Club looks to build on changes
Horsham Golf Club hopes the biggest changes to the rules of golf in decades will help entice new young members to join the club as it continues to recover from financial crisis.
In November, the club announced it needed to raise $300,000 in two weeks or risk going into administration.
The club met the target with donations from many individuals and community groups across the Wimmera.
Horsham Golf Club general manager and director of golf Paul Riley said the new rules of golf, which came into effect on January 1, would help speed up the pace of the game and attract new players to the club.
“It’s based around the game being played quicker, with people today claiming to be more time-poor,” he said.
“We’re allowing for a more casual, younger crowd to come and play, especially on a Friday afternoon.
“That’s an incentive to get young people out playing more.
“They can play music, if they’re an appropriate age they can get some promotional beer and premix ‘eskys’ that we have.
“That’s our way of saying ‘you’re welcome to come and play our golf course’. We don’t want it to be some snobby country club.”
The new rules include a reduced time allowed for searching for a lost ball, down to three minutes from the previous five.
Players can also putt with the flagstick in, and there is no penalty for hitting an unattended flagstick in the hole.
Players can also repair spike marks on the green and there is no penalty for touching the line of play on the green. Players can ground their clubs in a hazard and remove loose impediments in a bunker or penalty area. They can also replace their ball if it is accidentally moved while searching.
Riley said the changes would benefit the game.
“The previous rules were based around the 99 percent of honest golfers being punished,” he said.
“Now it has been reversed, where the cheater has more ability to cheat, but the honest golfer is not being punished as much, which is good.
“For instance, putting with the flag in was brought in to stop people laying the flagstick down and putting along the flagstick to go into the hole.
“Now, who in their right mind would do that?
“All the honest golfers got punished for that 50 to 100 years ago, but common sense has now prevailed.
“If someone wants to drop the flag down and putt along the flagstick to the hole, they are only cheating themselves and they’d be run out of town.
“Everything else is based around speeding up play and getting golf under four hours, which used to be a very normal round of golf when I was growing up.”