Club Rules

  1. Post All of Your Scores, Strictly in Accordance with NET DOUBLE BOGEY as MAXIMUM SCORE: Your regular Club tournament scores are automatically posted for you after each tournament by our tournament director, with Net Double Bogey as Maximum Score per hole and the “Competition” designation. As to your own rounds between tournaments, members must post all scores promptly and strictly comply with USGA Handicapping guidelines. The new USGA handicap is designed to be updated daily following a new score posting, instead of the 1st and 15th of the month. Additionally, 9-hole scores are also counted and can be posted. See: https://www.usga.org/content/dam/usga/pdf/WHS_Change_Summaries_2020.pdf. The Dragons GC Handicap Chair and Tournament Directors monitors your posting and handicap history, and do have the discretion to adjust your tournament handicap within reason. Sandbagging is not cool, and the Board has sole and absolute discretion to take any and all necessary actions, including expulsion, to discourage the unsportsmanlike conduct.
  1. No Pay, No Play — Please register and pay for your tournament entry on time through the club website (https://dragonsgolfclub.org). You’re only registered for a tournament if you have paid your entry fee to the Club before the designated entry deadline. Please be considerate to our volunteer tournament directors and club treasurer, and pay and enter all tournaments as soon as they are opened for registration and as directed.
  1. Registration Payment Refund Policy: Cancellations made prior to the tournament entry deadline will be refunded in full. After the entry deadline, registration fees will not be refunded unless a replacement player can be found. It is your responsibility to find your own replacement.
  1. Medal Play — Putt Out Everything: All club tournaments are medal play in accordance to USGA Rules, which means there are no gimme’s and you will putt everything out. *The lone exception is the MAX 10 mercy rule, which we always call for — if you have taken 10 strokes and have not yet holed out, you are required to pick it up and put a 10 on the card.
  1. How do we break ties? In the event of a tie in stroke play, the winner is determined by a card-off of the players’ scores in the last nine holes, then last six holes, then last three holes, and finally the 18th hole. In net competitions, the percentage of the 18 holes played is applied to the players’ course handicaps (CH) to determine how many strokes they receive in the card-off. For example, 1/2 CH for 9 holes, 1/3 CH for 6 holes, 1/6 CH for 3 holes, and 1/18 CH for the last hole. Fractions of one-half stroke or more are counted as full strokes.
  1. Why do we use Amazon.com gift cards? USGA Amateur Rule 3–1 states that an amateur golfer must not play golf for prize money or its equivalent in a match, competition or exhibition. Rule 3–2 further caps prize vouchers to $750 in value or less. Gift cards are specifically approved by the governing bodies for clubs like ours. The lone exception is the hole-in-one prize at tournaments (Lawrence Ma ran into that one — $5000 won at the Sacramento Invitational a few years ago). Gambling or wagering is permitted, which is why our skins game is considered within the rules.
  1. Speaking of Aces… The Dragons started a hole-in-one pot in 2011, with $1 from everybody’s tournament entry fee each time going into this pot. The pot, which is growing steadily, will be awarded to the first Dragons member to make an ace on a Par 3 at a Dragons club tournament. We’ll start all over when somebody wins.
  1. Must Be Present To Collect. You must be present at the post-tournament awards ceremony to collect (1) golf balls or gift certificates for KPs, and (2) your tournament low finish Amazon.com gift card. The same rule applies to the skins games, except that if you cannot stay to collect skins won, such winnings are rolled over into the next tournament’s skins game pot; said winnings cannot be applied toward your next skins game entry. Unclaimed tournament prizes go straight into the club’s budget for the following tournament, the year-end banquet raffle, or the club operating reserves. We understand tournament days can get long, but it’s just once a month, and we consider it bad form to bail on your fellow members after competing together, beside it being an administrative pain to our already hardworking tournament directors and officers. So be a good sport, grab a pint, have a snack, get to know your fellow Dragons, get a poker game going, watch baseball, stick around, applaud the winners and pick up your prizes.
  1. How do we pick tee boxes for tournaments? Generally, we try to send the A Flight out at around 6600–6400 yards and the B Flight at 6200–5900 yards, but a course’s slope/course ratings are significant factors. The ladies generally play from 5200 to 5800 yards. If a course is rated at 130 or over, the Club Captain and tournament directors have the discretion to move all flights to the appropriate tees, in the interest of keeping the pace of play reasonable and just plain fun for everyone.
  1. How are the flights determined? We simply take our entire paid field and split it in two by handicap. Typically, the A and B flight cut off is around 11.0. The ladies compete in one of the two flights based on where they fall with their index, like the gentlemen.
  1. Sign and Attest your scorecard, or get DQ’d: Each group must keep two (2) official scorecards — one in each golf cart. All players must verify their scores, sign and attest one (1) scorecard before submitting it to the Tournament Director on duty.
  1. Minimum of two (2) Club tournaments to qualify for renewal rate. If you do not play in two (2) or more Club tournaments, you will be allowed to renew the following season only as a New member and pay the higher rate. Weekender and the Club Championship will each count as one (1) Club tournament.
  1. Always, Always, and ALWAYS PLAY READY GOLF! None of that non-sense you see on the PGA Tour is tolerated here. Keep up with the group in front of you, be prepared to hit your shots, use range finders or GPS devices for yardages, and dispense with “honors” in favor of pace of play. Please visit the USGA Pace of Play Resource Center for more: http://www.usga.org/pace-of-play-resource-center.html