Arkansas Tour Rules for 2022
Last Updated: January 6, 2022
Listed below are the Permanent Local Rules for the Arkansas GolfWeek Amateur Tour. These rules supersede any conflicting USGA Rules of Golf. Other than where superseded below or on the Rules Sheet for a specific tournament/course, the USGA Rules of Golf will govern all tournament play for the Arkansas GolfWeek Amateur Tour.
1. Play Ready Golf, 2. Ranger Controlled Tournament Play 3. Out of Bounds Rule 4. 3 Minute Lost Ball 5. Triple Bogey Max Rule 6. 15 minute Check in at end of round 7. Putt out! Don't Mark! 8. Heather/Tall Grass/Wooded Areas 9. Embedded Ball Rule 10. Loose Impediments in Bunkers 11. Score Cards and LiveScore 12. GPS and Rangefinders permitted 13. Smartphone apps permitted 14. One Ball Rule in effect 15. Play 2-ball rules in event of rules dispute 16. Optional Cash Games 17. Hole-in-One Pot
1. Play
Ready Golf!
Ready Golf will be played at all of our events. Please be
considerate when playing ready golf. If you are waiting on the group in front
of you then please observe turn etiquette including honor on the first tee and
on greens.
Honors is exactly that, it is an honor. If the player that is up
next with honors is not ready and you are, please announce to that player that
you are ready and you are going to hit. If you have the honors and are not
ready, you must not get upset if someone wants to hit first if they are ready.
If you are not ready, announce that you are not ready and invite anyone that is
ready to hit to go ahead and hit.
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2. Ranger
Controlled Pace of Play Rule
During all of our tournaments, we may use Rangers. At times
this will be representatives of the tour. When representatives are not
available, the Course Appointed Ranger will have complete authority.
If a ranger sees that your group is a hole or more behind the
group in front of you, you will first be given a warning to pick up your pace
of play and catch up with the group in front of you.
The second time that the ranger sees your group, if you have not
closed the gap in front of you or have gotten worse with relation to the group
in front of you, your entire group will be asked to pick up your balls and
proceed to the next tee. Everyone in your group will be given a Triple Bogey
for that hole.
If the second time that the ranger sees your group and you have
not closed the gap completely but have made improvements, you will be given a
second warning to continue to catch up with the group in front of you.
If the ranger sees you for a third time and you have not closed
the gap with the group in front of you, your entire group will be asked to pick
up your balls and proceed to the next tee. Everyone in your group will be given
a Triple Bogey for that hole.
The ranger will not enforce the rule after the 16th hole because
of the time limit rule when checking in after your round is done. Your penalty
will be assessed there if you check in more than 15 minutes behind the group in
front of you at the scoring table.
Considerations will be made for foursomes that are playing
behind threesomes. Also, time will be given to groups behind a group that is asked
to move ahead a hole before any warnings are given. You will be given a few
holes to catch up but you will have to make a reasonable effort in order to
reduce the new gap otherwise you will be under warning as well.
We understand that this rule may seem a bit harsh but it will be
enforced strongly with no question or prejudice. The reason behind this rule is
to make everyone responsible for pace of play. If there are slow players in
your group, it will be your responsibility, individually and as a group, to
make sure that they speed up otherwise everyone in the group will be penalized.
This also allows us to control pace of play throughout the tournament so that
we can keep up with it instead of having the entire round held up by groups
throughout the tournament and only assessing penalties at the end. If your
group seems to be playing slow and you cannot figure out who is playing slow,
most likely it is you! Please do your best to pick up the pace!
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3. Out of Bounds Rule For Tour Events we ONLY play the STROKE and DISTANCE rule for
balls that are Out of Bounds. If you think your ball is OB, hit a provisional. Your provisional should be a different number or marked differently than your original ball. You DO NOT get relief from a fence or white stake that marks OB.
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4. 3
Minute Lost Ball Rule Players will have 3 minutes to look for a lost ball. If you do
not find your ball within 2 minutes, move on under the proper rules. In this
case, if you cannot find your ball and you do not have a penalty area option,
then you can go back to the original spot that you hit your ball and hit again
under penalty of stroke and distance. If you think your ball might be lost, hit
a provisional before going to look for it. Your provisional should be a different number or marked differently than your original ball.
The 3 minutes time will begin when anyone starts looking for
your ball. This means that if anyone assists you with looking for your ball,
your time begins when they start looking. If you cannot locate your ball, you
must start looking for your own ball before helping anyone else try to locate
theirs. By following these rules, this can dramatically help speed up pace of
play.
If you take longer than 3 minutes to look for your ball, the
others in your group must assess the player that breaks this rule with a 2
stroke penalty on the hole.
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5. Triple
Bogey Max Rule The maximum score that a player can score on a hole will be
Triple Bogey. If you are already at a Double Bogey for the hole, please pick up
your ball and give yourself a score of Triple Bogey. The exception to this rule
is for the Champ Flight players. They will finish the hole no matter the
score. NO Max score for Champ Flight.
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6. 15
Minutes to Check-In at Scoring Table after Group In Front of You Your group will have 15 minutes to check-in at the scoring table
after the group in front of you has checked in. The average hole is to be
played in 15 minutes. Groups should be waiting for the group in front of them
which means that groups should be no more than 1/2 a hole behind the group in
front of them. If the average hole takes 15 minutes to complete, this means a
half a hole should be 7 1/2 minutes. This means that 15 minutes to check-in
after the group in front of you should be plenty of time.
After your group has completed the 18th hole, do not start
packing up, adding or comparing scores or anything else. Immediately leave the
hole and come to the scoring table to check-in. Then, after you have checked
in, your group can then complete finishing up your scoring, comparing of cards,
getting rulings, signing of cards and etc. The design behind this is to get
everyone off of the course as quickly as possible to allow the groups behind
you to complete their rounds.
Any group that checks in more than 15 minutes later than the
group in front will automatically have a 2 stroke penalty assessed for every
player in the group. There will be no exceptions to this rule.
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7. Putt
your Ball Out Instead of Marking If you have putted your ball and you are only a couple of feet
away from the hole for your next putt, do not mark the ball but continue to
putt out unless this will cause you to step in anyone's line.
On average, if you mark a short putt, this adds 30 seconds per
person and this is done by 2 people on each green, this equates to a total of
18 minutes extra wasted per round. Most of the time, most people will not miss
the return putt because they had to putt out. If you watch, the PGA will finish
their hole out instead of marking.
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8. Heather/Tall
Grass/Heavily Wooded Areas (Hit Provisional) All Heather and Heavily Wooded Areas are played as potentially
lost balls unless marked with red or white stakes. Your provisional should be a different number or marked differently than your original ball.
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9. Embedded
Ball Rule A ball embedded in its own pitch-mark in the ground anywhere outside
of a penalty area or bunker may be lifted, cleaned and dropped without penalty,
within one club length BEHIND where the ball was embedded.
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10. Loose Impediments in Bunkers Loose impediments are removable
without penalty of stroke. You may not move your ball or improve your lie. You still may not ground your club in the bunker.
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11. Score Cards and LiveScore LiveScore will be used for all events. There will be only 1
official score card (provided by the Tour) turned into the scoring table per
group. All persons in the group must verify the card with LiveScore. Please keep 1 score card per cart to verify
scores at the end of the round but only 1 card will be considered the official
card. Until further notice, there is no need to sign the scorecard.
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12. GPS
and Range Finders Permitted Only USGA Approved GPS and Range Finder devices are permitted
for use at all Arkansas Tour Events. Use of illegal devices will result in
disqualification from that event. Range finders with slope and other
measurements besides distance must have the ability to turn off the
measurements besides distance. Green reading apps are PROHIBITED!
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13. Smartphone
Apps for Use as Distance Measuring Device is Permitted Any person that wants to use a Smartphone Golf GPS App like Golf
Logix that is used to measure distance, will be allowed. We are allowing this
based on the honor of the game. You are not allowed to use the compass, weather
application, club suggestions, green reading, or any other application in the app or on your
phone that can be used as an additional benefit to your golf game. Any person
that is caught using any of the additional functions other than using it
strictly to measure distances will be disqualified from that event. You may use
the app to keep your scores as well.
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14. One
Ball Rule You must use the same Make and Model Ball for the Duration of
the Round. That means the same color as well. If you change to a different ball during the round, it will be a 2 stroke penilty for every hole the wrong ball ws played. You must also uniquely mark your ball so that you can be certain that
it is yours.
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15. Play
2 Balls in the event of a Rules Dispute If there is ever any dispute in your group on the proper ruling
during the tournament, the player must play 2 balls from the point of the rule
dispute. Take note of both scores for that hole and move on with the round.
After the round is done and before anyone signs the official score card, you
must seek out the Tour Directors for a final ruling. The proper score will be
circled on the card and used for the official score.
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16.Optional Cash Games
We play optional cash games at each tournament. These are paid via PayPal ahead of time. Payouts are also paid via PayPal(usually within 2 days after the tournament.)
Flight Skins($20) - You are only playing against people in your flight (or at times 2 combined flights if entries are low). If you have the lowest score on that hole and birdie or better, you win your share of the pot.
Super Skins($10) - You are playing against everyone in the tournament with the same rules as above. [Back to Table of Contents]
17. Hole-in-One Pot
$1 of every registration fee for each tournament is added to the hole-in-one pot (90 players = $90 in the pot). If there are no hole-in-ones for that tournament, the amount carries over to the next tournament. It will carry over each season. If a local tour member scores a hole-in-one, they get the entire pot. If a guest gets a hole-in-one, they get 50% of the pot. In the unlikely event that 2 (or more) players get a hole-in-one in the same tournament, they will split the pot. If one of them is a guest, the guest will get 25% of the pot and the remainder will go to the local tour member.
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