Womens Golf Association of Western Pennsylvania

Please review these recent decisions, consistent with USGA practice, that have been enacted by the WGAWP Executive Board to govern play for competitions in the upcoming season:

Tie Breakers
     When a playoff is NOT being used to settle a tie, the "match of cards" will now follow the USGA recommendations.  The winner will be determined by a match of cards seeking the best score for the last nine holes.  If the tie is not resolved, determine a winner on the basis of the last six holes, the last three holes and, finally, the 18th hole.  If still not resolved, scores on the 17th hole will be used and continued to be matched backward until the tie is resolved.  For net awards, handicaps to be applied as recommended by the USGA in the "How to Conduct a Competition" and the "USGA Handicap System" manuals.

Handicap Allowances for Four-Ball Stroke and Better Ball Formats
     Adopting the USGA recommendation regarding circumstances in which partners have a handicap difference of more than eight strokes, an additional 10% reduction will be applied to the Course Handicap of each partner.  (Reference page 65 of the "Handicap Manual" and/of page 22 of the "How to Conduct a Compeition".

Competitor's Handicap Falls Outside of the Qualifying Range
     The following will be observed in the case where a competitior's handicap falls outside of the qualifying range at the time that pairings are being determined for competition:
         -all competitiors must meet the handicap restriction at the time of 
              registration
        -when the field is not over-subscribed, a competitior may play using the
             maximum handicap permitted
       -if the field is over-subscribed, the registrant (and, possibly, her partner)
             is no longer qualified and is moved to the end of the wait list.  The un-
            qualified registrants on the wait list will be ordered by handicap with the 
           highest index placed at the bottom of the list.

     Please note that event fields iare determined at the close of the registration 
     period and are NOT "first come-first served".  

WGAWP Championship Flighting
    The flighting and seeding of the match play portion of the WGAWP Championship is described below:
         -the low sixteen scores from the Bobby Cruickshank Memorial Torunament
              will qualify for the Championship flight.  Ties for the sixteenth position
              will be determined by a match of cards.  Seeding in the Championship
              flight will be based upon those qualifying scores
         -the number of flights, any byes and the number of competitors participating
              in match play will be announced before Monday's qualifying round begins
              If the number of competitiors in the qualifying round exceeds the number 
              of match play positions, players will be disqualified/eliminated based on 
              their qualifying round scores.  Ties for elimination will be settled through
             a match of cards per the WGAWP tiebreak policy.