GPS in tournaments

[Riddell]

Hey guys
Not sure if this has been discussed before but I am curious whether or not I can use my skycaddie
in the Citizen Amateur as well as OVGA events?
Thanks alot

[gbower]

I don't about the Citizen Amateur but the OVGA is allowing rangefinders and GPS devices as long as they only provide distance and not slope or anything else.

[golfmajic]

I just went through the use of a SkyCaddie issue at our club.
To make to use of the device legal for competition requires a local ruling for the device.
Covered by the 2008 RCGA rules:
- 14-3 Artificial Devices: states "Rule may be introduced allowing the use of a distance measuring devices."

My interpretation is that a local ruling is required before a distance measuring device may be used in any sort of competition.
Our Inter-club rules now state such devices may be used.

[BC MIST]

I just went through the use of a SkyCaddie issue at our club.
To make to use of the device legal for competition requires a local ruling for the device.
Covered by the 2008 RCGA rules:
- 14-3 Artificial Devices: states "Rule may be introduced allowing the use of a distance measuring devices."

My interpretation is that a local ruling is required before a distance measuring device may be used in any sort of competition.
Our Inter-club rules now state such devices may be used.

Strange how Golf Quebec allows RF's/GPS in all their tournaments, the OVGA in all of theirs, The Citizen in it's and yet there are local clubs that may not?

Does your club allow a free drop from an embedded ball "through the green" or is it still strictly "by the book" and only allowed on a an area cut to fairway height or less? Time to get with the programme.

[AAA]

BC

The embedded ball TTG LR is widely used in North America even though conditions may not warrant it.
It is virtually unknown for it to be used in the R&A world outside Canada (the US influence ?) unless the general conditions on the course suggest it is required. We have had a very wet summer in the UK but I know of no courses that have invoked the LR.
We still see golf as a challenge.

[BC MIST]

BC

The embedded ball TTG LR is widely used in North America even though conditions may not warrant it.
It is virtually unknown for it to be used in the R&A world outside Canada (the US influence ?) unless the general conditions on the course suggest it is required. We have had a very wet summer in the UK but I know of no courses that have invoked the LR.
We still see golf as a challenge.

I don't disagree with your point that golf should remain a hard game to play well. With turf conditions here, some softening of the rules(range finders, embedded ball relief TTG... the game has been made a little easier, although what has made the game a lot easier is modern equipment, particularly the ball.

However, while the RCGA approved the embedded ball rule TTG as a standard local rule in tournaments for the country, followed by the provincial and local organizations, there are still many individual golf clubs who have not, solely because the person(s) responsible either do not know of their options or just could not be bothered to address them. The same applies to the stones in bunkers (a safety issue), relief from aeration holes, and other LR's.

It is my understanding that your turf conditions are different than those in North America in that embedded balls are much less likely to happen in the "rough" than in the "rough" over here. If this is true then it is easier to understand why the R&A "won the toss" to keep the embedded rule as is.