Caddies need to brush up on the laws

National women's golf team player Florence Maina follows the progress of her tee shot from the 7th tee during a past practice session. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |

What you need to know:

  • Once in a while one gets to meet a living legend on the golf course.
  • It was therefore a privilege to receive an invitation to participate in the National Lady Legends Golf Day at Muthaiga Golf Club last week, an event that honours lady legends.
  • Legends like Florence Maina, who has represented Kenya in many international tournaments.

Once in a while one gets to meet a living legend on the golf course.

It was therefore a privilege to receive an invitation to participate in the National Lady Legends Golf Day at Muthaiga Golf Club last week, an event that honours lady legends.

Legends like Florence Maina, who has represented Kenya in many international tournaments. The event was very well organised but I left with this nagging feeling that I should try and do more for a very important section the Kenyan golfing scene, the caddies.

In my earlier golfing days, I took directions from my caddies. I had come to accept that they knew more about the game than I did. I naïvely thanked my lucky stars when I found my ball perched nicely on a plant in the rough.

At no time did I attribute my luck to a prehensile toe. My pseudo-caddie would congratulate me for the lucky bounce and I would cheerily take my next shot.

Fortunately, such pseudo-caddies don’t exist anymore; at least I haven’t come across one in a very long time. I am, however, realising that the knowledge of the Rules of Golf by some of our caddies is superficial to say the least.

Their hearts may be in the right place and they may genuinely want to help their masters. They may, however, lead golfers who take their advice wholesale astray.

Take my caddie at Muthaiga last week for example: a spirited young man who was eager to help me in every situation. My first tee shot on the 10th hole was a duck hook that ended up in a bush just off the fairway on the left. I could not play the ball as it lay and so I deemed it unplayable. I assessed my three options - my ABCs.

A – for Again – I was not prepared to walk back to tee to put another ball in play.

B – for Back in line – If I went back in line keeping the position where the ball lay and the hole in a straight line, I would have had to drop my ball in the rough and I was not sure that I was going to get a good lie.

C – for two Club lengths – the best option for me was to drop a ball within two club lengths of where my original ball lay.

The two club lengths did not get me to the fairway but my caddie did not agree with the rule. “You are allowed to go as far as you wish. Don’t drop the ball in the rough. Drop it on the fairway,my caddie advised.

I did not take his counsel but explained the three options that were available to me under the circumstances. He did not look convinced.

Fast forward to the par three second hole. The hook, which is quickly becoming the bane of my game, sent my ball to the slope on the left of the green. I saw my ball rolling down the slope towards the water.

“Play a provisional ball!” my caddie advised. I did. My second ball was just short of the green about eight feet from the hole.

As I was walking towards where my original ball would have been, it suddenly dawned on me that my second ball was not a provisional ball but the ball in play. I had taken my caddie’s advice without a second thought and claimed that it was a provisional ball when it was not.

Golfers are advised to take provisional balls if there is likelihood that their original ball may be lost. They must not play a provisional ball however if the original ball is in a water hazard. If they do, it is not a provisional ball but the ball in play.

If the original ball is found in this case, it must not be played otherwise it is a wrong ball.

There was no possibility of my original ball being lost outside the water hazard after my tee shot on the second hole. If it was not in the water, we would have found it easily.

We found the original ball. It was within the margin of the water hazard and that meant that it was no longer in play. My caddie was, however, of the opinion that we could play it and while I said that we had to pick it up.

Many golfing legends in Kenya started off as caddies. Caddies are also a very important source of Rules advice especially to new golfers.

I think it is now time that we started giving formal Rules of Golf lessons to caddies. It may help improve the knowledge of the Rules in our country.

The author is a KGU Executive