Weekly Competition Results
Wednesday 04 September 2024 (Flags)
Business League Round 8
First place: Team Robins
Second place: Team Fire Balls
Friday 06 September 2024 (IPS)
Puma Energy Competition
- No competition took place
Wednesday 11 September 2024 (2 Ball Better Ball)
Wednesday 18 Hole Competition
First Place: Steve Oliver & Graeme Ambrose
Second Place: Arend Gagiano & Kevin Jordaan
Friday 13 September 2024
- Witteberg Golf Day
Wednesday 18 September 2024 (Skins)
Wednesday 18 Hole Competition
- No competition took place
Friday 20 September 2024 (IPS)
Puma Energy Competition
- No competition took place
Wednesday 25 September 2024 (Medal)
KWV Thirsty Thousand
- No competition took place
Friday 27 September 2024 (Bonus Bogey)
Ciglers Meat Competition
- No competition took place
HNA News
“This month, take a closer look at what the Low Handicap Index™ is, and its role in maintaining fair play through the soft cap and hard cap procedures. We are also proud to feature a tribute to South African golf legend Gary Player, celebrating his incredible career and contributions to the game.
HANDICAP NEWS
Understanding the Low Handicap Index™ and Caps on Handicap Increases
Your Low Handicap Index (Low HI) is a true measure of your potential, reflecting your best demonstrated ability over the past 365 days. It acts as a consistent reference point that your current Handicap Index® (HI) is measured against. Once you’ve logged at least 20 scores, your Low HI is established, and constantly re-evaluated with each new score submission.
In simple terms, your Low HI is like a mirror showing how well you can play. It's there to ensure your handicap stays fair over time, even if your recent scores don’t fully reflect your usual performance level.
How does the Low HI work?
- Tracking consistency: The Low HI ensures your Handicap Index reflects more than just recent form; it considers your consistent ability over time.
- Updated with every round: As each new score is posted, the system compares your current HI to the Low HI and updates accordingly.
- Ensuring fairness: A player's Low HI ensures that temporary dips in form do not unfairly inflate the player's handicap.
But what happens if your Handicap Index starts rising? Here’s where the Soft Cap and Hard Cap come in to regulate how much it can increase.
Limits on Upward Movement: The Caps
- Soft Cap:
The soft cap kicks in when your Handicap Index rises more than 3 strokes above your Low HI. If the increase is greater than 3 strokes, the amount beyond 3 is halved. This means that only 50% of the increase over 3 strokes is applied to your Handicap Index, preventing sudden, large jumps. Think of it as a cushion that softens any steep rise in your handicap, ensuring gradual changes.
- Hard Cap:
The hard cap is a strict upper limit. After the soft cap has been applied, the system ensures that your Handicap Index never exceeds 5 strokes above your Low HI. This guarantees that no matter how out of form you may be, your handicap cannot rise by more than 5 strokes, compared to your best form over the past year.
While there are limits to how much your Handicap Index can increase, there is no limit to how much it can decrease. This ensures that improvements in your game are fully reflected in your handicap.
This system of Low HI, soft caps, and hard caps is designed to keep your handicap fair and balanced. It takes into account your best performance while also protecting you from unusual slumps, keeping the game competitive and enjoyable for all players. In the words of legendary golfer Arnold Palmer, “Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character.” Your Low Handicap Index is a reflection of that strength!” Quoted from Handicap Network Africa
Rule of the Month
Purpose of Rule: Rule 6 covers how to play a hole – such as the specific Rules for teeing off to start a hole, the requirement to use the same ball for an entire hole except when substitution is allowed, the order of play (which matters more in match play than stroke play) and completing a hole.
6 Playing a Hole
6.1 Starting Play of a Hole
6.1a When Hole Starts
A player has started a hole when they make a stroke to begin the hole. The hole has started even if the stroke was made from outside the teeing area (see Rule 6.1b) or the stroke was cancelled under a Rule.
6.1b Ball Must Be Played from Inside Teeing Area
A player must start each hole by playing a ball from anywhere inside the teeing area under Rule 6.2b.If a player who is starting a hole plays a ball from outside the teeing area (including from a wrong set of tee-markers for a different teeing location on the same hole or a different hole):(1) Match Play. There is no penalty, but the opponent may cancel the stroke:
- This must be done promptly and before either player makes another stroke. When the opponent cancels the stroke, they cannot withdraw the cancellation.
- If the opponent cancels the stroke, the player must play a ball from inside the teeing area and it is still their turn to play.
- If the opponent does not cancel the stroke, the stroke counts and the ball is in play and must be played as it lies.
(2) Stroke Play. The player gets the general penalty (two penalty strokes) and must correct the mistake by playing a ball from inside the teeing area:
- The ball played from outside the teeing area is not in play.
- That stroke and any more strokes before the mistake is corrected (including strokes made and any penalty strokes solely from playing that ball) do not count.
- If the player does not correct the mistake before making a stroke to begin another hole or, for the final hole of the round, before returning their scorecard, the player is disqualified.
6.2 Playing Ball from Teeing Area
6.2a When Teeing Area Rules Apply
The teeing area Rules in Rule 6.2b apply whenever a player is required or allowed to play a ball from the teeing area. This includes when:
- The player is starting play of the hole (see Rule 6.1),
- The player will play again from the teeing area under a Rule (see Rule 14.6), or
- The player’s ball is in play in the teeing area after a stroke or after the player has taken relief.
This Rule applies only to the teeing area the player must play from in starting the hole they are playing, not to any other teeing locations on the course (whether on the same hole or a different hole).
6.2b Teeing Area Rules
(1) When Ball Is in Teeing Area.
- A ball is in the teeing area when any part of the ball touches or is above any part of the teeing area.
- The player may stand outside the teeing area in making the stroke at a ball in the teeing area.
DIAGRAM 6.2b: WHEN BALL IS IN TEEING AREA

The dotted line defines the outside edges of the teeing area (see definition of teeing area). A ball is in the teeing area when any part of the ball touches or is above part of the teeing area.
(2) Ball May Be Teed or Played from Ground. The ball must be played from either:
- A tee placed in or on the ground, or
- The ground itself.
For purposes of this Rule, the “ground” includes sand or other natural materials put in place to set the tee or ball on. The player must not make a stroke at a ball on a non-conforming tee or a ball teed in a way not allowed by this Rule. Penalty for Breach of Rule 6.2b(2):
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Penalty for first breach: General Penalty.
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Penalty for second breach: Disqualification.
(3) Certain Conditions in Teeing Area May Be Improved. Before making a stroke, the player may take these actions in the teeing area to improve the conditions affecting the stroke (see Rule 8.1b(8)):
- Alter the surface of the ground in the teeing area (such as by making an indentation with a club or foot),
- Move, bend or break grass, weeds and other natural objects that are attached or growing in the ground in the teeing area,
- Remove or press down sand and soil in the teeing area, and
- Remove dew, frost and water in the teeing area.
But the player gets the general penalty if they take any other action to improve the conditions affecting the stroke in breach of Rule 8.1a.(4) Restriction on Moving Tee-Markers, or Tee-Markers Missing, When Playing from Teeing Area.
- The location of the tee-markers is set by the Committee to define each teeing area and should remain in that same location for all players who will play from that teeing area.
- If the player improves the conditions affecting the stroke by moving any such tee-marker before making a stroke from the teeing area, they get the general penalty for breach of Rule 8.1a(1).
- If a player finds one or both tee-markers missing, the player should seek help from the Committee. But if the Committee is not available in a reasonable time, the player should use their reasonable judgment (Rule 1.3b(2)) to estimate the location of the teeing area.
In all other situations, the tee-markers are treated as regular movable obstructions that may be removed as allowed in Rule 15.2.(5) Ball Is Not in Play Until Stroke Is Made. Whether the ball is teed or on the ground, when starting a hole or playing again from the teeing area under a Rule:
- The ball is not in play until the player makes a stroke at it, and
- The ball may be lifted or moved without penalty before the stroke is made.
If a teed ball falls off the tee or is knocked off the tee by the player before the player has made a stroke at it, it may be re-teed anywhere in the teeing area without penalty. But if the player makes a stroke at that ball while it is falling or after it has fallen off, there is no penalty, the stroke counts and the ball is in play.(6) When Ball in Play Lies in Teeing Area. If the player’s ball in play is in the teeing area after a stroke (such as a teed ball after a stroke that missed the ball) or after taking relief, the player may:
- Lift or move the ball without penalty (see Rule 9.4b, Exception 1), and
- Play that ball or another ball from anywhere in the teeing area from a tee or the ground under (2), including playing the ball as it lies.
Penalty for Playing Ball from a Wrong Place in Breach of Rule 6.2b(6): General Penalty Under Rule 14.7a.
6.3 Ball Used in Play of Hole
Purpose of Rule: A hole is played as a progression of strokes made from the teeing area to the putting green and into the hole. After teeing off, the player is normally required to play the same ball until the hole is completed. The player gets a penalty for making a stroke at a wrong ball or a substituted ball when substitution is not allowed by the Rules.
6.3a Holing Out with Same Ball Played from Teeing Area
A player may play any conforming ball when starting a hole from the teeing area and may change balls between two holes. The player must hole out with the same ball played from the teeing area, except when:
- That ball is lost or comes to rest out of bounds, or
- The player substitutes another ball (whether or not allowed to do so).
The player should put an identifying mark on the ball to be played (see Rule 7.2).
6.3b Substitution of Another Ball While Playing Hole
(1) When Player Is Allowed and Not Allowed to Substitute Another Ball. Certain Rules allow a player to change the ball they are using to play a hole by substituting another ball as the ball in play, and others do not:
- When taking relief under a Rule, including when either dropping a ball or placing a ball (such as when a ball will not stay in the relief area or when taking relief on the putting green), the player may use either the original ball or another ball (Rule 14.3a),
- When playing again from where a previous stroke was made, the player may use either the original ball or another ball (Rule 14.6), and
- When replacing a ball on a spot, the player is not allowed to substitute a ball and must use the original ball, with certain exceptions (Rule 14.2a).
(2) Substituted Ball Becomes Ball in Play. When a player substitutes another ball as the ball in play (see Rule 14.4):
- The original ball is no longer in play, even if it is at rest on the course.
- This is true even if the player:
- Substituted another ball for the original ball when not allowed by the Rules (whether or not the player realized that they were substituting another ball), or
- Replaced, dropped or placed the substituted ball (1) in a wrong way, (2) in a wrong place, or (3) by using a procedure that does not apply.
- For how to correct any error before playing the substituted ball, see Rule 14.5.
If the player’s original ball has not been found and the player put another ball in play to take stroke-and-distance relief (see Rules 17.1d, 18.1, 18.2b and 19.2a) or as allowed under a Rule that applies when it is known or virtually certain what happened to the ball (see Rules 6.3c, 9.6, 11.2c, 15.2b, 16.1e and 17.1c):
- The player must continue playing with the substituted ball, and
- The player must not play the original ball even if it is found on the course before the end of the three-minute search time (see Rule 18.2a(1)).
(3) Making Stroke at Incorrectly Substituted Ball. If a player makes a stroke at an incorrectly substituted ball, the player gets one penalty stroke and must then play out the hole with the incorrectly substituted ball.
6.3c Wrong Ball
(1) Making Stroke at Wrong Ball. A player must not make a stroke at a wrong ball. Exception – Ball Moving in Water: There is no penalty if a player makes a stroke at a wrong ball that is moving in water in a penalty area or in temporary water:
- The stroke does not count, and
- The player must correct the mistake under the Rules by playing the right ball from its original spot or by taking relief under the Rules.
Penalty for Playing Wrong Ball in Breach of Rule 6.3c(1)In match play, the player gets the general penalty (loss of hole):
- If the player and opponent play each other’s ball during the play of a hole, the first to make a stroke at a wrong ball gets the general penalty (loss of hole).
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But if it is not known which wrong ball was played first, there is no penalty and the hole must be played out with the balls exchanged.
In stroke play, the player gets the general penalty (two penalty strokes) and must correct the mistake by continuing play with the original ball by playing it as it lies or taking relief under the Rules:
- The stroke made with the wrong ball and any more strokes before the mistake is corrected (including strokes made and any additional penalty strokes solely from playing that ball) do not count.
- If the player does not correct the mistake before making a stroke to begin another hole or, for the final hole of the round, before returning their scorecard, the player is disqualified.
(2) What to Do When Player’s Ball Was Played by Another Player as Wrong Ball. If it is known or virtually certain that the player’s ball was played by another player as a wrong ball, the player must replace the original ball or another ball on the original spot (which if not known must be estimated) (see Rule 14.2).This applies whether or not the original ball has been found.
6.3d When Player May Play More Than One Ball at a Time
A player may play more than one ball at a time on a hole only when:
- Playing a provisional ball (which will either become the ball in play or be abandoned, as provided in Rule 18.3c), or
- Playing two balls in stroke play to correct a possible serious breach in playing from a wrong place (see Rule 14.7b) or when uncertain about the right procedure to use (see Rule 20.1c(3)).
Rule for the Month