Peter Williams: Rule awareness always the players' responsibility

The country's most popular golf competition has had a brush with controversy and four players who thought they'd won a trip to Australia have had their win and their prize rescinded.

The Holden Scramble this year attracted 8883 players at clubs all over the country. The tournament is an ambrose - all players in a team of three hit off the tee, the best drive counts for the team, every player hits another shot from that position, the next shot is taken from the best position again, and so on, until the team completes the hole.

At each Holden Scramble club day, the top three teams qualified for one of the six regional finals around New Zealand. The winner of each regional final won a trip to Twin Waters on the Sunshine Coast for the Championship Final in early December with teams from around Australia. The Holden Scramble is an initiative of the Australian PGA and in this country it's managed by the New Zealand PGA.

For the regional finals, the three-person teams are joined by a local PGA professional, if possible from the players' home club.

A team's score is a nett score. That's where their team handicap is deducted from their actual gross score. The team handicap for the club day is calculated by adding the players' handicaps and dividing by six. Because the team has an extra player - the PGA pro - for the regional final, the handicap for that day is calculated dividing by eight.

In 2002 and 2003 a team comprising the former Huapai professional Bryce Mawhinney, two players from his club, Nardo Yugovich and Kevin Sunde, and Kevin's brother Roy from the Waitakere club, won the northern regional final and a trip to Australia. The PGA of Australia noticed there were several instances of identical or similar teams returning from the Championship Final, sometimes more than once.

In golf, regular winners of handicap competitions have the integrity of their handicaps called into question by fellow competitors and organisers. That's because if a golfer is regularly playing better than his handicap and returning all his scorecards then his handicap will be reduced.

So to ensure every team was being treated fairly, last year the PGA of Australia brought in a new rule that stated if a team played in two consecutive Championship Finals, their handicap for the next two years of the Holden Scramble would be reduced by 50 per cent. As with all golf tournaments, the responsibility for the application of the rules lies with the players.

Messrs Mawhinney, Sunde, Sunde and Yugovich didn't play the Holden Scramble together last year so were probably unaware of the rule change. However, ignorance of the rules is no defence.

The team played with their handicap calculated in the prescribed manner on both club and regional final day. But when they won their regional final yet again on October 17th, tournament officials discovered they had used a handicap which had not been reduced by 50 per cent as a consequence of their participation in the 2003 Championship Final.

They were disqualified and their place in the final at Twin Waters will be taken by a team from Gulf Harbour. The Huapai-Waitakere team appealed the decision which was rejected.

The incident reminds us yet again that, in all levels of golf, familiarity with rules and playing conditions is an essential part of the game. The PGA of Australia was absolutely correct in maintaining the integrity of their tournament.