OVGA Amateur Golf Tour

The first four events of the year are in the books and it’s time to take a look back at a few issues that have arisen.

PACE OF PLAY

While relatively good for the first few events, it’s always good to cover a few simple things that we’ve seen. 

#1 - Always play ready golf.  There is no “honor system” in the OVGA when it comes to hitting your shot.  The old tour saying is, he who’s ready first, hits first. 

#2 - Play your shot before helping someone else look for their ball.  If you delay hitting your shot to help someone look for their lost ball it holds up play.  Go ahead and hit your shot and then go help.  

#3 - Once you leave the tee box or position of your last shot to advance there is no going back should your ball be lost or OB.  This holds up pace of play.  If you think there is a chance that your ball is lost or OB please hit a provisional.  If you leave the tee box and find your ball is lost, you may drop where the group feels the ball is lost and play your shot from there.  But you incur the regular stroke and distance penalty + another stroke.  In other words, your dropped ball would constitute the landing spot of your provisional ball (3rd shot) so you would be hitting 4 from there.

CHEATING - RULES 

Cheating will not be tolerated.  It’s your responsibility to know the rules and to count your strokes correctly.  We’ve already had an instance of incorrect scoring be reported to the scoring table following a round.  There is no reason to cheat or not know the rules concerning balls OB.  If we find that people are cheating to earn skins or CTP we’ll remove both side games thus eliminating the need to fudge scores.  Lord knows we aren’t playing for large checks at the end of the tournament and most of us are out here for the enjoyment of the game…be honest.

ARRIVING AT THE COURSE 

Please try to be at the course 30 minutes before your tee time.  There may be cases were the course lets us out early so be prepared to go within that 30 minute window around your tee time.

A lot of what you see here is preemptive on our part.  I’ve been very impressed with everything to this point.  We’re constantly striving for perfection with our tournaments.  So please help us by doing your part when you can and by passing along any info that could help us do so.