At Brighton & Hove, we have this really nice competition called the Burt Brill foursomes. Players are put in two groups, higher and lower handicappers, and pairs are drawn togetherso thata higher handicapper plays with a lower handicapper. Andoff they go, playing alternate shots to get around the course as efficientlyas possible. I expect most clubs have a similar competition. It’s one of thebig ones, where you get your name on a board, so I really want to win it.I’m not doing too well though, aswe played it onWednesday and I was disqualified for the second year in a row. Forthe same reason. On the same hole. Live and learn, yousay? I wish.
This is what happened last year: in the foursomes format, you take turn hitting the ball and one player tees off on even holes and the other on odd holes. I was teeing off on odd holes and my partner Angela on evens. All was well until we arrived on the 8th and I kinda forgot about the whole alternate thing and teed off.Neither Angela nor our playing partnersnoticed that I played out of turnand we finishedthe hole. It’s only when we got to the 9th teethat I realised Angela should have teed off. What to do? Nobody knew. We agreed that we’d go in and ask Anthony on the turn. Maybe we’d be allowed to play it again later?
This year, the mistake happened on the 8th green. My partner missed her putt by millimetres and out of sheer frustration, she knocked it in, playing twice in a row. Again, we were all flummoxed. Again, we agreed to go and talk to Anthony at the turn, but we thought it might be a two stroke penalty for playing out of turn.This reminded me of what happened the year before and I suspectedwe were probably disqualified.
If only I had a well-functioning memory, then I would have remembered what Anthony told us last year. When you play out of turn in foursomes,the player who should have taken the shot plays it again, from the same spot, and the game carries on. The team suffers a two stroke penalty.You have the option ofcorrecting your mistake until you tee off on the next hole. So last year, when we realised my mistake after finishing the hole, we should have gone back to the 8th tee to play the hole again in the correct order. This year, I should have put the ball back where it was when my partner hit it out of turn and carried on playing. In both cases, we would have had a two stroke penalty, but we wouldn’t have been disqualified.
This is covered by rule 29-3:
If thepartners make astroke orstrokesin incorrect order, suchstroke orstrokesare cancelled andthe side incurs a penalty of two strokes. Thesidemust correct the error by playing a ball in correct order as nearly as possible at the spot from which it first played in incorrect order (seeRule 20-5). If thesidemakes astroke on the nextteeing groundwithout first correcting the error or, in the case of the last hole of the round, leaves theputting greenwithout declaring its intention to correct the error,thesideis disqualified.
Will I remember this? I’m not hopeful. Come back in a year to see if I’ve made it three in a row!
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