Ran into an interesting situation at a tournament this weekend. The course was a temporary 18 hole DG course set up on a municipal ball golf course. Based on concern that the DG tee areas might tear up the ground, the intention was to move the tees between the first and second round to reduce wear in a single area.
For the first round the front of the tees were marked with a length of rope, spiked down into the ground. When the course was set up the prior day two orange dots were painted on the ground to show the location of the round two tees. The plan was for local volunteers to shift the tees while competitors were at an off-site lunch between rounds.
At the morning players meeting it was announced that the local volunteers hadn't shown, and the competitors should move the tee at their starting hole prior to the second round. As it turns out this didn't go as well as planned.
Factors-
1. General DG chaos. Everything ran later than expected. Second round didn't start on time, cards were handed out at the last minute, people were scrambling to get out to their tees for the second round, etc.
2. About half of the holes had a long tee and a short tee.
3. A couple of the holes (not specifically identified) had no second tee location marked as the tee was on a hard surface (cart path).
4. No reminder was issued at lunch or when round two cards were assigned to move the tees.
5. In most cases the second tee position was within 20' of the first, but for some holes (not specifically identified) the second position was a much as 50' away.
6. The orange dots were small and hard to see in the grass.
While waiting at our first tee for the second round, I remembered that we needed to move our tee rope and we did so. We yelled to the other groups within earshot to remember to move their tees.
We played our first hole, and headed to the second. It looked like that tee rope had not been moved. We looked around for orange dots and didn't find any, so we played from the rope as we found it. A couple of holes later we passed by the group playing behind us and one of them told us that we'd played from the wrong tee. They'd found orange dots about 40' in front the original tee, and had gone ahead and moved the tee. Note that at least two groups had played the hole by then.
A few holes later we came to a tee that hadn't been moved, and we did find the orange dots close by. Two of my group wanted to move the tee, but myself and another player felt like the course had been "set" by that time and that we shouldn't be moving any tees. We called the TD who told us to play the course as we found it and not to move any tees. We once again encountered the group playing behind us and passed that information along.
As we played the rest of the round we encountered several more tees that hadn't been moved and played them as we found them.
I think that a few things happened here to cause the confusion. First, many groups simply forgot the brief mention at the morning players meeting to move tees. Second, players on holes with a long tee and a short tee moved the tee that they were playing from and didn't think to move the other tee. Third, some of the orange dots were hard to locate if you didn't know where they were supposed to be, so there may have been an assumption that the hole didn't have an alternate tee location marked. Last, a couple of the holes had no alternate location marked, but we didn't know which ones.
Ultimately no penalties were called (that I know of) for players or groups playing from incorrect tees. It is clear that at least one tee was moved after the round was started, but I don't know if others were moved. I believe that the TD took the scores as turned in and posted results based on that. Frankly I don't know what else he could have done as all of the field ultimately played from "wrong" tees no matter how you look at it.
I don't really have a rules question here, but would be interested in discussion of what could/should have been done in this case. Obviously it would have been better to have had the tees shifted during lunch, or at least to remind everyone to move (both) tees as players went out to their second round. Failing that, how would you have handled it??
For the first round the front of the tees were marked with a length of rope, spiked down into the ground. When the course was set up the prior day two orange dots were painted on the ground to show the location of the round two tees. The plan was for local volunteers to shift the tees while competitors were at an off-site lunch between rounds.
At the morning players meeting it was announced that the local volunteers hadn't shown, and the competitors should move the tee at their starting hole prior to the second round. As it turns out this didn't go as well as planned.
Factors-
1. General DG chaos. Everything ran later than expected. Second round didn't start on time, cards were handed out at the last minute, people were scrambling to get out to their tees for the second round, etc.
2. About half of the holes had a long tee and a short tee.
3. A couple of the holes (not specifically identified) had no second tee location marked as the tee was on a hard surface (cart path).
4. No reminder was issued at lunch or when round two cards were assigned to move the tees.
5. In most cases the second tee position was within 20' of the first, but for some holes (not specifically identified) the second position was a much as 50' away.
6. The orange dots were small and hard to see in the grass.
While waiting at our first tee for the second round, I remembered that we needed to move our tee rope and we did so. We yelled to the other groups within earshot to remember to move their tees.
We played our first hole, and headed to the second. It looked like that tee rope had not been moved. We looked around for orange dots and didn't find any, so we played from the rope as we found it. A couple of holes later we passed by the group playing behind us and one of them told us that we'd played from the wrong tee. They'd found orange dots about 40' in front the original tee, and had gone ahead and moved the tee. Note that at least two groups had played the hole by then.
A few holes later we came to a tee that hadn't been moved, and we did find the orange dots close by. Two of my group wanted to move the tee, but myself and another player felt like the course had been "set" by that time and that we shouldn't be moving any tees. We called the TD who told us to play the course as we found it and not to move any tees. We once again encountered the group playing behind us and passed that information along.
As we played the rest of the round we encountered several more tees that hadn't been moved and played them as we found them.
I think that a few things happened here to cause the confusion. First, many groups simply forgot the brief mention at the morning players meeting to move tees. Second, players on holes with a long tee and a short tee moved the tee that they were playing from and didn't think to move the other tee. Third, some of the orange dots were hard to locate if you didn't know where they were supposed to be, so there may have been an assumption that the hole didn't have an alternate tee location marked. Last, a couple of the holes had no alternate location marked, but we didn't know which ones.
Ultimately no penalties were called (that I know of) for players or groups playing from incorrect tees. It is clear that at least one tee was moved after the round was started, but I don't know if others were moved. I believe that the TD took the scores as turned in and posted results based on that. Frankly I don't know what else he could have done as all of the field ultimately played from "wrong" tees no matter how you look at it.
I don't really have a rules question here, but would be interested in discussion of what could/should have been done in this case. Obviously it would have been better to have had the tees shifted during lunch, or at least to remind everyone to move (both) tees as players went out to their second round. Failing that, how would you have handled it??
