I passed the first level referee exam

[Newby]

2 hours ago, rogolf said:

Don’t give up your day job hoping to make a living as a referee!  Do it for the love of the game and to help others. 

It costs me. I keep forgetting to put in all my expense claims.

[Mr. Bean]

3 hours ago, rogolf said:

Don’t give up your day job hoping to make a living as a referee!  Do it for the love of the game and to help others. 

 

I can assure you that we all have the same motive, the small monetary compensation is simply a token of appreciation from the "employer".

[Mr. Bean]

27 minutes ago, Newby said:

It costs me. I keep forgetting to put in all my expense claims.

 

So, you either are too old to be a referee in the first place or you put all rules issues in front of your expence claims. Either way, you should focus on your memory 😉

 

Edited December 21, 2022 by Mr. Bean

[Newby]

1 hour ago, Mr. Bean said:

 

So, you either are too old to be a referee in the first place or you put all rules issues in front of your expence claims. Either way, you should focus on your memory 😉

 

As it happens I'm thinking of retiring next year. But I'll probably forget to do that. 🤔

[Newby]

13 minutes ago, Newby said:

To anyone taking it up, Davep043 in particular, I hope you and you players enjoy it as much as I have. 

 

Edited December 21, 2022 by Newby

[Halebopp]

21 hours ago, davep043 said:

 

After the kind words, I wanted to post again once I got my results.  They just came in this afternoon, and I again scored at the Expert level (90 or more correct)

 

in the USGA 100-question exam, bettering my previous best score!  We don't have a tiered system of exams here, but the letter from the USGA says that in order to officiate at a national event, an official must have scored at the Expert level.  I'm absolutely certain that's not the only requirement, but I have at least one box ticked off.  

Things must be VERY different here, when I've officiated I'm lucky to get a turkey sandwich and a bag of chips (or crisps to some of you).

 

Well done, Dave and good congratulations! It's certainly one big box ticked off along the way. 🙂

 

 

[davep043]

15 hours ago, Newby said:

To anyone taking it up, Davep043 in particular, I hope you and you players enjoy it as much as I have. 

After just one year as an Official, I'm definitely enjoying my time, enjoying meeting a new group of friends, and giving back to the game.  I've particularly enjoyed the times I've officiated at junior events, those are the players who have the most to learn, and who seem the most appreciative of the occasional explanations I've been able to provide.  

[Mr. Bean]

2 hours ago, davep043 said:

After just one year as an Official, I'm definitely enjoying my time, enjoying meeting a new group of friends, and giving back to the game.  I've particularly enjoyed the times I've officiated at junior events, those are the players who have the most to learn, and who seem the most appreciative of the occasional explanations I've been able to provide.  

 

For me the best part is preparing the competition and the course. The rest, that is lingering on the course trying to get the field running, is just the inevitable side product which I do not enjoy much. After all, refereeing is 98% of the time being present, the remaining 2% is pushing the groups ahead (major part) and giving rulings (minor part).

[Halebopp]

It has taken me a while to get back to this but the TARS was held from the 7th to the 10th of February in the Fairmont Hotel in St Andrews.

 

We were flying to Edinburgh on Sunday the 5th and on Saturday evening we got the news me and my colleague from Finland had won tee times from the Old Course ballot for Monday. So that worked out perfectly!

 

For me the Sunday meant a 2 AM wake-up call to catch the tram to catch the train to catch the plane. We had a taxi take us straight to the Fairmont Hotel in St Andrews and when we got there at around 10 AM (local time), we were offered breakfast there but declined the invitation as it would have been the fourth breakfast for us both that day. 🙂

 

After getting settled in we headed to the town to see the Old Course, walked the 17th and 18th holes, had a good look at the now-removed garden patios around Swilcan Bridge and headed to the golf museum. Unfortunately the lack of sleep the night before and having been up and travelling for a whole day took its toll and the concentration wasn't quite there to enjoy the museum the way it would have deserved to be admired. The pieces included these Articles & Laws in Playing the Golf from 1754:

 

 

Then came Monday. With a 12:50 tee time we had ample time We rented clubs from Auchterlonies of St Andrews (established in 1895) and headed to the course. Needless to say the feeling was slightly different from the day before now that we had clubs with us. It was also the first time I've played with a caddie. The fact that the last time I had hit clubs had been in mid November, excluding some chipping and putting at home, didn't really relieve the pressure. But I ended up playing surprisingly well (albeit playing off mats from the fairway), going out at +3 with the caddies providing indispensable help all the way through. To my surprise I got quite involved in my game and honestly don't remember the course itself at such detail. I did manage to make a bit of a mess of holes 12-17, going ten over par on them and finished at +13.

 

The experience of playing the Old Course really hit me when walking towards the 18th green with the putter in my hand. It felt like the world went silent and time slowed down for a moment. There I was, walking in the footsteps of all the greats, all the history and whatnot, trying to take it all in and fill my lungs with that air. It was a feeling I'll remember for the rest of my life. 🙂

 

Auchterlonies was closed by the time we finished but because of the feeling in the town, it didn't feel at all out of place to take our bags to a restaurant for a quick pizza before returning to the hotel. We returned the clubs the next morning and went to see the St Andrews cathedral and the graves of the Morrises before returning to the hotel for the actual seminar.

 

 There were 66 delegates representing 33 different countries, including countries such as Australia, Japan, Pakistan, Jordan and Canada. Six different organizations, such as ET, LET and EGA had also sent their own delegates. The lectures ranged from the basics of refereeing to tournament administration and agriculture, work shops about course marking, equipment rulings and TIOs. We also had role-play sessions giving rulings to R&A staff and ET referee Kevin Feeney on parts of a course built inside the hotel.

 

At least our group didn't get to give a ruling on the Dangerous Animal Condition. 🙂 Although the water wasn't real, you can see an actual, perfectly playable bunker in the background.

 

The role-play sessions were as much about referee's appearance, behaviour, clarity etc. as it was about getting the ruling right. Naturally a lot of the discussed topics and issues were familiar to me but there's always something you haven't considered before, some detail or a new perspective, especially when people were talking about organising major events like the Open. Rules wise the most beneficial sessions were about timing players, a TIO demonstration and the equipment rules session with the people who actually do the equipment testing.

 

But even if they were talking about things you've heard before for a fair bit of the time, the information and experience people like Kevin Feeney (senior referee on ET), David Rickman , Doug Norval, Grant Moir and the rest of the R&A staff provided us with was still invaluable, as was sitting down for breakfast or dinner with such esteemed people. Never mind meeting people from all over the world who share the same interest. I believe a professional player was supposed to come talk to us about the player's perspective but, for whatever reason, it didn't happen and the session was replaced with David Rickman and Grant Moir sharing their experiences from their respective careers. Their stories from the 2015 Open were one definite highlight.

 

The highlight of the seminar is the closing dinner, which is usually held at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club clubhouse but it's under renovations at the moment (they're expanding the locker rooms in the basement) and the dinner was held at the Links Clubhouse by the 2nd tee of the Old Course. That didn't really detract much from the special feeling of being there though. Having been invited to dine by the Old Course in the presence of people like Mr. Norval, the Chairman of the Rules of Golf Committee and Clive Brown, the captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews etc. was truly something special. It definitely made me wonder how does one end up in such a situation to begin with.

 

It was definitely an honour to attend the seminar and it gave me memories I'll never forget. The only problem was it had to come to an end way too early, the R&A and the Fairmont Hotel were taking too good care of us. 🙂 Luckily I could stay in Edinburgh for a couple of days to soften the blow before returning home.

 

Edinburgh is a very nice city and definitely worth a visit on its own right but St Andrews truly lived up to the name of the Home of Golf and left me feeling that every golfer should visit the place at least once in their lifetime.

 

 

[Mr. Bean]

Halebopp, did you have haggis for breakfast at Fairmont? They served delicious haggis when I was there. Ate it every morning...

[davep043]

15 hours ago, Halebopp said:

St Andrews truly lived up to the name of the Home of Golf and left me feeling that every golfer should visit the place at least once in their lifetime.

I've been there a few times, and I always get the same feeling. The TARS school sounds like a great experience, very different from the USGA Rules Workshops, which focus only on the Rules.  They did hold a separate Workshop for Referees, I think only one session, I'll be watching for that next year.

[Halebopp]

2 hours ago, Mr. Bean said:

Halebopp, did you have haggis for breakfast at Fairmont? They served delicious haggis when I was there. Ate it every morning...

 

No, they didn't have haggis for breakfast. I did have some haggis bon bons at one dinner in Fairmont though. That's not to say the breakfast wasn't marvelous though, especially when I kept waking up at 5 am and had all the time in the world to enjoy a four- or five-course breakfast. 😄

 

I did also taste the other famous Scottish delicacy, the deep-fried Mars bar. You could certainly feel it afterwards. 🙂

[Halebopp]

16 minutes ago, davep043 said:

I've been there a few times, and I always get the same feeling. The TARS school sounds like a great experience, very different from the USGA Rules Workshops, which focus only on the Rules.  They did hold a separate Workshop for Referees, I think only one session, I'll be watching for that next year.

 

In my opinion it would be a waste of time to go over the rules in general in such a setting. After all everyone attending such seminars should have a pretty good understanding of the rules. Naturally the rules come up in different situations, in the role-play sessions and casual chats outside of the classrooms.

 

The TIO and equipment sessions were very helpful. I assume we aren't taught about TIOs in Finland because anyone who hasn't attended TARS will not be facing them in tournaments. Even so the basics of TIOs are quite simple but there were situations that aren't quite as obvious. For example, what happens when the ball is in between the hole and the TIO but a part of the TIO is closer to the hole than the ball and the line of play is affected by the one-club "corridor"? If I remember correctly, even the TIO guide doesn't cover that scenario.

[davep043]

6 minutes ago, Halebopp said:

In my opinion it would be a waste of time to go over the rules in general in such a setting. After all everyone attending such seminars should have a pretty good understanding of the rules. Naturally the rules come up in different situations, in the role-play sessions and casual chats outside of the classrooms.

I agree completely.  The USGA/PGA Refereeing Workshop is restricted to people who have scored "Expert" on the 100-question Rules Exam, so the attendees apparently do have a pretty good understanding of the Rules themselves.

[rogolf]

1 hour ago, davep043 said:

I agree completely.  The USGA/PGA Refereeing Workshop is restricted to people who have scored "Expert" on the 100-question Rules Exam, so the attendees apparently do have a pretty good understanding of the Rules themselves.

When I attended TARS in St Andrews there was a Rules exam involved, written on the first morning.  Mr. Rickman prefaced it by saying, "If you didn't bring your A game on the Rules, you won't get it here.  Good luck."

[Mr. Bean]

2 hours ago, Halebopp said:

 

In my opinion it would be a waste of time to go over the rules in general in such a setting. After all everyone attending such seminars should have a pretty good understanding of the rules. 

 

 

In my TARS the participants' level of knowledge varied vastly. There were very inexperienced people never having refereed one single round of golf and then very experienced having been refereeing on a high amateur level for decades. Not everyone got the minimum of 60/99 points in the exam.

 

  

2 hours ago, Halebopp said:

For example, what happens when the ball is in between the hole and the TIO but a part of the TIO is closer to the hole than the ball and the line of play is affected by the one-club "corridor"? If I remember correctly, even the TIO guide doesn't cover that scenario.

 

I fail to see the difficulty there, maybe I cannot picture it properly. If the TIO interferes on the direct line between your ball and the hole you get free relief and naturally away from the TIO / the corridor. Perhaps we can discuss this on April 2nd.

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by Mr. Bean

[Halebopp]

50 minutes ago, Mr. Bean said:

 

In my TARS the participants' level of knowledge varied vastly. There were very inexperienced people never having refereed one single round of golf and then very experienced having been refereeing on a high amateur level for decades. Not everyone got the minimum of 60/99 points in the exam.

 

  

 

I fail to see the difficulty there, maybe I cannot picture it properly. If the TIO interferes on the direct line between your ball and the hole you get free relief and naturally away from the TIO / the corridor. Perhaps we can discuss this on April 2nd.

 

 

There wasn't anything overtly complicated about it, it was just an example of a scenario I hadn't thought of before myself. But we can go over it in April.

 

I'm certainly happy we were required to take the exam beforehand as it took away all the pressure from the actual seminar. At one point we had a discussion with an R&A rep (I can't recall who it was) and he/she mentioned how they had noted the rules knowledge and experience of the delegates was much better than in previous years, thanks to the need to score 80% in the exam to earn the right to attend.

[Mr. Bean]

5 minutes ago, Halebopp said:

At one point we had a discussion with an R&A rep (I can't recall who it was) and he/she mentioned how they had noted the rules knowledge and experience of the delegates was much better than in previous years, thanks to the need to score 80% in the exam to earn the right to attend.

 

No wonder there were fewer participants. We had 88.