Milbourne leads Tasmanian charge at Riversdale

TASMANIANS were in action last week at Australia’s second oldest amateur 72-hole golf tournament, the Riversdale Cup at the Riversdale Golf Club in Victoria.

Tasmania Golf Club’s Georgia Milbourne was the bestplaced of the Tasmanians competing in the women’s event. She had rounds of 78, 80, 78 and 82, a total of 318 to finish in equal 24th place. Royal Hobart Golf Club junior Hallie Meaburn missed the cut after rounds of 78 and 89.

Coolangatta and Tweed Heads Golf Club’s Rebecca Kay won the women’s title by five strokes over New Zealander Caryn Khoo and Victorian Jessica Pickwick.

Tasmania Golf Club’s Brett Geeves and Prospect Vale’s Ryan Thomas teed up for the men’s event but failed to make the cut for the weekend rounds. Geeves was the bestplaced of the pair in equal 76th position with scores of 80 and 72, while Thomas carded 84 and 83 to finish 118th.

Jack Thompson from South Australia won his first Golf Australia Order of Merit event when he claimed the men’s title by five strokes from Victoria’s William Heffernan.

He carded rounds of 69, 64, 68 and 73 to finish the championships at 14-under-par. THE R&A and the USGA have unveiled the new Rules of Golf that come into effect on January 1 next year.

The rules were finalised this month after an extensive review that included a request for feedback from the global golf community.

The process to modernise the rules began in 2012 and was initiated to ensure that the rules are easier to understand and apply for all golfers and to make the game more attractive and accessible for newcomers.

While the majority of proposed rules remain intact in the final version, several important changes to the initial proposals and further clarification of many rules were incorporated.

Major proposals include elimination or reduction of ball moved penalties, relaxed putting green rules, relaxed rules for penalty areas, relaxed bunker rules and pace-of-play support.

The most significant adjustments made following a review of the feedback include dropping procedure, measuring in taking relief, removing the penalty for a double hit and balls lost or out of bounds.

Golfers can now access the official 2019 Rules of Golf by visiting RandA.org or usga.org/rules.

Players are reminded that the current edition of the Rules of Golf (2016) must be applied when playing, posting scores or competing for the remainder of 2018.

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