WHEN MOTHER NATURE CALLS
THE Open Championship returns to the Old Course in July and hopefully the weather will be kinder than in 2010 when play was suspended during the second round due to high winds.
Preparation is the key to a successful golf event, whether it is the club medal or The Open. You cannot control the weather, but you can take some steps to mitigate its impact. • Obtain an accurate weather forecast and set up the course accordingly, e.g. greens that are not too fast and hole positions that are not too exposed if it’s going to be very windy, and select hole positions that are not prone to flooding if it’s going to be wet. • Have at least one member of the committee on duty who will be able to answer any rules questions, monitor the conditions and make appropriate decisions. For example, is the course playable or not? Should play be suspended/resumed or not? The committee should also ensure that there is a procedure in place to cater for suspensions of play and it should communicate the procedure to the players so they know what to do if play is suspended. Normally, a suspension is signalled by three consecutive notes of a siren (repeated), but immediate suspensions for a dangerous situation, such as lightning, are commonly denoted by one prolonged note of a siren. • Strong winds are a common problem. Balls oscillating may be distracting, but it is when balls actually move that causes the real problem. If you get a number of balls moving in quick succession you may have to suspend play. • Even though it may be raining heavily and rather unpleasant, that does not mean the course is unplayable. A hole that is surrounded by water, though, does mean that the course is unplayable and, in stroke play, the committee should suspend play until conditions improve. In match play, the committee is fortunate that it can relocate the hole to an area that is less affected. • Prior to a competition starting, think about adopting the preferred lies local rule if casual water is particularly prevalent. And if you have a problem with bunkers filled with casual water then you can identify those specific bunkers that are completely flooded in advance of the round and declare them as GUR. That way, players are able to drop out of those particular bunkers without penalty. • Adopt a policy to deal with visibility
issues such as fog, mist and darkness. For example, at R&A events we only commence/continue play if the landing zones for all shots to be played are visible to the players. Features such as fairway lines, hazards and trees in the drive zone must be visible to a large extent. • Lastly, ensure you have appropriate equipment to deal with weather-related issues, e.g. towels, squeegees, pumps, rakes, horns, etc. As any good boy scout knows, “be prepared”.