Minutes of the GENT'S HANDICAPS AND COMPETITIONS COMMITTEE MEETING 
held in the Clubhouse at 7.30pm
on Monday 8th February 2010

In attendance
Graham Turner ( Chairman), Pete Wood (Captain), David Crosby (Vice-Captain) and Tom Duke (Sec.Manager)

Apologies

David Welsh

1. Matters arising from meeting 4th December 2009.
      No Matters arising

2. Seniors open for Thurs May 20th 2010
 
      The following decisions were made

a    The format will be the same as last year:- a stapleford  singles competition over 18 holes for men over the age of 55.

      Players will need to produce a  current Active handicap or a handicap certificate.

b    The price would remain the same as last year, £25 for Non members and £20 for members.

c   A 2 course meal would be included in the price at a budget cost of £10 per head .

     GT to liase with TD with regards to menus

d   Coffee and Bacon Baps would be available prior to play at additional cost as required.

e   Prizes this year will be in the form of vouchers which can be spent over the bar or at any pro's shop throughout Norfolk or

     the home club of the away player.

     There will be a ratio of prizes of approx 1 : 8 with the first prize of £100 + the Mundesley Decanter

     + nearest the pin @1st/10th  hole and nearest 2nd shot at the 9th/18th hole.

f    There will be a raffle for Spirits and wine and maybe a star prize ( A tee time for up to 4 people playing at Mundesley GC)

g   As GT may not be able to attend due to work commitments, David Crosby offered his services for administration duties

     and it  was suggested that we appoint a starter ( possibly Alan Coles) .

     Vivien Rush has agreed to assist with the cards and recording scores. It was also suggested that Mike Foster be asked

     to draw up the start sheet and the results board. GT may need to co-opt further help.

h   Any surplus will go into club funds

3. Annual Handicap Review + list of Active and Inactive handicaps 
    TD produced lists of members with Active and Inactive handicaps. 
    Those members with active handicaps were considered for review purposes and a number were reduced in handicap and also

    a number were increased. Those members would be written to by TD to inform them of their new handicap.

    To encourage Inactive handicap members there would be a number of 9 hole competitions during the season together with

    the facility for entering Supplementary scores. A list of members with Active and Inactive Handicaps will be displayed on

    the notice board.

4. Knock out comps. 
    Hoare Cup, Mens Foursomes and Mixed Foursomes, 
    Entry forms for the above Knock out competitions will be going up on the relevant notice boards, with a closing date of 

    19th March 2010

5. Seniors Closed Centenary Trophy to be played on July 12th 2010 
    Open to all male members 55+, date confirmed.

6. To encourage more Seniors to play in Club Cup comps, extend Sat/Sun trophy comps to be played on Mondays as well. 
    This was suggested by GT, however, the committee voted against this proposal believing it would have no additional impact

    on the number of entrants.

7. Vouchers 
    Vouchers outstanding for the year 2009 should still be spent with Lee Patterson. However, for the year 2010 and beyond it

    was agreed that members should be able to spend vouchers over the bar both for drinks and food. It was also

    recommended that competition vouchers could be spent at any Norfolk professionals shop.

    Tom would inform all professionals and be responsible for administering this task.

    This would be brought to the next full board meeting

8. Entry fees for Club cup comps, monthly Medals and Staplefords for 2010. 
    Fees to remain the same as 2009, ie. Entry to competitions £2, Optional sweep £1

9. Clarification of Organisers for Myhill, Cullington, Barnard, and Scratch League matches. 
    The captain will be responsible for the Myhill trophy.

    The vice-Captain will be responsible for the Cullington Trophy.

    The Captain will ask Derek Rush to be responsible for the Barnard trophy.

    The Captain will confirm with Stephen Smith to be responsible for the Scratch League.

10.Club Handicap Championship. 
     It was proposed by GT that playing partners should be drawn and starting times allotted for the above competition to

     differentiate it from any other club competition. After much discussion it was decided  not to instigate this proposal as it

     was felt by the majority that it might reduce the number of entrants.

11. Coronation Bronze

     It was agreed that this competition will revert back to it's original format, MIXED FOURSOMES

12. Mark Atkinson Scratch Cup
      The following rules have been modified

      a.      To be awarded to the player with the lowest scratch score played in a stoke play competition during the calendar year.

      b.      The competition must be played off White Tees

      c.      The trophy to be presented at the annual prize giving of that year.

13. Playing numbers should not be restricted on entry to  Captains and Presidents Days.
      GT suggested that on Captains Day and Presidents days that the field should not be restricted to 52 entrants as he felt

      every member had a right to enter. If oversubscribed then a balloting system be imposed.

      The Captain was not in favour of this idea and his day will remain being Mens singles in the morning and a mixed competition

      in the afternoon.

14. Any other Business
      The issue of whether Juniors should be allowed to enter all club competitions with the exception of the Hoare Cup, was

      raised again and was decided that they should be allowed to continue to play in these competitions.

      There being no further business the meeting was closed at 10.15pm

Minutes of the Unified Handicaps and Competition Meeting, Thursday March 11^th 2010,

held in the clubhouse at 7.30 pm.

In Attendance

Graham Turner (Chairman), Bridget Roper, Lesley Allen, Chris Watson, David Crosby and David Welsh.

Apologies

Tom Duke, Peter Wood

Graham Turner opened the meeting and explained that as this was the first meeting of the new committee and the 3 male members had not been on this committee before, some items on the agenda were covering ground on decisions made by previous UHC committees, but at least we could all voice our opinions and make any changes if necessary.

1                    Course Measuring Devices

A full discussion took place on the pros and cons. Although not many current members may have such a devise, GT explained that they would become more widely available in the future and they were simply another development of Golf technology. The Ladies had already decided through their own committee that they would not allow them to be used in any of their competitions or open competitions organised by their committee. They were following the EWGA’s attitude in that they are not allowed for ladies county regional or National competitions   The Men opted for a different view and would allow them in any of their club tournaments and any open tournaments organised by the Mens committee.

GT also explained that the Norfolk County Union and the English Golf Union permitted their usage in their competitions. This ruling would allow the devises to be used in the Rush Trays and the Coronation Bronze tournaments.

2                    EGU / EWGU Merger

GT reported that on the 23^rd February 2010 agreement had been reached to merge the EGU and the EWGA. Bridget reported that she believed there was an issue over the ratio of Men : Women on the national executive and this still had to be resolved as she thought the current ratio was around 5:1 in favour of the men and this was unacceptable to the EWGA.

3                    Handicap Adjustments for women when playing against men at Mundesley

Chris Watson presented a CONGU paper laying out the rules for handicapping of mixed competitions. Under the CONGU UHS ruling it was agreed that in all mixed competitions, ladies would receive an additional 4 shots (Handicap adjustment) when playing an 18 hole competition over and above their current handicap because of the difference of the Mens SSS (66) against the ladies SSS (70). In 9 hole competitions the ladies will receive 2 shots. Chris agreed to investigate the ruling where for example a lady playing off a 33+ handicap +4 Handicap adjustment shots would go over the maximum CONGU handicap.

4                    Womens Card – 17^th hole – Compliance as a par 5 under CONGU  UHS system.

GT raised this matter as it stated in the CONGU handbook in the table on page 25 that the minimum length of a Ladies par 5 hole should be 380+ yards. On taking advice from the EGU and the EWGA see attachment for Audit trail of correspondence comments

It was agreed by all that the current card was acceptable and no change was necessary.

5                    Open golf competitions website – arrangements for mixed open to be featured

Following the last general committee meeting it was agreed that the club should advertise their open competitions on the opengolfcompetitions.co.uk website. CW commented that the Mixed Open in May was already full, but it was agreed that this should still be flagged up on the website for publicity purposes.

6                    Centralisation of Handicaps

Tom Duke reported at the last general meeting that 4 Norfolk clubs had now downloaded their handicaps to the centralised database. GT updated this figure following a conversation with the men’s county secretary, David Horsborough, who now believed there were about 10 clubs on the database.

7                    Changes in competition policy – Active  / Inactive Handicaps

This had been covered by the previous committee and Peter Wood’s notice was displayed in the clubhouse to that effect, outlining the requirements.

8                    Stroke allowances in Team comps – Do men play off Men’s card and ladies off ladies card.

In Team competitions where the best 2 or 3scores from the 4 players are recorded, there was a difference of opinion between the ladies and the gents present as to whether players should play off their full handicaps or whether they should only receive ¾ of their handicap. It was resolved in that  Ladies and Gents would make their own decisions independently, depending who was organising the competition and this would be posted on the relevant entry form. It was also agreed that we would follow CONGU’s recommendation that we would use the Ladies par and stoke index’s.

9                    Qualifying competitions November to April

It was agreed by all that providing that Medal play conditions exist and that the course length is not extended by more than 100 yards or reduced by more than 100yards, it shall be deemed to be a Qualifying competition and handicaps should be adjusted accordingly. In the case of Men playing off the yellow tees then the appropriate SSS of 65 shall be applied.

10                AOB

Incident

Ladies reported there had been a bunker incident with the greenkeepers whilst they were playing their competition on Wednesday, 10^th March. Apparently, a ball rolled into a bunker whilst the green keepers were carrying out renovation works and one of the greenkeepers threw the ball out of the bunker. GT was asked to speak to Tom Duke to resolve the issue.

May Seniors Open

Tom had sent GT a report to present to the meeting. GT reported that clubs had only just received their posters and entry forms and to date no entries had been received, although Tom had received some telephone calls. The committee expressed their concern that the advertising had only just been sent out.

Meeting closed at 8.45pm