Here's what was discussed at our Winter 2021 Board Meeting — now with more Geoff!
My "minutes" are complete shit, so I apologize in advance to the Board when I
misquote things:
New Membership
Dan was confirmed 5-0 for re-admittance to the Club, capping our Membership at
24 players. For the first time ever, if we have a prospective Member...
they'll be on a wait list.
John wanted the record to show that if Dan quits a second time, he's never
voting for him again. I feel this has to do with John's abandonment issues.
Dan re-joins the field with a 5.3 Index... increasing our number of "good"
golfers to three. This will have dramatic Rapture implications, assuming Dan
plays enough events to auto-qualify.
Elimination of Gimmies
This passed 5-0... but not without some hot debate and concerns. John was a
resounding "no" for awhile, despite the fact that we could always revisit the
policy this time next year. JW was also on the fence, creating a realistic
chance the motion could fail. In an unprecedented move, the Board decided to
eliminate gimmies, but with a special session after the Spring season
to re-vote on the rule.
For the Spring 2022 season, "gimmie putts" are outlawed. If you casually
miss a tap-in, it counts as a stroke.
Any gimmie related issues and concerns should be brought up to your respective
Board Member, so they'll have some insight when we re-vote in the Summer.
Buchert Ideas
- Eliminate Lift, Clean & Place: This only failed 2-3.
JW
& John voted to get rid of it, and play the ball down everywhere. Reasons
for the three "no" votes dealt with the year-round mud-ball conditions in
Florida fairways. Allowing you to clean a ball in the fairway is not only a
reward for a good (directional) tee shot... but also an added penalty for
straying into the rough.
There's a reason we require your ball to find the fairway on long drive payouts. It's
an important test of the game, and it's OK to give a little bonus for
accomplishing that goal.
Faz was very concerned with policing the elimination of LC&P in fairways —
as many of you (like Brendan's buddies) would just continue to roll your balls
anyway. Hopefully we don't have to penalize people for doing so
in the rough. Stop touching your rough balls!
- Allowing Lift, Clean & Place Everywhere: This failed 0-5. The quotes I
wrote down were: "No." and "Roundly rejected!"
- Relegation: This had zero chance of passing (failed 0-5 anyway), as
the Chairman would never allow membership to increase above 24 people (a By-Law change).
So without adding Members, we'd need two separate divisions within our current population...
perhaps 16/8 or 20/4. This would routinely demote those who miss a lot of
tournaments due to seasonal life situations. Dave, for example, travels to
Ireland and tends to miss events in the Summer. He would likely be relegated
in the Summer, only to be promoted in the Spring (unable to win the Spring Cup), and
then relegated again next Summer.
The idea just didn't seem to improve anything.
- Lock handicaps at the start of the season: Faz led the discussion
with: "That's the dumbest thing Buchert has ever said." It
then failed 0-5. We talked about updating handicaps MORE often, but we
didn't think even weekly updates was worth the additional time/effort needed.
There's also some concern with the lack of scores posted by certain people. So
for now, handicap revisions will continue on the 1st and 15th.
- "Good" pitchers lowered to -8, and perhaps making the worst player of that group pay for it?
The second part of this — having the worst player in a group pay for another persons good pitcher — failed 0-5. None of the Board had any desire to further penalize players beyond the +10 (net) pitcher(s).
The first part of this — lowering to -8 — failed 3-2 (4 votes needed to pass). Chandler and Geoff blocked it from happening. While this would undoubtedly increase the pitcher counts, we already run an unacceptable balance on owed pitchers. Chandler stated: "I'm not voting for any beer-related suggestion by someone who doesn't attend the bar."
That's not to say all suggestions aren't appreciated. Speaking of...
Gorecki Ideas
- Pay out each week's winners in cash: Failed 0-5. Chandler's quotes: "That asshole doesn't pay his league dues in cash... so why would I go get cash from an ATM to pay out winnings?"
And: "The purpose of pre-payment and Club Credit is to not deal with money changing hands before or after a tournament. Gorecki didn't like chasing down money in Naples... I don't like doing it 18+ times a year either."
- Pay out each week's winners in Venmo/PayPal/Zelle: Failed 0-5. More Chandler quotes: "Being paid electronically completely defeats the argument that he likes the feeling of receiving money after victories."
We've also historically had a lot of scorecard "inconsistencies." Standings aren't finalized until the next day, so we wouldn't pay out monies immediately following events anyway.
- Pay out any Club Credit balance over $130 at the end of every season: Failed 0-5. At this point John motioned to kick Gorecki out of the Club for "being a miser." The motion failed 1-4, but the time was 8:59pm for those who were betting the over/under on when it would be proposed.
Geoff wanted the record to show that it once took 2+ years for Gorecki to pay him a $3 bet. And when it finally happened, he paid in quarters.
The Chairman wants everyone to know that all balances were fully re-paid to each of the three people who retired from the Club in the "Club Credit Era." The accounting of such balances can be found on this blog in the Deadbeat List section. Chandler also suggested a $2.99 service fee for any balance withdraw before ending your Membership — but that wasn't officially voted on.
- Pay out skins AND stroke-play in the Skins Game: Failed 0-5. The Board congratulated itself for voting this down in 2019 and 2021.
- Collect and pay out additional money to the winner of each Match Play match: Failed 0-5. This adds zero value and each match can make their own side bets.
- Lift, Clean & Place in bunkers: Failed 0-5. Already a rule for your ball resting in a footprint.
Other Votes
- Lift, Clean & Place when it's cartpath only: We discussed this a lot, including how these decisions are currently made.
In general, if an entire course is cartpath only due to wet conditions, we've allowed LC&P everywhere except bunkers/hazards. If only one hole is cartpath only, we haven't historically ruled any additional relief. If a bunch of holes were cartpath only, we erred on just allowing LC&P on the entire course.
The point is... it's a game-time decision made by the Board. We discussed trying to make an objective "rule," but couldn't agree on anything that would pass. Especially when we have people who would point out that par-3s are always cartpath only, and thus one could then play LC&P on those holes.
One example was brought up about the 2021 Rapture, where our 2nd round at Vineyards miraculously wasn't cartpath only... despite being so the day before. We were rushed to the course (my fault), but because there were no restrictions we ruled you needed to play the ball down in the rough. Apparently on the first hole, Melberg and Travis were annoyed by muddy conditions in the rough and thought LC&P should have been allowed.
I didn't personally play this hole... so I can't comment on the specific conditions. Neither could any other Board member. But if it was as muddy as I'm being told, then "casual water" should have come into play (now called "Temporary Water" in USGA rule 16). If you stand next to your ball and water seeps up from the ground, then you get to move it (with lift, clean and drop). This is always the case, on every course, even in the bunkers (not hazards). If the ball was on dry land and just had mud on it... that's the rub of the green. Feel free to yell "mud ball!" after you hit it.
Of the 17 holes at Vineyards I did play, none of them needed to be LC&P in my opinion.
So we are going to continue to rule on flood-related LC&P on a case-by-case basis. Just talk with a Board member before any round in question.
- Comment links: The Board voted 5-0 to retire the "Pool Pump" comment link, in favor of "Shits Given".
