Banyan Golf League
199 8 Rules
Juniper Hill Golf Course




                                        May 6, 1998

                                        Version 7 . 1



























Table of Contents



1.   Golf League Committee


The golf league committee will consist of the following offices.
    President / Treasurer
    Scorekeeper / League Secretary
    Rules Judge / Scheduler
    

Description of officer responsibilities:



President / Treasurer


The President serves as the liaison to the golf course management, (securing tee times, resolving league problems, etc.). As Treasurer, he/she collects fees from all members and subs, pays the course management for each week's play, and keeps records of who has paid their dues and fees. In addition, he/she serves on the rules committee at the beginning of the season and, together with the other members of the rules committee, makes judgment calls during the season on all disputes that come up. In exchange for these responsibilities, the President / Treasurer is not required to pay dues on a weekly basis.

Scorekeeper / Statistician


The Scorekeeper / Statistician collects the scorecards each week after play and tallies up the points, awarding the points won to each team. He/she is also responsible for keeping track of all the player's handicaps and posting the results, handicaps, statistics, and standings each week in a timely fashion. He/she also serves on the rules committee before and during the season making judgment calls on any disputes. In exchange for these responsibilities, the Scorekeeper is not required to pay dues on a weekly basis.

Rules Judge / Scheduler


The Rules Judge is the chairperson of the rules committee before and during the season, providing a source of a ruling during and after a match. The Scheduler is responsible for posting a complete schedule including pairings, course assignments and tee times at the start of the season and, to post the schedule on position weeks in a timely fashion. In exchange for these responsibilities, the Rules Judge / Scheduler is required to pay one half of the weekly dues.

The term of office for all full-time positions is one year.

2.Membership


The total number of league memberships for the 1998 season is 40. Full-time memberships will first be offered to previous members in good standing from the previous year. Next, available spaces will be offered to subs from last year who actually served as a substitute for one of last year's members. If spaces are still available, they will be offered to any interested party on a first-come first-served basis -- including people who were on the sub list last year but never participated in league play. Should someone who desires membership be denied due to space limitations, they will be placed on a waiting list in the order they requested membership and automatically be entered into the sub list.

3.Fees and Payment


League entry fees will be $35 for each full-time member. The entry fee for subs is $10. The greens fees will be $15 a week for league members and will be collected in advance every four weeks. Greens fees are always paid in advance. Members *must* pay the League Treasurer before they can play that week. No money will be exchanged at the courses for greens fees during the regular season. A sign in sheet will be at Juniper Hill for each member to sign in to play their nine holes every Thursday night. Subs that will be playing for the full-time members will also sign the sheet next to the full-time members name. Subs will not exchange any money for the nine holes played. It is the responsibility of the full-time member and sub to arrange payment.

No member will play golf if they fail to pay the monthly green fees. If necessary they will be asked to leave the golf course.

Members and subs will be individually responsible for paying for their rounds during the weeks devoted to establishing handicaps.

4.League Courses


All League matches will be played at Juniper Hill Golf course in Northborough.

5.Leagues / Divisions


For the 1998 season we will play with two divisions in the league. The A division will be a competitive group and the B division will be for players that wish to play in a less competitive environment.

6.Awards


The following trophies will be awarded in the A division for regular season play:
    First place team
    Second place team
    Third place team

The following Playoff Award will be given out at the completion of the playoff portion of the season:
    League Champions
    
The following Miscellaneous Awards may be given at the season end if approved by the officers at the completion of the season:
  Biggest Sandbagger
  Most Improved, each league
  Hardest Worker
    Perfect Attendance

The B division members will be polled during the season to see if they desire a regular season awards and if they would like to have a playoff within that division.

In addition, there will be a small weekly award of some kind for low net and low gross. No individual will be allowed to win the low net award more than twice and low gross will be awarded at most once to any individual. This will be announced on Monday morning after all the scores have been tallied so, golfers not completing their rounds at the scheduled time will not be eligible for this award.

7.Schedule of Play


The day and time of scheduled play will be Thursday nights beginning at 5:04 PM at Juniper Hill. The tee times at Juniper Hill are for the Riverside course front and back nines and the Lakeside course front nine. Our intent is to have 2 weeks of handicap rounds, 13 weeks of regular season, and 4 weeks of playoffs. The schedule has 2 rain / tournament days built into it during the regular season. If no week has been rained out, a tournament may be held on these days. If , however, a make-up week is necessary, it will be held instead.

8.Teams


 This year, there will be a total of 20 teams within the two divisions. Each team will be made up of two full-time players from the league's roster. Once the teams have been formed, each team will be made up of an A & B player. The player with the lowest handicap will be the A player for that week, and the highest handicap player will be the B player. The A & B players for each team may vary during the season depending on their consistency of play which determines their handicap. Either player may play 'A' for any given week however if the team decides that is what they wish to do but they must inform their opponents on or before the first hole of their match.

9.Match Schedule


 The season will begin as soon as the weather and course conditions allow. The first two weeks of the season will be dedicated to establishing handicaps. All members will be expected to play and subs will be encouraged to turn in scorecards as well.

The regular season will consist of 13 weeks with the possibility of 2 scheduled non-league tournaments in case of rain days. Each of the teams will play the others in their division at least once. In addition, there will be at least one position round during the season. A position round is where each team is matched up against the team immediately above or below them according to the standings at that time. In other words, the team with the most points will play the team with the second most points, the team in 3rd place will play the team currently in fourth place and so on.





10.  Alternate Scheduling
  1. If a match cannot be completed at the scheduled time, an alternate match time must be agreed upon by both teams and registered with the League Scheduler by Noon on the day before the originally schedule match.
  2. Opponents must play at the same time on the same course.
  3. If there is a dispute regarding the time or course selection, the team that is requesting the alternate time must give way. It is the responsibility of the teams involved to arrange the alternate tee time with the course.
  4. Matches must be completed and scorecards turned in by Noon of the day before the next scheduled match.

  1. In all cases, the League Scheduler must be informed of the number of golfers who will not be playing at the scheduled tee time by Noon on the day before the originally scheduled match. The substitution rules of "Late" and "No Show" apply if notification is not performed.


11.  Playoffs
After the regular season, we will have a round robin playoff tournament. In all of the round robin tournaments all teams will start with zero points. Each group will play a three week schedule and play all teams in the group one time. The end of regular season final standings will determine in which group you participate in. The following format will be used :

To determine the League Champions, the following groups will play a round robin tournament. The team with the most points in each group will play for the 1st and 2nd place. The teams with the second most points in each group will play for 3rd and 4th place, and so on for places 5th through 8th.

  Division A 1st Place Team           Division A 2nd Place Team
     Division A 3rd Place Team         Division A 4th Place Team
     Division A 6th Place Team         Division A 5th Place Team
     Division A 8th Place Team         Division A 7th Place Team



12.  Substitutes
A substitute should be acquired either by direct negotiation with a substitute or EMail to the Sub Mailing List (SUBS@HACKERS@BANYAN or SUBS@BANYAN.COM). The league scheduler must be informed of any substitutions that are to be made. You will not be re-embursed golf dues for days missed. Substitutes are responsible to pay the players they are taking the place of. The league officers will not be involved in the re-embursment of funds for players/substitutes. Failure to make a valid attempt to find a substitute (sending a message no later than Wednesday at 1:00) will result in an additional two stroke penalty added to the blind score of the missing player. It is the responsibility of the team members to communicate with each other and find substitutes for themselves or their partners.

All members of the golf league are on the following two list GOLFERS@HACKERS@BANYAN and GOLFERS@BANYAN.COM


 1 3 .  Weather

Bad weather does not mean an automatic cancellation of league play. Decisions will be made by a "Weather Council" made up of no fewer than three anonymous members selected by the President. Unless notified by electronic mail prior to 4:00p.m. on league day, league members should go to the golf course prepared to play. In the event that some teams do not conclude a match that has progressed through at least six holes due to weather conditions, the teams will split the remaining holes. If an entire match has to be postponed because of weather conditions, the match will be rescheduled at the convenience of the four members and a scheduled time will be submitted to the president no later than 3:00p.m. the day of the proposed make-up. The submitted rescheduled time will be considered just as binding as a regularly scheduled match and will be treated exactly the same.




14.  Attendance & Late Arrivals
  1. Courtesy requires that golfers be prepared to tee off at least five (preferably ten) minutes before their scheduled tee time.
  2. "Prepared" means checked in and on the tee! If you are in the clubhouse, on the putting green or in the parking lot, you are not "Prepared!"
  3. If one or more golfers in a foursome are not prepared at the scheduled tee time, there are three options:
  4. The golfers that are present can choose to tee off without waiting. The tardy golfer must then join the group on the course and a blind score will be generated for holes that weren't played.
  5. If the next group is there and ready to tee off, they can trade their tee time with that group.
  6. The golfers can choose to go last, following the last scheduled group off the tee. In most cases, this will result in finishing the round in the dark, not to mention aggravating the course management.
  7. Any golfer wishing to withdraw from the league for any reason other than injury will be responsible to locate a replacement. The golfer will be responsible for up to two weeks Greens Fees if a replacement or substitute can not be found.


15.  Scoring


Each team is required to hand in an official score card at the completion of each match. At the beginning of each match, the four players should agree upon a designated scorekeeper for the round and it is this scorecard that is turned into the scorekeeper. The score card must be neat and legible in order for the scorekeeper to record the scores. The scorecard should show actual scores and full names - it is especially important to put full names in when one of the players is a sub. The scorekeeper will deduct handicap strokes from the actual score to calculate handicaps and net scores.

NOTE: The group should also agree before play begins which player from each team is the 'A' player and which is the 'B' player and therefor who is playing whom.

The following is a description of scoring match play between player A & B.

A vs. A player                  =    2 points per hole18 total
B vs. B player                  =    2 points per hole18 total
Total Team score                =    2 points per hole18 total
Stroke play A net vs. A net       =    2 points         2 total
Stroke play B net vs. B net       =    2 points         2 total
Team net vs. Team net            =    2 points         2 total

Total score               =              60 points

The team total will be the sum of points taken by A & B.

All strokes taken at the ball after it has been addressed count toward your score on that hole. Namely, if you swing at the ball and miss, the stroke counts. In order to keep play flowing, the maximum strokes on a hole will be par plus 5; in other words, 8 on a par 3, 9 on par 4s, and 10 on a par 5. All balls will be picked up when this maximum is reached. There is a difference between a legitimate 9 and a maximum 9. If two players have recorded a score of 9, but one of the 9's was actually 9 strokes and not a 'pick-it-up-after-9', then that player wins the points for that hole. Also, any handicap strokes a player is owed on a hole are forfeit if the maximum is reached -- more about this under Match Scoring. The designated scorekeeper for the match will put an M next to all "maximums" to distinguish between a legitimate 9 and a 'picked up after reaching maximum' 9.

If there is a tie between two players, then each team is awarded 1 point.