Shortly after the awards ceremony for the Skylands Classic we heard a loud creak then crack then crash on hole 2 of Warwick. We ran up to find a large tree had just fallen across the fairway right next to the basket. This had my mind thinking..

Thinking in absolute worst case scenario, let's say a tree limb or tree injures a player during play (and disrupting the tournament while the player is being attended to.)

As TD, what would you do? You'd have 80 or so players with no idea what's going on, and a hole that's no longer playable due to EMT - you'll also have a "new" hole, but I know that discussion was handled on a different thread around here.)

Can you skip the hole? What do you do (scoring wise) with players who have already scored on the hole (let's say half a division had played it before the emergency occurred)? What about entire divisions who had played the hole? Can you have divisions AM1 use 17 holes for the round if it happened mid-way though their groups, but AM2 who had all played the hole have the full 18 holes for their round? I guess with ratings this would equate to two different courses, depending upon how many holes were played.

Has anyone experienced something like this? How was it handled?

Probably the best thing to do would be to bag the hole and remove it from the score cards that had played it. As long as there were 12 holes it would still "Rate"

13 holes to get rated. Eliminate the hole score is what I would do.

i'm with chuck, sucks for those who had already played it well, bonus for those who had played it poorly... but hey, what can ya do?

A fairly similar situation occurred at Grateful Disc earlier this year. On one of the holes, someone disturbed a bee hive and then left the hole. When the next group arrived, all of the bees were swarming around a few trees that were near the basket. This makes the hole unsafe for those who are allergic to bees. I called the TD, and he told us that while the bees were swarming, groups could skip the hole and then go back and play it at the end, when hopefully the bees calmed down. I think most groups played the hole anyway and just tried to throw around the bees, but I do know of a few folks who ran in, threw while running when they were close enough to their disc, grabbed the disc and ran out.

I'd assume if you had EMTs on a hole and it would only affect a few groups, tell the groups to skip the hole and go back and play it at the end.

I was looking to see if this was stated as allowed anywhere in the rules but didn't see it anywhere. Couldn't find it stated as NOT allowed either.

How about this situation:

Tournament has an "island hole". This is an area about 40' square bounded by concrete on three sides, and a rope is used to designate OB on the fourth side. From the players handout:

** Island hole (all divisions except Rec): You must make it on the island on your first throw, or move to the drop
zone with a penalty stroke. You must make it on the island from the drop zone, or keep throwing from the drop
zone with penalty until you make it on. You cannot lay up! You CANNOT retrieve your wayward discs if you
miss the island until you have holed out. If you are on the island and your putt leaves the island, return to the drop
zone with penalty. If you reach 9 strokes with penalties, stop playing the hole and enter a 9 on your score card.

So here is the scenario:

Player A throws and misses the island. The disc is clearly beyond the edge of the concrete. Two of the foresome have teed, and are waiting close by. They call it out. Player A comes to look at the lie, and goes to the drop zone and retees, proceeds to get a 6. Then after he has holed out with the 6, someone mentions a provisional. The provisional takes place from an approximate lie, since the disc had been removed. A gets a 2.

Two players believe the disc is out, the other two claim that the disc is laying in "wash" dirt (which it was), and that the wash dirt is connected to the dirt of the island, (which it was). The other two believe that the disc was outside of the vertical plane of OB.

So it's 2 vs 2, and we throw it to the TD.

What would you do?

Disc was out. It's no different from grass blades draped over an asphalt path that's OB. Disc touching the grass blades while completely surrounded by asphalt is still OB. The IB call doesn't "wash" here.

Inappropriate to cap a hole score at a number unless approved by the Tour Director.

Inappropriate to cap a hole score at a number unless approved by the Tour Director.



This was done by the TD to facilitate speed of play.

Doesn't change what I said.

If a hole might take too long requiring a scoring cap, the design is flawed for tournament play.

The reason it was done doesn't matter, it does not follow the rules of the game and needs approval.

You can't just pick up your discs and go on without holing out. To cap at 9 and be legal, a second drop zone should be added on the island at arms length from the basket. Throwing 1 from the tee, 3,5, and 7 from the first drop zone, then 9 from the second drop zone.

Got it. Thanks, guys.

How about this situation:

Tournament has an "island hole". This is an area about 40' square bounded by concrete on three sides, and a rope is used to designate OB on the fourth side. From the players handout:

** Island hole (all divisions except Rec): You must make it on the island on your first throw, or move to the drop
zone with a penalty stroke. You must make it on the island from the drop zone, or keep throwing from the drop
zone with penalty until you make it on. You cannot lay up! You CANNOT retrieve your wayward discs if you
miss the island until you have holed out. If you are on the island and your putt leaves the island, return to the drop
zone with penalty. If you reach 9 strokes with penalties, stop playing the hole and enter a 9 on your score card.

So here is the scenario:

Player A throws and misses the island. The disc is clearly beyond the edge of the concrete. Two of the foresome have teed, and are waiting close by. They call it out. Player A comes to look at the lie, and goes to the drop zone and retees, proceeds to get a 6. Then after he has holed out with the 6, someone mentions a provisional. The provisional takes place from an approximate lie, since the disc had been removed. A gets a 2.

Two players believe the disc is out, the other two claim that the disc is laying in "wash" dirt (which it was), and that the wash dirt is connected to the dirt of the island, (which it was). The other two believe that the disc was outside of the vertical plane of OB.

So it's 2 vs 2, and we throw it to the TD.

What would you do?



I would have started my own thread with the question..

I'd say you come back and play it later. That is totally unfair to a player who had a stellar hole with a great shot etc.. and it's unfair to the rest of the field to take away the score a person who tanked the hole.
What happens if say a person that shot a 7 or 8 on that hole ends up winning the tournament because that 7 or 8 was removed from their card. When the would have actually taken 4th or 5th place because of that 7 or 8?

Don't delete the hole, just come back and play it after the EMT have left.
If I were a TD that is what I would have done.