Please note the following change to the decisions on the rules of golf which
came into force on the 1st January 2010.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2009
CHANGES to the DECISIONS on the RULES OF GOLF
From January 1, no relief allowed from divot hole or repaired divot hole
By RON MENZIES
As usual, half way through the four-year life of an edition of The Rules of
Golf, the R&A has published a new Decisions Book. This contains some 30 new
decisions and amended versions of further 49 revised decisions which come
into effect on January 1, 2010.
Many of these merit detailed consideration only by serious students of the
rules, budding referees and quiz masters and require a thorough knowledge to
understand their complexity. However, there is one change that will require
immediate action by many club committees and the awareness of all golfers.
New decision 33-8/34 now removes the authority for a committee to make a
local rule “providing relief without penalty from a divot hole or a repaired
divot hole (i.e. filled with sand or seed mix)”
At least half the golf clubs in Scotland have such a local rule and these
must be withdrawn immediately before any qualifying competitions for
handicap purposes can be played. Such a local rule contravenes Rule 13-1
which states that a ball must be played as it lies and has generally not
been used in professional and major amateur competitions.
It is often mistakenly believed that this rule protects the golf course. If
relief is given or indeed demanded from a seeded divot hole, a second divot
hole is created and requires repair, leaving two seeded divots holes. If the
ball is played from the original hole it may require repair but only one
hole remains.
Please note that in view of the extreme weather over the last month there will be an extension of dates for the Winter Foursomes.
The closing date for playing ties in the qualifying sections will be Sunday 31st January.
The knockout draw will take place immediately following this.
With all the snow recently if you feel like a game at the coast please see the attached offer from Dundonald Links for Whitecraigs members.
Dundonald Offer Jan 2010
The Members’ site can be found under the MEMBERS SITE tab under MEMBERS on the front page of the Club website.
Please note the following have been added to the Members’ web site
Report and Accounts 2009
Minutes of the AGM held on 26th January 2009
Minutes of the Special Meeting held on Monday 23rd February 2009
Minutes of the Special Meeting held on Monday 30th November 2009.
The password for entry to the Members’ site was sent out in December with the Report and Accounts.
37th WHITECRAIGS GOLF CLUB BURNS SUPPER notice 2010
There are still a few places available for this popular gents’ event.
The following are the bar and catering hours over the festive period.
Xmas opening hours
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
There were 101 attending the meeting. A good number for a very cold night.
All proposals were passed and this will result in the following:
1. Any member resigning will now have to do so by 31st December of the subscription year rather than by the AGM at the end of January.
2. The committee will have the ability, within the numbers specified for Juniors of 155 in the Constitution, to look at creating sub categories it feels that will benefit the Club. The Wee Wonders aged from 5 years to 10 years accompanied by an adult 18 or over and playing the Par 3 course will continue.
3. Life Members aged from 65 to 74 will be subject to a subscription of 20% of the Male Ordinary and Lady Associate subscription as appropriate.
4. The age of Youth membership will increase from 23 to 25 and the Committee will propose to the AGM a subscription level of approximately one third of the full subscription instead of the two thirds that it is currently.
5. The Committee will be given the option to increase or decrease the numbers specified in the Constitution for any category by 5% when this is deemed to be beneficial to the Club.
6. Retiring Committee members will be able to offer themselves for re-election to the Committee immediately.
Other matters arising were that Members be encouraged to provide their views on whether or not it would be a good idea to allow Members unable to attend a proxy vote.
Committee were asked to come back with proposals for a form of Country Membership for students studying away from the district.
Any Members views on these matters would be greatly appreciated.
The Club keeps looking for new ways to make contact with members and though golf may be far from your thoughts in this weather there are still things happening at the Club even in this weather. Posting these days is getting ever more expensive with over 1,000 members yet it is your club and we would like to keep you uptodate with everything that is happening.
Up to now we have blogged however we are pleased to say that we will now also TWITTER which is a kind of microblogging restricted to messages of 140 letters or less.
To access this just bring up any blog on the noticeboard and you will see down the lefthandside two TWITTER panels. Secretary’s TWEETS and LATEST COURSE REPORTS AND FORECAST. My box will not be overly exciting but will let you know in short messages anything that I can think of that may be of interest to you as a member.
The course report will be updated by the Course Manager and his staff daily whenever there is something that you need to know like COURSE CLOSED, TEMPORARY GREENS OR FURTHER INSPECTION AT 12.00NOON. This is done by them texting the TWITTER site and you will then see the message in the COURSE TWITTER BOX so it will be very uptodate.
Please start using this facility and let me know how you get on and how helpful you find the messages.
Within the next week I will let you know how you can get these messages sent to your phone if you wish.
Time to TWEET OFF.
Please find attached a notice calling a Special General Meeting on Monday 30th November at 7.30pm in the Upstairs Lounge.
The attached notice gives details of the proposed changes and the reasons why such changes are being contemplated.
EGM 2009 Constitutional changes
This notice will be sent to all voting members within the next few days.
Copies of the proposals are on the noticeboard in the clubhouse and further copies are available from the Office for any other members not receiving copies.
Additionally if anyone has any questions on the proposals please contact the office either by email or telephone or indeed just visit the office.
The meeting is being held before the AGM because the proposals are time critical in relation to the changes to the date for intimating resignations, the ability to be able to confirm to Youth and Par 3 members what the costs and facilities may be in 2010 before they consider whether they are continuing with their membership and the ability to consider current committee members for the vacancies on the committee for 2010 since currently we have 4 names for 5 vacancies.
WE DO HOPE THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO COME TO THE MEETING AND SUPPORT THESE IMPORTANT PROPOSALS.
