Where are the elders to help guide us back to the real spirit of golf?

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

The concept of presenting disputes to a committee or a council of elders is older than anyone alive today.

There is, however, a major defect with our people today as they are constantly on the move and have renounced the need for rules and the need for the council of elders.

The rough-and-ready justice of the “chief” will serve the community well since he will settle disputes quickly and he is well acquainted with the individuals and is sympathetic to today’s “busy” lifestyle. There is no time to waste on the council of elders.

It is easy to understand how this translates to the game of golf. The “chief”, the golf captain, in many golf clubs is inevitably finding it more and more difficult to deal with every case personally at his hearth. He has abdicated his role to the starters and the golf administrators.

However, since the starters and the golf administrators are beholden to the members of the club, they will not do anything that will ruffle their feathers lest they lose their jobs.

The only problem with the current situation in the game of golf is that this was never the role of the golf captain to start with. At least not as far as the Rules of Golf are concerned.

Even after they were modernised and have now taken cognisance of the fact that we may no longer have the luxury of five hours to play a round of golf and that it will be better to spend less time on the golf course playing golf, the Rules of Golf have not found it fit to include the role of a golf captain.

Golf competitions must be run by a Committee - ahem: the council of elders perhaps?

This is why I was quite surprised that no one at Railway Golf Club made an issue of the article in The Standard on Monday with the headline “Johnny come lately secures Western jazz title” written by Mose Sammy.

In the article, John Macharia arrived late for his 7am tee time and still went on to win the tournament on Saturday.

From the article, it not clear how late Macharia was. If he was even a second late for his tee time, he should have earned a two-stroke penalty on the first hole.

In the article, Macharia caught up with his group on the first green which is a good indication that he was more than a few minutes late for his tee time.

The fact that he made a bogey on the par five, first hole after sending his second shot into the penalty area (we no longer have water hazards in 2019), tells me that he chipped the ball straight into the hole after taking the relief prescribed for putting another ball into play.

If Macharia actually played six shots on the first hole, and signed for it, he should have been disqualified from the competition for signing for lower score than he actually played.

A penalty for arriving late on the tee should have been included on the score for the hole. If Macharia was more than five minutes late for his tee time, then he should have been disqualified from the tournament.

No one, not even the Committee can give absolution for the sin of arriving late on the tee. 

It is sad that amateur golfers today play entirely to win and are unwilling to apply the requisite Rules of Golf lest they be defrauded of their booty by some random penalty. It would do golf a lot of good if we would only remember the true good in the amateur game is in the playing, not in the winning. 

The golfer who has played his best and lost has done his part and is entitled to feel an equal satisfaction to the winner in the day’s engagement.

For every competition, there must be a Competitions Committee to guide in matters of the Rules of Golf.

We need a council of elders to help guide us back to the true spirit of the game of golf.