Captains Scarlett's Log - November 2017
7 November 2017

          Welcome to my penultimate log. 

So my Captain’s year is almost over. It’s flown by!

Along with 40 or so others I took part in Hornsea’s first Night Golf event on Friday. I’m sure you will read about it in Stret’s newsletter and / or hear about it from others but it was great fun. Certainly a different challenge - hitting a glowing golf ball in the pitch dark wasn’t easy yet having a set of bright white marker lights identifying the middle of the fairway gave you focus as you only had that to look at as a target.

What I really liked about it was that it was something different that hadn’t been tried before by us. It might not have worked but it did and the only way you can find that out is try it and see.

That really has always been my approach to things and one that I’ve tried this Captain’s year to bring to HGC with varying success. One example was taking to the Golf Committee comments that had been written in the Captain’s Comments, Suggestions and Ways Forward book about having more medals throughout the year. As a result of that it was agreed to trial the last Thursday in each month throughout the summer being a medal instead of a stableford. This went ahead but the numbers participating over the six months dropped so it was then agreed to revert back to the norm. Okay it didn’t work but how do you know unless you try it?

Now onto Golf Rules…..did you see recently that Ben Crane  incurred 8 penalty shots in one round on the WEB.com tour and was then disqualified  the next day, all for forgetting to remove a small electronic sticker that sends data that can be analysed from his driver and his 7 iron. The number of penalty points was effected by when he admitted his error, even if he didn’t use the club.

There has been a lot of these high profile examples in recent times that have generated discussion. So what about your normal everyday golfer – do they know the rules? If your golfing experiences is anything like mine then the answer to that is no. Firstly a lot of them are quite complicated and open to misinterpretation or you’re put in situations where you aren’t entirely sure what the rule is. Secondly there are clearly a number of golfers who don’t know even the basic ones – maybe no one has told them. I know when I first started playing 10 years ago I learnt by asking if I wasn’t sure or being told by my playing partners. Even though I have three copies of the Rules (two illustrated!) there are still times when I’m not sure and neither are the guys I’m playing with. One example recently was about dropping the ball after going in the water on the 13^th.

DO YOU KNOW ALL THE RULES OF GOLF? COME ALONG TO AN INTERACTIVE EVENING THAT PROMISES TO BE FUN AND INFORMATIVE…….

So why not come to the Rules Night that is coming up on Friday 24^th November. It is run by YUGC and is an interactive evening showing the rules, both basic and more obscure, from tee to green.

Lastly this month can I mention the Captains’ Finale dinner on Friday November 17^th which is being run jointly by myself and the out-going Ladies Captain, Sarah.  It is a three course dinner and disco and will feature a raffle which includes a Moeen Ali shirt and a signed Yorkshire cricket shirt. Any money raised by the raffle will go to our two charities – Sparks and the Royal British Legion. At the time of writing this there are a few tickets left. It would be great if we could sell them all.

Captain Scarlett.

Final Log of my year – December 2017

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