbying other extreme golf partners on which course was going to be the best one to go play and why. Then came the hard work of negotiating what day and time to play and who had the proper size vehicles to transport multiples of four players and their oversized golf bags and all their golf paraphernalia. I personally don t mind the ripped up, scalped, full of holes fairways and greens. At least we can drive the golf cart right up to our balls, plus we have plenty of excuses why we played so badly all day. It s the cart path only restrictions at a course with which I m not familiar, of course, that really makes that two hour return trip seem more like ten hours. For starters, it s a known fact that when playing a course with cart path only restrictions 100% of your drives will end up on the far opposite side from where the cart path and your golf cart are located. It is also a known fact that whatever number of clubs you decide to haul across the fairway you will not have the correct club for the distance left to the green (as well as not enough balls in your pocket to last all the way to the green). Rather than go chase down your partner (who has already moved the golf cart up to the green by this time) you make the fatal decision to improvise swings with the clubs in your possession. After five or six such improvisations you slowly make your way down the fairway until you finally reach the green only to learn that your partner didn t think to pull your putter from the golf cart while parking the cart 200 yards up the hill behind the green and next to the next tee box. OK then, playing some away games is a pretty obvious thing many of us endure while our course is down. But there is 4
Saddlebrooke Ranch Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 just not enough hours in the day to plan, coordinate and execute the same number of away games as our calendars show we play on a weekly basis at our home course when it s open. Fortunately many of our golfing partners right here in our very own compound have mastered over the years the art of thinking outside the tee box. So here are a few tried and true INGs to get our juices flowing as to what we can at least write down on our calendars to maintain control of our precious golf days : Bicycling (one time around the compound should do) Pickle Ball Watching (don t want to hurt yourself) Ping Ponging (try setting up a crazy PP tournament, hype the hell out of it and relive your youth) Swimming Hiking Gardening.. You get the picture. Just don t overdo anything and end up pulling a muscle or something. I personally like Walking (the isles at Home Depot) and Napping (on the recliner with Bogey The Cat while watching Gunsmoke). These are safe, low impact activities that can easily take up a whole calendar golf day. Just remember the goal here to protect our hard earned weekly golf days so we don t have to fight to get them back after our course reopens. Rob 5
Saddlebrooke Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 Rob Nemecek Handicap and Rules Chairman RELIEF SITUATION AND PROCEDURES There are many situations where a player may take relief on the course. Depending on where the ball lies will determine what kind of relief a player may take. Listed below are the steps to be taken by a player when they encounter one of these situations here at the Ranch. BALL NEXT TO IMMOVABLE OBSTRUCTION: (RULE 24-2) Interference by an immovable obstruction occurs when a ball lies in or on the obstruction, the obstruction interferes with the player's stance or the area of his intended swing. The immovable obstructions here at the Ranch are the tall, green sprinkler control boxes. A player may take relief from interference by an immovable 6
Saddlebrooke Ranch Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 obstruction by lifting the ball and dropping it, without penalty, within one club-length of and not nearer to the hole than the nearest point of relief. The ball may be cleaned when lifted under this Rule. BALL UNPLAYABLE : (RULE 28) A player may deem their ball unplayable anywhere on the course, except in a hazard. When doing so, the players have a choice of 1 of 3 options. Each option will accrue with a 1 stroke penalty and the player will be allowed to clean their ball. a) go back to the spot, as nearly as possible, from which the original ball was last played b) drop the ball behind the point where the original ball laid, keeping that point directly between the hole and the spot where the ball is dropped. There is no limit as to how far back a player may go as long as you are not in a hazard or off the course. c) dropping your ball within a 2 club lengths from the spot where the ball laid, not nearer to the hole. A player may also deem their ball unplayable when located in a bunker. All 3 options may be used but if a player chooses option b or c, their ball must be dropped in the bunker. BALL IN A LATERAL HAZARD: (RULE 26) A player whose ball comes to rest in a lateral hazard has 5 options to choose from. Each option will accrue a 1 stroke penalty and allowed to clean their ball except for option a. 7
Saddlebrooke Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 a) without grounding the club or removing any material either around the ball or in the player s stance, may play their ball where it lies in the hazard. b) proceed under the stroke and distance provision a player may place their ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played. c) drop a ball behind the hazard, keeping the point at which the original ball last crossed the margin of the hazard directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind the hazard the ball may be dropped. d) where your ball last crossed the hazard margin, a player may drop their ball outside the hazard within two clublengths of and not nearer to the hole. e) where your ball last crossed the hazard margin, a player may drop their ball a point on the opposite margin of the hazard equidistant from the hole within two club-lengths of and not nearer to the hole. To give you an idea as to how and where to apply these options, I will use Hole #11 as our example. Let s say your drive veers right across the cart path. That area is staked as a lateral hazard but only three options are available for you to take. You may use option a, but good luck finding your ball in that area. If you do find your ball, having a good stance or swing is almost impossible. Or you may use option d but that means you will be hitting your ball off a severe slope. Or you may use option b and go back to the tee box and hit your drive again. You cannot use option c because keeping a point where your ball crossed the margin with that of the hole will actually keep you in the hazard. You cannot use 8
Saddlebrooke Ranch Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 option e since there is no opposite side of the margin. The entire margin are right of the cart path up to the home owner s property line is a lateral hazard. As I reviewed the layout on this hole, these are your only options you can use from the tee box to the steel bridge. Let s say your balls rest in the hazard after the steel bridge. You now have a choice to use all 5 options, but option e will be a little tricky. Depending on where your ball originally crossed the margin, options a, b, c or d would best be used in this situation but you could use option e and play your ball on the opposite side of the arroyo. Keeping in mind you might be under the tree or on the cart path. You cannot go left of that point since you will still be in the hazard. Just remember you have multiple options when your ball comes to rest in a hazard and how the hazard is design will determine which of the 5 options best suits your situation. Good luck to all when you encounter a Unplayable and/or Lateral Hazard situation. Rob 9
Saddlebrooke Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 THE BOARD and COMMITTEE CHAIRS President: Mark Klicker Vice President: Sam Rossi 10
Saddlebrooke Ranch Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 Secretary: Bruce Deverman The Scorecard: communications@sbrmga.org Membership: Tim McCauley membership@sbrga.org Webmaster: Doug Strueber Treasurer: Bob Christianson Weekly Events: Jack Gressingh 11
Saddlebrooke Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 Handicap and Rules: Rob Nemecek AGA Delegate: Mark Martin SPima Cup: Paul Lapatosky Sponsorship Chairmen: Guy Shelton PATRONIZING OUR SPONSORS You are probably aware that the various sponsors who have generously given money to the Saddlebrooke Ranch MGA has resulted in an increase in the prize money that is available to the members who play on the various Thursday events. This money is a form of advertising on the part of the sponsors who believe that the membership of our MGA will patronize their establishments and consider using their services. Whenever you can try to show our appreciation by considering using their services whenever you can 12
Saddlebrooke Ranch Men s Golf Association Nov 2017 REMEMBER OUR SPONSORS For 2016, we are pleased to have three Platinum sponsors and ten Premier sponsors. The Platinum sponsors are Coyote Golf Cars, Golf Cars of Arizona, and Kim Tucker MD The Premier sponsors are Gerry Hause Long Realty, Community Church at Saddlebrooke, Robson Resort Communities, Oracle Ford, Outdoor Creations, Brakemax, Concierge Cooling Sonoran Design Landscape Bubb s Grub and DDS Patrick Shaffer MARK YOUR CALENDER Pima Cup Dec 7 Tentative Future Events for 2018 Ryder Cup- Feb 8, 15 and 16. Match Play- March 14, 15 and 22. President s Cup- April 18 & 19. Founder s Cup- November 28 and 29. 13
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