2014 GCCGL Season
The 2014 GCCGL will start on Thursday, April 24th with the traditional Florida Scramble. For those of you who do not know, a Florida scramble, sometimes referred to as a Step-Aside scramble, is the same as a Best Ball scramble but with a twist. After all four golfers hit their tee shots and select the best one, the players whose shot was selected, doesn’t get to hit the next shot. So in a Florida Scramble with teams of four, all four players tee off, the best shot is selected, then only three players hit their second shots. The best of the second shots is selected – and the player who hit it sits out the third shots; and so on until the ball is holed. A Florida Scramble helps spread the “best shots” around among teammates, but it does mean that one player has to sit out every shot. Another difference between the Florida and Best Ball scrambles is that each team DOES NOT need to use a drive from each player. No, I don’t know why it is called a “Florida” scramble. If anyone knows, please, share your vast golf knowledge with your GCCGL friends.
We have a new section on the award winning GCCGL blog/website; it’s called Kreyling Korner. Here you’ll find all kinds of tips on fashion, etiquette, golf and life from one of the most cerebral, insightful and multifaceted minds south of Hamilton, Kurt “Lipgloss” Kreyling, affectionately referred to as LG. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
We added a couple of new rules this season:
Section 2B-2 – Co-op Assumption (Ringer Rule)
States that if an official substitute, which is one who is listed on the substitutes list on the GCCGL website, is available on any given week and makes known his or her availability, then the member MUST secure said substitute BEFORE attempting to introduce an unofficial sub, which is one who is not on the substitute list on the GCCGL website. Only after all subs on the officially subs lists have been given the opportunity to sub, can one introduce a new potential sub after the season begins. Furthermore, under no circumstances, can a co-op, who is subbing for a member, call his buddy, brother, sister, acquaintance, stranger, co-worker, neighbor, girlfriend, boyfriend, relative or roommate to sub for another member.
Section 9C-3 – 3 M Rule (Matt McLinn Mercy Rule) – Battle Golf Rules Addendum
The rules of battle golf state, “if player A and player B are opponents, and player A loses a hole, player B may remove any club from player A’s bag (excluding the putter). Player A may not use the lost club for the remainder of the round, unless player A wins a hole and elects to take his/her club back from player B.”
The “3 M Rule” eliminates a golfer’s conscience. Consistent with the example above, if player A loses 5 consecutive holes and consequently a club on each lost hole to player B, player B – under NO circumstances – will be allowed to show player A “mercy.” If player B defeats player A on the sixth hole, and does NOT take a club from player A, player B has shown “mercy” on his opponent and shall be assessed a penalty.
The penalty for showing “mercy” on an opponent is the automatic loss of putter for two holes. Adherence of this rule is the responsibility of all members in a foursome. For example, players A and B are in a match and playing in the same foursome as players C and D (also in a match). Players A and B are responsible for monitoring players C and D and vice versa.
All rules can be reviewed at the Rules section of this site.
The schedule is set for all match play events and non-match play events. If there is a rain out on any date, except the last Best Ball scramble, then the schedule moves on to the next week’s scheduled event. All special events have also been scheduled. The following special events are scheduled for the last Thursday of each month:
Florida Scramble
Stableford Scramble
Pot Luck
Battle Golf
Best Ball Scramble
We tee off on Pioneer 10 on April, 24th promptly at 5:24pm. Lower handicap players will tee off first, followed by higher handicappers in order to speed up play while we have less daylight available. If the tee box is open, we encourage you to take advantage and tee off early so that no one finishes in the dark. If you cannot make it, please try and get a sub. See the Witzgall Incident in the rules for securing a sub for a scramble. We have 40 subs this season and many of them want to play! So, please make an attempt to get a sub and let’s strive for perfect attendance for all 18 weeks.
Good luck to everyone this season. It should be another fun and competitive season. Get out there and start practicing. New players, keep those score cards and turn them into Kurt Kreyling. Finally, if you haven’t done so already, please remember to register for a GCCGL account. This will allow you to comment on any blog post and start a dialog, thus creating a community feel which is what a blog is supposed to do. We encourage league participants to comment. We have a lot of funny, creative folks in this league and this could add another dimension to the GCCGL blog. It goes without saying, to please use discretion when commenting. We’ve been having issues with the registration plugin but you can still register. I will receive an email and will set a temporary password and send it to you. You can then log in using that temp password, then select the Profile link and change the password to whatever you want.
We hope to see you on the tee and as always, hit ’em straight!
George Almeida – GCCGL founder and co-commissioner
