The envelope was stuffed with the usual literature about why it’s a great idea to belong to the USGA, with all the info about how to renew. If you’re a golfer, it’s hard to argue the merits.
What gave the package its heft was the 2010-2011 edition of “The Rules of Golf,” sized right to slip into a pocket of your golf bag. It’s a nice incentive to re-up, and you know and I know, however much you know you “ought” to own it, it’s not a book you’ll go looking for at Barnes and Noble.
Yes, The Rules book is nice to have. But it’s not what gets me to send in my $25 every year.
It’s the hat. It’s all about the hat. Maybe this year more than most.
Sign up to be a member, and the USGA sends you an official U.S. Open hat, with a logo complete with the name of the Open venue. This year, it’s Pebble Beach. Enough said.
So, confession time. In the past, the USGA offered the hat only to first-time registrants or to former members who had fallen off the rolls. If you were renewing, you didn’t get the hat.
So (am I alone in this?), I would skip joining in a renewal year or two so I could let them woo me back with the offer of a hat in a following year. Which is why I have Bethpage Black from 2002, but not Olympia Fields from ’03, why I have Winged Foot from ’06 but not the two years before, Shinnecock Hills in ’04 and Pinehurst No. 2 in ’05.
In later years, they started offering the hat every year, so I have Bethpage ’09 and Torrey Pines ’08.
All great courses, and all great hats. But none of them are Pebble Beach.
I wasn’t a USGA member the last two times (1992, 2000) the Open went to what remains the icon of U.S. public golf courses – undefeated and still champion even against the worthy latter-day claims of Bandon Dunes Resort.
It’s Pebble. A must-play course. A must-have hat.
There are lots of good reasons to join the USGA, and even if you’re not a member you benefit in ways you probably don’t even know about. If you’re serious about the game, you understand how critical it is to support the organization that is the backbone of U.S. golf as we know it.
And the hat makes it an easy call. Get your own at members.usga.org if you didn’t get the mailer. You’ll also get a bag tag, the members’ rate at the USGA online store, and “The Rules of Golf.”
But, mainly, it’s the hat. And this year, it’s Pebble.
Tournament central
Besides the U.S. Open, the national championship of golf, the USGA puts on 12 other national championships annually.
This is of more than casual interest in Western Washington. The U.S. Senior Open is July 27 to Aug. 1 at Sahalee Country Club in Sammammish. And the U.S. Amateur is Aug. 23-29 at Chambers Bay in University Place, with The Home Course in DuPont as the supporting course.
Ticket information, as well as links to all things USGA, can be found at www.usga.org/championships.aspx?id=7796.
As it lies
More than a couple people have asked, in response to a Feb. 16 column, “Am I George?”
George was the name I gave to the guy who is oblivious to golf etiquette and downright relaxed about the rules of golf, none of which, apparently, apply to him.
So to ease your mind: If you asked, you aren’t George. Frankly, I don’t expect the dude I call George to recognize himself enough to look hard enough at himself to even wonder, “Am I George?”
The rule of golf he most routinely flouts is Rule 13, Ball Played as it Lies: “The ball must be played as it lies, except as otherwise provided in the Rules.”
More specifically, 13.2 says: “A player must not improve or allow to be improved:
• the position or lie of his ball
• the area of his intended stance or swing
• his line of play or a reasonable extension of that line beyond the hole
• the area in which he is to drop or place a ball
The Rules is a page-turner, believe me. You might know the game pretty well, but the bet here is you could find something in there about which you will say, “I didn’t know that.”
Or you can clear up your fuzziness on such subjects as casual water, outside agencies, movable and/or immovable obstructions, lateral hazards and “the rub of the green.”
This is the bible for the most rules-intensive game on the planet.
A full four pages are devoted to etiquette, George. I don’t expect you’ll be reading them.
Freelance writer Bart Potter can be reached at greygoatee06@comcast.net
