At this stage we have more than 16 pairs, so the qualifying round from the pairs combined individual rounds on May 19th will count so will be important you don't have a pick up!
June 23rd sees the start of the Pinto Foursomes which is obviously a Foursomes competition; the Start Sheet will be posted soon.

Foursomes, for those who aren't sure, is a Matchplay format in which teams are comprised of two players each, and the players alternate hitting the same ball If you don't have a partner, just put your name down on the sheet, someone will pair up with you.

We will be running a Wine and Chicken Tournament on the Monday of Queens Birthday weekend, keep an eye out for details.

Pennants

The Championship Team played their Semi Final yesterday at Tauranga and had a comfortable win, so are through to the Final at Taupo this Sunday. The Senior A's are also through to the Final at Taupo

The Intermediates played their Semi Final at Whakatane yesterday, but unfortunately were overwhelmed by a rampant Omanu losing 6 ½ to 2 ½.

Best of luck to the Championship and Senior A Teams in Taupo.

Cleanliness

The condition of our golf course is looking great thanks to our Greens staff and volunteers and we should all take pride in this, we are certainly get a lot of feedback from visitors saying how great the course looks. Unfortunately there some in the club that don't seem to have that same pride. When I was playing on Saturday, I found a banana skin just dropped in the middle of the 3rd fairway and someone else had peeled an orange on the 14th Tee and just left the remnants lying on the ground beside the Tee! This is just total laziness. I would hope that people don't do this in their own homes, so don't do it in ours!

Did You Know?

There seems to be some confusion regarding a couple of things that can happen on 12th Hole.

1.A Ball embeds itself in the grass face of the bunker. 

The definition for an embedded ball is "A ball embedded in its own pitch-mark in the ground in any closely mown area"

The face of the bunker IS NOT a closely mown area, so play the ball as it lies or proceed under Rule 28 (Ball Unplayable) unless there is a local rule allowing relief from an embedded lie through the green.

Even if there were a local rule in place, you would need to be 100% sure the ball was embedded in the ground and not just deep into the grass face.

2.A ball lies in the bunker and is right against the grass face so is unplayable, you can proceed under Rule 28

If this is the case, you must either for a penalty of 1 shot -

(a) drop the ball in the bunker within 2 club lengths of where it lay or

(b) drop a ball behind the point where the ball lay, keeping that point directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind that point the ball may be dropped, although again this must be in the bunker.

You also have the 3rd option of replaying the shot from where you last played.

Remember also -

Your place on the course is directly behind the group in front of you, not directly in front of the group behind you.

Good golfing everyone,

Lindsay Klee

Men's Captain