Vol. 1 No. 3 ThMe etropolitan Forsest Hills CC #9 dly Presen rou ted UPCOMING OLD WARSON CUP P By EVENTS Caravia downs Cusumano in extra holes for title. Norwood Hills player wins on Exclusive Corporate Partner 2014 USGA E VENTS the first extra hole as he overcomes a 2-down situation US A MATEUR PUBLIC LINKS over the final 9 holes. June 9-10 (Continued on page 7) Aberdeen Golf Club US S ENIOR OPEN June 16 Sixteen of the finest Women CC at the Legends Amateurs in the World will de - scend on St. Louis Country Club US J UNIOR GIRLS June 6-8 for the 38th playing of JUNE 25 the Curtis Cup Match. BOGEY HILLS CC Ellen Port, a two-time Curtis ENTRY DEADLINE : J UNE 4 Cup Player (1994 and 1996), and six-time USGA champion (four MAGA E VENTS U.S. Mid-Amateur titles and two U.S. Senior Women’s champion) EAST SIDE AMATEUR and a twelve-time Metropolitan June 14-15 Women’s Amateur winner, will Phil Caravia with the Old Warson Cup Lockhaven GC after claiming the title. captain the USA team. This marks the sixth USGA Entry Deadline: June 7 championship held at St. Louis NORMANDIE AMATEUR WOMEN ’S AMATEUR Berkmeyer claims his fourth Country Club. The event will mark USGA June 24-25 Normandie title in five years. President and MAGA Founder Forest Hills CC Skip Berkmeyer really likes Tom O’Toole’s first championship Entry Deadline: June 11 playing at Normandie. Why during his term as president of the wouldn’t he? He’s won the event organization. six times (2001, 2006, 2010, 2011, Parking, shuttles and Admission 2013 and 2014) and finished to the Match is free of charge. See page 9 for second on eight other occasions. Please visit www.2014curtis - full schedule (Continued on page 8) cup.com for additional details. Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association • 11777 Clayton Rd. • St. Louis, Missouri 63131 314.567.MAGA • Fax: 314.261.9250 • [email protected] The Metropolitan May 2014 STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Curt Rohe - [email protected] CURT ’S COMMENTS DIRECTOR , F INANCE For those of us who work Jennifer Langford - [email protected] in the golf business, it was one P.J. B OATWRIGHT INTERNS of the longest winters in recent Ian Davis & Eric Mendelson history. Well, May has come [email protected] and we are now in full swing. MAGA had a busy month… METROPOLITAN CHAMPIONSHIPS Old Warson Cup, Normandie Amateur Championship Amateur, US Open and US Curt Rohe Match Play Championship Women’s Open Qualifying Executive Director Open Championship rounds. Bottom line…we went Women’s Amateur Championship from waiting for the season to a Junior Amateur Championship full sprint! Senior Amateur Championship Metropolitan Cup Matches May started with a wonderful weekend at Old Warson Four-Ball Championship Country Club and the Old Warson Cup, we experienced Mid-America Junior Cup perfect weather for the first time in a long time. Phil Caravia emerged as champion, he has participated in USGA QUALIFYING ROUNDS several match play championships going back to the Taylor US Open Qualifying (Local and Sectional) US Senior Open Qualifying Cup at Boone Valley. He was very emotional in winning US Amateur Qualifying and as an administrator it makes me very proud of what I US Mid-Amateur Qualifying do. US Women’s Mid-Amateur US Junior Amateur Qualifying Beginning with this issue of The Metropolitan we will US Amateur Public Links Qualifying have monthly editions through August. Covering all of the US Senior Amateur Qualifying MAGA championships and USGA qualifying rounds US Women’s Open Qualifying conducted. US Amateur Four-Ball US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Our USGA Rules of Golf Corner feature this month is written by Dan LeGear, MAGA Rules Committee and EXECUTIVE BOARD USGA Regional Affairs Committee. Stanford S. Grossman – President Emeritus Thomas J. O’Toole, Jr. – Vice-President I urge all golfers reading this to come out to St. Louis Thomas O. Sobbe Jr. – Vice-President Country Club this week to witness the 38th Curtis Cup M. Ray McCraine – Secretary Match. This is an international event and we (St. Louis) G. Scott Engelbrecht – Treasurer need to show our support for these 16 talented young G.F. (Rick) Meyer Jr. – At-Large Member women who are playing for their countries. Very few of us H. Mick Wellington – At-Large Member have the opportunity to walk the hallowed grounds of St. ADVISORY COMMITTEE Louis CC...I cannot think of a better way to accomplish Scott Thomas, Chairman that then by attending the Curtis Cup matches. Dustin Ashby Tom Barry As always, if you have any suggestions or comments for Skip Berkmeyer us on The Metropolitan please email us at Jim Dunn [email protected] or email me directly at David Rhoads [email protected] . Enjoy this edition we have some great Curt Rohe content and pictures from The Old Warson Cup. 2 The Metropolitan May 2014 RULES OF GOLF CORNER (Continued ) CONNECT WITH US ... players in the group could see the ball land across the Visit us on FACEBOOK hazard nor did any see a splash. However, the player whose ball was involved as well as his two fellow Or for the Latest competitors were CERTAIN in their own minds that Updates... the ball clearly hooked into the water and did not At TWITTER clear the hazard on the other side of the lake. In their minds there was VIRTUAL CERTAINTY that the ball was in the water hazard. Since it was clearly a water hazard the player could not play a provisional ball. Based upon those facts the player whose ball was RULES OF GOLF CORNER involved declined to go forward to determine if the ball had in fact crossed the hazard, he treated the ball WHEN ISAFACT , N OT A FACT ? as being lost in the hazard and he dropped a ball on the forward tee under Rule 26-1.b. (dropping a ball When a ball is struck toward a water hazard it is a on a point between the flagstick and the spot where question of fact whether it is in the hazard! In order to the players agreed that the ball last crossed the margin treat the ball as in the hazard, there must be of the hazard, on the Tee side of the hazard some 15 VIRTUAL CERTAINTY that it is in the hazard. If yards ahead of where the player played his tee shot). the ball cannot be found, it cannot be played as though After the player dropped a new ball, but before he it is in the hazard unless there is VIRTUAL made a stroke at the ball, a spectator from across the CERTAINTY that it is, in fact, in the hazard. water hazard yelled out that the ball had been found Without that virtual CERTAINTY, the ball not found outside the water hazard. What is the procedure in is a LOST BALL and the player must proceed under this case? Decision 26-1/3.5 provides the answer. Rule 27-1 for a Lost Ball. Based upon the facts and the BELIEF of the player Decisions 26-1/1 and 26-1/1.3 go into great detail and his two fellow competitors that there was in discussing the issue of VIRTUAL CERTAINTY. VIRTUAL CERTAINTY that the ball was lost in the Sometimes there is VIRTUAL CERTAINTY that a water hazard, the player was justified in proceeding ball is lost in a water hazard, but the actual FACT is under the water hazard rule (Rule 26-1). AND, even that it is not in the water hazard because it has actually though his ball was actually found outside the water been FOUND outside the water hazard. This hazard before he made a stoke at the substituted ball situation came up during the 2014 Big XII Men’s Golf that he had dropped, once the player dropped a ball Championship held at Whispering Pines Golf Club under Rule 26-1b., that ball became the ball in play outside of Huntsville, Texas. under Rule 20-4 and the player had to proceed with The seventeenth hole at Whispering Pines is a Par that ball. So, even though it was a FACT that the ball 5 dogleg left where the tee shot has to carry a lake to was not lost in the water hazard, under the Rules of get to the fairway and the lake extends down the entire Golf, since there was VIRTUAL CERTAINTY that left side of the hole. Across the water hazard and all the ball was lost in the water hazard, VIRTUAL along the left side of the hole adjacent to the water CERTAINTY trumps the actual FACTS and the ball hazard, there is an area of tall heavy rough before it was, under the Rules of Golf, lost in the water hazard. turns into fairway and it is very difficult to see the red hazard stakes. The more a player tries to cut the Contributed by Dan LeGear MAGA Rules dogleg, the longer the carry is over the water hazard. Committee. The Rules of Golf Corner will feature a At the event, a player struck his tee shot and as it flew member of our Rules Committee. across the water hazard it was hooking. None of the 3 PUTT FOR DOUGH ? NOT TRUE SAYS ONE PROFESSOR . A PERSPECTIVE ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS WITH YOUR GAME ! We’ve all read the story lines: “Drive for show and putt ones game? Broadie says it’s because a putt is the last for dough.” Or how about “Greens in regulation is the key shot on a hole, giving it a higher than normal to low scores.” Then again, “Fiarways hit is the way to importance to players.