2017 Yearbook (2)

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RULES & COMPETITIONS COMMITTEE REPORT Mike Pape, Chairman
There are a lot of
parts to what the IGA
Rules & Competitions
Committee oversees -
IGA Championships,
USGA Qualifiers, Rules
Administration and
Education - and overall
2017 was another
successful year for our
programs. The most
visible of these is certainly our championships.
The tournament season started with our first
trip to Beaver Hills Country Club in Cedar Falls
since 2003 when they hosted the
The championship was a home-run
as the weather was perfect and the course was
in fantastic shape. We are very grateful to have
BHCC back in the fold as a host.
The eturning to Cedar Rapids
Country Club was a highlight. While I (smartly)
didn’t try to take on the newly restored Donald
Ross venue as a player, I was able to make it over
and help for a couple days as a volunteer. I got to
witness first-hand how terrific that golf course is,
how wonderful the CRCC staff was to work with
and how the players navigated their way around
the difficult layout.
Seeing the at The
Harvester was a treat. It is easy to see why
the course is consistently ranked at the top
of the “state’s best” lists compiled by various
publications. The Keith Foster design provided
a stern test for the men and women on a nearly
perfectly manicured course, thanks to the
Harvester grounds crew.
Hyperion Field Club provided a terrific venue for
the where we had a 15-year
old (Britta Snyder) best the field by 13 strokes.
She was the 2nd youngest to ever win our state’s
biggest event for female amateurs.
It wasn’t long after our female amateurs were
competing at Hyperion when the best female
professionals gathered at Des Moines Golf &
CC for the The event is
run and administered by the LPGA Tour, but
they were gracious enough to include the IGA
in much of their festivities and responsibilities,
which made a great week that much more for
us.
We helped out as rules officials for the Junior
Solheim Cup and marshaled the 17th hole
during the big event. And while the U.S. team
came out victorious, the biggest winners were
Des Moines G&CC, golf in the state of Iowa
and female golfers from around the world.
Everything looked terrific on television and was
a blast in person. And it’s always nice when
the weather cooperates for a big event like that,
which it mostly did during Solheim Cup week.
The mild to severe (depending on where you
are in the state) drought throughout 2017
created issues for many of our member golf
courses, but that does create one positive
when it comes to running tournaments -
lack of suspensions. While we certainly still
experienced delays due to severe weather, it was
less than prior years. We were thrilled that we
didn’t lose any complete days this year, which
was a big change from 2016.
I want to take a moment to thank all the
members of the grounds crews that worked
so hard to give our players the best possible
playing conditions during our events, whether
we had weather issues or not. I make this
comment nearly every year as I write this report,
but it is important. The Superintendent and his
or her crew are the unsung heroes of the game
and deserve way more credit than they receive.
And it isn’t just the grounds crews that have
been so great to work with. In each and every
case we are met with tremendous cooperation
from our host sites and their staffs. We are very
lucky to have such willing partners.
In addition to our host staffs, we have continued
to train and grow our base of tournament
volunteers. They spend hours of their free time
out on the golf course helping us conduct our
events. It is their sacrifice and dedication that
help make these things go. One of their interests
is certainly education on the Rules of Golf, and
the rules were front and center in 2017 for sure.
The USGA and R&A announced in March
that the biggest update to the rules since the
first code was published in 1744 will take place
in 2019. The draft of the changes were made
available for all to see. They then let anyone
have the chance to comment and provide
feedback on the proposed changes for six
months.
The groups now are ciphering through all that
feedback to evaluate where edits and corrections
are necessary to the proposed changes. The
final code will be announced on March 1, 2018
and will go into effect on January 1, 2019. The
general feelings from most everyone we have
seen and talked to are overwhelmingly positive.
One of the exciting features of the updated rules
are that the USGA will create and embrace
new technology in their rollout of the rules.
Think along the lines of getting your phone
out and watching a video on how to take a
drop from a cart path, rather than pulling the
rules book out of your golf bag and flipping
through 100-plus pages of text. Now that’s a
big advancement for sure. You can view the
complete proposed new rules code at .
Because of this “overhaul” to the rules, we
have taken a bit of a break on sending our
staff and volunteers to the USGA-PGA Rules
Workshops. In fact, the USGA-PGA has
geared way down this winter in their offerings.
They went from offering around 20 workshops
to only 5 this winter. They will counter by
doubling their efforts in late 2018 and early
2019, with over 40 workshops geared toward
the new rules. We will be sending many
staff and volunteers to these classes, so that
we can continue to provide top-notch rules
administration at our championships as well as
all of our members and allied associations.
And speaking of our staff, I want to thank
them for their continued hard work and
dedication to the IGA and it’s membership.
They work long hours, but do it almost always
with a big smile. They are a huge asset and one
I don’t take for granted.
As we put a bow on 2017 we are already
looking forward to 2018. We have some
exciting things planned and feel we have
another outstanding group of host sites. So
don’t forget to enter some events beginning
March 1 and I look forward to seeing you on
the first tee.
Rules and Competitions Committee Report
President Mike Pape
Committee Chair