by Daisy Soo Hoo – Club Correspondent
The 2020 Rules Seminar for the 9er and 18er women’s golf groups was attended by over 70 members and was held in the Donner Room/Event Center on March 2. Joyce McCann, 18er Rules Chair, made arrangements last year with Suzanne Olsen and Sheri Erskine, golf rules officials for the NCGA and Women’s Golf Association of Northern California, for the presentation.
Erskine presented a few highlights of the New World Handicap system that took over eight years to revamp. Eight of the best scores of 20 games are used to calculate indexes and are updated every evening at midnight. The NCGA will continue to send e:mails with indexes to members on the first and fifteenth of the month, but players should use their daily handicap for non-tournament play. Tournament Chairpersons have the option to choose any day for indexes for use in Tournament play. Erskine recommended downloading the app ‘myNCGA’ to post scores, check for daily index changes, add playing partners and an easy-to-use course handicap calculator.
Under the New World Handicap System, the maximum hole score for each player is limited to Net Double Bogey. The calculation is simple: Par + 2 + any handicap strokes a player receives.
The system will now automatically and immediately reduce a Handicap Index when an exceptional score of at least 7 strokes below a current Handicap Index is posted. A -1.0 reduction is applied to the most recent 20 score differentials. It also adjust for abnormal course or weather conditions to ensure that the scores reflect when a course plays significantly different than its established Course Rating and Slope Rating.
A player’s Low Handicap Index (LHI) for the year is used as a base for indexes. A player’s index is capped at 5 strokes over the Lowest Handicap Index (e.g., for a LHI of 18 the maximum index is 23).
Olsen reviewed Dropping and Re-dropping. Rule 14.3 covers when and how the player may mark the spot of a ball at rest, lift and clean the ball, and how to put a ball back into play so that the ball is played from the right place. Olsen showed slides indicating the correct areas for relief. The golf ball must be dropped correctly in the relief area and the longest golf club in your bag (except the putter) can be used for relief. Ensure that a relief area is selected before the golf ball is picked up. Once the ball is picked up the player cannot reselect another relief area, otherwise a penalty stroke will be accessed.
Olsen closed seminar by complimenting the audience, saying that Rossmoor continues to be the one club with the highest interest in the rules of golf.