World Wide Handicap Scheme 2025

Happy April the 1st :-)

The Goss Diaries

Did you get some extra golf in yesterday with the clocks going forward ? I dragged my mountain bike out, "hosed it down" with WD40, put a grin on my face for an hour and am now having trouble walking :-)

With April being only a few hours away every red blooded golfers mind turns to thoughts of The Masters and this year on their website they are doing some inspiring Diary Features which will give you a different slant from the usual "Will Scott retain will Tiger play ?".

One of the Diary players wrote:

"There will be a lot of pressure, to be sure. But I think it will also be a lot of fun. And the fact is, I actually like playing in front of crowds. They inspire me and make me want to play well as they also keep me calm. I feel like I cannot do anything silly or stupid in front of so many people, so I think through my shots a bit more carefully."

Hell I break out in a sweat just walking up the 18th in front of a crowd of a tournament I'm at and I don't even have to hit any shots! With an attitude like that that guy could go far, Olivier Goss is his name, a 19 year old Australian at the University Tennessee and what's even better he was born in England so you won't feel bad about rooting for him to make the cut on his first appearance at Augusta especially as the Third Round on the Saturday is his 20th birthday.

http://www.masters.com/en_US/news/articles/2014-03-27/201403271395951556058.html

England Golf Newsletter

Are you reading this at your normal time ? Did you put your clocks back ? Well played - well not really cause you should have put them forward :-) This is usually the point where I'm not sure where I should be, if it's forward or back and once I remember the Spring Forward Fall Back I can still manage to confuse myself did I put if forward one hour or two - luckily we have iPhones (other smart phones are available) and it does it for us automatically no thinking required just trust!!!

So through the wonders of modern technology we have England Golf's latest newsletter available at

http://www.englandgolf.org/newslettercontent/EG_MensEnews_no21_MARCH2014.htm

That's if your not already subscribed and it's been delivered to your inbox. This month's features articles on two Inspirational Captains, have you signed up for the National Skills Challenge, Introduce a Friend to Golf, Handicap Q&A, Rules Quiz, College Stars and the story of the boy international who celebrated his 18th birthday with a 300 yard hole in one !

Remember entry to IWGU Knockouts close at the end of the month.

Be inspired, make the most of the light evenings by playing more golf and always mark your ball before you touch it :-)

Hampshire Juniors Target English Boy's Finals

Thursday's Daily Echo carried an article on how the Hampshire Juniors are targeting getting to the English Boys Finals for the third year running which is well worth a read, link below

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/11106829.Hampshire_juniors_targeting_a_big_year/

Unlike the printed version the online version of the article doesn't include the list of players making up the squads in which our Island Juniors from Shanklin, Westridge and Freshwater feature prominently.

HAMPSHIRE SQUADS 2014

TOURNAMENT SQUAD (U18s): 

Jordan Sundborg (Shanklin & Sandown), Josh Oddy (Westeridge), Billy Watson (Weybrook Park), Mason Banger (Meon Valley), Chris Blunden* (Sandford Springs), Callum Watson (Stoneham), Travis Yung-Hok (Southwick Park), Conor Richards (Shanklin & Sandown), Hugo Sanders (North Hants), George Burbidge (Hayling), Lawrence Cherry (Stoneham).

* Junior captain

DEVELOPMENT SQUAD (U16s): 

Tom Caplehorn (Bramshaw), Brad King (Southwick Park), Josh Sturt (Rowlands Castle), George Saunders (Meon Valley), Ben Ash (Southwick Park), Sam Jerram (Meon Valley), Alex Talbot (Bramshaw), George Faulkner (Freshwater Bay), Jack Warren (Southwick Park), Richard Pharo (Oak Park), George Roberts (Meon Valley).

U14s: Christian Lindgreen (Oak Park), Joe Goodey (Shanklin & Sandown), Jamie Marwick (Corhampton), Charles Morgan (Rowlands Castle), Ossian Tate (Waterlooville), Robbie Flower (Royal Winchester), James Sankey (Royal Winchester), Ryan Furnell (Meon Valley), Henry Doyle (Hartley Wintney), George Caplehorn (Bramshaw), Hector Small (Rowlands Castle), Robert Wheeler (Oak Park).

It doesn't stop there either with Ryan Harmer already making a name for himself in the Colts Team, as well as Shanklin's Nick Matthews and Joe Green carving a niche for themselves in the U12/U13/U14 set up.

The season starts early for the youngsters with the County Junior Championships at Royal Winchester only 10 days away, who knows we might see some trophies heading south across the water?

Slow play or not slow play? That is the question,

You value your time right ? Do you value your fellow golfers time ? Does your club value your time ?

Pace of play has become a big issue and is likely to get even bigger. Lack of time is seen as one of the major reasons people are giving up golf. Now don't get me wrong as with most things on the Isle of Wight we really don't know we're born compared to the mainland.

The problem is the players perception of a slow round has nothing whatsoever to do with time taken but comes down to wether they have to wait for the group in front. I had an instance where I was asked my opinion about the "slow play" of a group of college kids playing on a mainland course in amongst the usual Tuesday morning seniors roll up. The kids had lost a hole on the group in front in the first three holes and the seniors behind we're waiting on every shot, by the ninth it had stretched to a two hole gap in front of them but never let them through for the full 18 holes.

Under Etiquette the Rules of a Golf say

"It is a group’s responsibility to keep up with the group in front. If it loses a clear hole and it is delaying the group behind, it should invite the group behind to play through, irrespective of the number of players in that group. Where a group has not lost a clear hole, but it is apparent that the group behind can play faster, it should invite the faster moving group to play through."

Cut and dried under the rules really but when I dug a little deeper by asking a few pertinent questions I got some interesting answers.

What tee time interval was used? - none, we hit our tee shots before the kids had hit their second shots, they're so long we couldn't get any where near them.

How long did your round take ? About 3 hours 20 minutes.

When we run a Tournament at that course our definition of slow play is 4 hours 10 minutes - if your pace is slower than that referees will do all they can to help you get back on track without having to result to putting you on the clock.

Now Troon Golf in America have introduced Time Pars for their courses where the starter writes your expected time at various holes on your card and have introduced Pace Setter Tee times where your guaranteed to get round say 20 minutes under the time par. One of the clubs offers a special cheaper menu for players that have completed their round under time  but I can't see that going down too well with your franchised caterer !!!!

Take a look at the USGA's article on Troon Golf at the link below but just remember how lucky we are on the Island, next time your held up take a deep breath admire the view and smell the flowers - slow play can be like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder.

http://www.usga.org/news/2014/March/Pace-of-Play-Case-Study--Troon-Golf/

Bunkers, Steps and Definitions

You know what to do if you're ball comes to rest on some steps and you know what to do if your ball is in a bunker - but what about if the steps are in the bunker surrounded by sand?

Do you drop it inside or outside the bunker? Is it a free drop or is there a penalty? What about about once you've picked the ball up can you change your mind?

The majority of situations are straight forward and you will meet them over and over again, but it's what to do when you get that slightly more complex problem and your playing partner trying to be helpful offers his "advice" which doesn't coincide with yours!!

Same with everything, steady deliberate action is the key, - of course if there are refs on the course be mindful of where you last saw one and send someone to go and wake them up - if your unsure of what to do say the problem out loud, check the definitions of the words you used from the section at the front of the book and then find the appropriate rule. If you can't decide what to do use Rule 3-3 Doubt as to Procedure and play the hole out with two balls.

Now the sensible thing would be to do a bit of preparation and learn some of the definitions in advance. You could sign up for the weekly rules Blog Post from Barry Rhodes, I can't recommend his site highly enough or his other products like ‘999 Updated Questions on the Rules of Golf 2012-2015’. To find the answers to the questions at the start of this post look at Barry Rhodes latest article.

http://www.barryrhodes.com/2014/03/golf-ball-at-rest-on-or-near-bunker.html

Now did the eagle eyed amongst you spot that the word advice was in inverted commas above, would you have been penalised for your fellow competitor giving you his thoughts on the rules?

Definition - "Advice" is any counsel or suggestion that could influence a player in determining his play, the choice of a club or the method of making a stroke.

Information on the Rules, distance or matters of public information, such as the position of hazards or the flagstick on the putting green, is not advice.

Definitions Page 22 of your Rule book now off you go and learn a couple a day :-)

Balls !!!

Balls !!

Any of you remember playing with the old 1.65 size and the mental anguish when we went to the bigger American sized 1.68 ball knowing you were going to loose tens of yards into the wind at Freshwater?

How about the awesome Dunlop DDH with the Dodecahedron Dimple Pattern? Twelve sided figure I think. Or that each ball came its individual wrapper within its box of dozen, you used to play for a "new ball" and the furore when my Father won a wrapped Dunlop 65 off the (now deceased) club secretary to find a Dunlop Warwick inside - ah happy days!

Balls aren't exactly straight forward now either, there are myriads of soft feel or extra roll out there to suit your swing speed but it's worse when you consider it's your responsibility as the player to know if you ball is Conforming. So if it's non conforming does that mean it's been stamped an x-out, perhaps it's got practice written on it or covered in company logos? Is a yellow or pink version of a white conforming ball still ok and does it have to go through testing all over again?

Rule 5 - The Ball - 5-1 General

The ball the player plays must conform to the requirements specified in Appendix III.

Note: The Committee may require, in the conditions of a competition (Rule 33-1), that the ball the player plays must be named on the current List of Conforming Golf Balls issued by the R&A.

If your ball is non conforming then odds are it goes further than it should hence the penalty of Disqualification

To be honest I can't remember the last time I read Appendix III so the majority you guys will probably have never been there in the first place, it covers General, Weight, Size, Spherical Symmetry, Initial Velocity and the all important Overall Distance Standard - we just trust that the balls we buy from the Pro Shop are conforming but what about those we find on the course? If you have any doubt simply don't play it in a competition.

The R&A have published a interesting article on their website that answers the question raised above.

http://www.randa.org/en/RandA/News/News/2014/March/Golf-Ball-Rules-and-Conformance-Testing-QandA.aspx

24/3 European Tour YouTube Challenges

We've had some enquiries from golfers that wanted to read these daily ramblings but for what ever reason didn't want to be part of Facebook so for a trial we will be "posting" them on our web / blog site at

http://iwgolf.blogspot.co.uk

There should be good coverage of yesterday's match in the County Press this weekend with both a reporter and photographer at Shanklin but I thought I was going to steal a march on them with my photos I took but I've misplaced the adapter that fits my iPad to upload them - old age is a terrible cross to bear at times!

Which means that today's post will instead point you to some European Tour Pros having some fun and practising their skills some what off course.

Gun powder challenge

http://youtu.be/ncUG2wGouwg

200 yard Gong shot

http://youtu.be/Pu3OIT7mxDQ

Clay pigeon shooting

http://youtu.be/uCEB9GgKoJ0

If you only get a chance to watch one then it has to be this one , even if you've seen it before

Rory McIlroy v The Robot in the Washing Machine Challenge

http://youtu.be/Ft2fLuz9mF0

Face Book Post - 27/1

In response to requests from non Facebook golfers we will be repeating selected posts here on our website.

27/1

Have you ever taken a look at the England Golf website?

There's a wealth of information and features on there for for Counties, Clubs and every standard of player. The link below will take you to the Player landing page which gives you a god base to explore the site from.

http://www.englandgolf.org/forgolfers.aspx?sitesectionid=95&sitesectiontitle=For+Golfers

A couple of the highlights are

England Golf TV

Reports on championships, interviews and player profiles of the elite teams members - look out for Neil Raymond from Corhampton.

http://www.englandgolf.org/EGUTV.aspx?sitesectionid=564&sitesectiontitle=EGU+TV

Membership

Join MyEnglandGolf for free and you get a membership card with your unique CDH number on it (vital for entering competitions not organised by home club) plus weekly draws and discounts from major suppliers like Titleist, PowaKaddy, Jaguar and John Deere to name but a few.

https://www.englandgolf.org/members/register.aspx Book Post - 27/1

Have you ever taken a look at the England Golf website?

There's a wealth of information and features on there for for Counties, Clubs and every standard of player. The link below will take you to the Player landing page which gives you a god base to explore the site from.

http://www.englandgolf.org/forgolfers.aspx?sitesectionid=95&sitesectiontitle=For+Golfers

A couple of the highlights are

England Golf TV

Reports on championships, interviews and player profiles of the elite teams members - look out for Neil Raymond from Corhampton.

http://www.englandgolf.org/EGUTV.aspx?sitesectionid=564&sitesectiontitle=EGU+TV

Membership

Join MyEnglandGolf for free and you get a membership card with your unique CDH number on it (vital for entering competitions not organised by home club) plus weekly draws and discounts from major suppliers like Titleist, PowaKaddy, Jaguar and John Deere to name but a few.

https://www.englandgolf.org/members/register.aspx