And ...

Broken Joe
May 8, 2020
4 min read

Updated: May 11, 2020

Massachusetts has finally followed its neighboring States and has opened its golf courses, with some rules of course.

The new rules are no carts, no bunker rakes, and no caddies. I don’t know about the rest of you but I don’t know what I’m going to do without my caddie.

You may carry your bag or use your pushcart, golfers must maintain social distance (6 feet) at all times, a group of players is restricted to no more than 4 players (duh, who wrote these rules?), 15 minutes between tee times (used to be 8), you cannot check-in more than 15 minutes before your tee time and you must use your clubs, sharing clubs is not allowed

Clubhouse, golf shop, restaurant bag room, and locker rooms must remain closed. Driving range and practice putting greens are closed. Bunker rakes have been removed and flag stickers must remain in (don’t touch them).

It wouldn’t be Broken Joe Golf if I didn’t add more rules…

Groups are assigned by Handicaps.

a. Group One: Cody (10), Dave (7), Bryan (3) & Jake (3)

b. Group Two: Chris (0), Joe (0) , Rey (0) and Rock (0)

c. Group Three: Joe Willie (1), Cirelli (3), Dan (3), and Steve (3)

d. Group Four: Nic (7), Adam 10), Jon (14), and Matt (14)

A person from each Group will make their group's tee time based on the schedule. This will help with Social Distancing. Once you have a day and a tee time, pass that information along to the Commissioner for the blog.
Tee times can be made for Saturday or Sunday but you MUST play in your group. All on Saturday or all on Sunday.
The earliest you can check-in is 15 minutes before your tee time. If you get there early, sit in your car and think about the extra sleep you could have gotten.
Have a mask and be ready to wear it.
Try to maintain 6 feet of social distancing. If for some reason you can’t, put your mask on.
Each group will use one scorecard. The scorecard will be texted to the Commissioner. Print neatly or you get the score that I read.
Any putt that is inside the length of your putter will be a “give me” but you will need to include one more stroke in oder to finish the hole.
BJG’s Closest to the Pin and Longest Drive is on hold until most of the State’s restrictions have been lifted.
Once the round is over, go home and wait for the blog.
The awarding of trophies will happen at a later date, maybe a BBQ when social distancing is a thing of the past or when we can have a gathering of 16 or more people.

Lost ball off the tee.

a. Taking the drop.

i. Start walking to where the ball went into the woods

ii. Take a quick look (not a 3-minute look) to see if the Golf Gods kicked it out.

iii. Go straight across to the fairway from where to ball was lost to the fairway. Measuring 2 club lengths, drop the ball on the fairway. You are now hitting 4.

b. Hitting a provisional

. You hit your first drive and it as gone. Dropping 2 and now hitting 3.

i. If your 3rd shot is playable, you have 3 minutes to look for your first ball

ii. If your 3rd shot is also gone, take a quick look (not a 3-minute look) to see if the Golf Gods kicked it out your 3rd shot (no looking for the first one because it is no longer in play).

iii. Go straight across to the fairway from where to ball was lost to the fairway. Measuring 2 club lengths, drop the ball on the fairway. You are now hitting 6.

Lost ball 2nd or more shot – Works the same way as off the tee. Take the drop for 2 strokes or roll the dice with a provisional ball.

Once the actual BJG season starts, we will be 49 days behind schedule so let’s make the best of the situation. We only have 7 rounds of golf before we start the Fed Up Cup. Here is the new schedule. Please be flexible because no one knows what is coming next.

Still confused...

Our season will start the weekend of May 15/16 with the Pan AM - AM, AM, AM, AM & AM. This will give us all a chance to get back into the “swing” of things without worrying about losing a Major right out of the gate. Because some of us are older and some of us have been sitting on our couches for the last 45 days, we will start the season at Rolling Meadows County Club in Ellington, CT where they will allow us to use a cart. Points will be based on total group scores. Get your tee times today.

On May 30 / 31 is our first Major, the Misters, and will be once again played at Rolling Meadows County Club since, one, they let us use carts and two, we already have had a “practice” round there.

On June 13 / 14 the plan is to start playing in Massachusetts with the Pretenders at St Annes. Hopefully, we won’t be walking 18 holes.

On June 27 / 28, we play our 2nd Major, the Fathers & Uncles Invitational at St Annes. Again, you had a practice round.

On July 11 / 12 is the Rosey Palmer Invitational at Veterans (hopefully).

On July 25 / 26 we have our 3rd Major, the American Freedom Open at Veterans, or wherever we played the Rosey Palmer Invitational.

On Aug 8 / 9 we play our final Major, the BJG Championship. Remember, the first 3 Majors count towards the first 3 rounds of the BJG Championship with Aug 8 / 9 being the final round (4th).

That, in a nutshell, is the BJG regular season. We will see how life goes up until August 8 / 9 to see if we can get back to playing golf as a group and on the same day and with consecutive tee times.

Now that we can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel it’s time to clean off those clubs and start stretching. Since we may be walking 18 holes, you might want to take a break from smoking and start some cardio exercises.