Alliance Rules

Should any course be unplayable on any competition day that game will be abandoned.

Any unavoidable alteration or cancellation will be notified each club representative and on this website.

All entries to be received by the Secretary by 3.00pm, the Wednesday prior to the next fixture.

In the case of any person entering into a four ball competition wishing to cancel after Thursday 10.00am, his partner must play in order to mark the scorecard and avoid disappointment to their opponents. No charge will be made for his card in this circumstance.

The minimum age of any member shall be 18 at next birthday.

The maximum number of strokes received in any competition will be 18.

Membership to the Alliance is by application, to join you must have a ‘Course Handicap’ of no more than 14 at your home club off the White Tees. YOU MUST BE A FULL MEMBER OF ONE OF THE PARTICIPATING CLUBS IN THE ALLIANCE, if for any reason you drop into a lesser membership category at one of the participating clubs, you can remain a member of the alliance providing that you were a member for more than 3 years.

Committee

The Alliance committee is made up of a member from each affiliated club and a representative from the professionals.

Handicapping

At the start of the Alliance season each member commences play in competitions playing off his ‘World Handicap Index’. Handicap reductions will be applied to your ‘World Handicap Index’ to create an ‘Alliance Handicap Index’, whichever Handicap Index (World or Alliance) is lower, is the Handicap Index that you will use to establish your ‘Course Handicap’  When a competition is won the following domestic rules will be applied.

Fourballs

Winners & joint winners will be cut two as follows:

0 to 9 handicap index, cut 1 shot

10 and above handicap index, cut 2 shots

Singles

Standard scratch is set by the committee.

One under SS will be cut 1 shot

Two under SS will be cut 1 shot

Three under SS will be cut 2 shots

Four under SS will be cut 3 shots

Administration

Trevor Newton is appointed by the committee to administer handicapping and will post any adjustments with the starter prior to the next competition.

Competitions

Championship

The championship will be played on the current Captain’s course and in the following categories:

Scratch to 5 handicap – 18 holes – Championship

6 to 11 handicap – 18 holes – Frank Carey Cup

12 to 18 handicap – 18 holes – Brian Watson Shield

Scratch to 5 handicap will record scratch scores to determine the winner, in the event of a tie extra holes will be played.

Team Of Three

Three players playing in the same three ball, the players can be from any of the affiliated clubs.

McQuisten Shield

A team of four playing together, scoring is stableford, with the best two scores to count plus all the par 3 scores. The team players can be from any of the affiliated clubs.

During the first half of the season (August to end October and excluding Xmas Bowl), if an event has more entries than we have spaces, for then a ballot will take place. Alliance committee members and their partners and Professionals and their partners are exempt from missing out on any events they enter. The ballots for the first half of the season (if used) will be a random draw of all of the non-exempt pairs. Any pairs that are balloted out in the first half of the season will be exempt from missing out on further events that season (season runs August until May).

The events that are most likely to be over subscribed are the Xmas Bowl in November and the events at Cleveland and Hartlepool in February. From (and including) the Xmas Bowl onwards the following system is in place to determine who gets into each event:- Each player’s appearances in the first half of the season are recorded. If we are over subscribed then all the pairs (or in the case of a singles event – players) are listed in order of how many appearances they have made in the first half of the season. If it is a pairs event then the number of combined appearances is the determining factor.  Any exempt players are removed to leave a list (in order of appearances or total combined appearances), from this list we will then determine who will be selected for the event. If there are numerous players (or pairs) tied on the same number of appearances where the cut-off point is then those (and only those) pairs/players will go into a ballot, which will be a random draw for the remaining places. Of those pairs/players the ones who miss out will be added to the list of players who are exempt for the rest of the season.

So please remember if you miss out on an event it does not necessarily mean that you are exempt from missing out on future events in that season, you have to qualify for the ballot based on the number of appearances that you make in the first half of the season, only those who qualify for the ballot and then miss out will be exempt.