Short Shots

KGA championship entries available February 1st
   Competitors desiring to enter any of the 2010 KGA Championships can begin submitting their entries on Feb. 1 (either online at www.kansasgolf.org, by regular mail or by walk in at the office in Lawrence).
   There are 12 championships for golfers of all ages and abilities beginning with the Mid-Amateur Championship, May 3-4 at Meadowbrook Country Club and ending with the Mid-Amateur Team Championship at Indian Hills Country Club, October 11-13. The 100^th Kansas Amateur Match Play Championship will be played at Prairie Dunes Country Club in July. The full schedule that includes events for juniors and seniors, both individual and team formats, can be seen on the KGA website, www.kansasgolf.org.
   For junior golfers, entries for the KJGA summer program begins on March 1^st. Juniors age 14 or older are required to have a current and active GHIN account through a KGA member golf club.

KGF team event returns to Flint Hills National
   On Aug. 9, the KGF Team Championship will return to Flint Hills National Golf Club. The field will be limited to 36 teams (72 players) who will be treated to lunch in the Flint Hills clubhouse

before golf and a first-class cocktail party afterwards.
   The team entry fee is $550, and entries will be accepted beginning at 9 a.m. on Feb. 1. A portion of the entry fee is tax-deductible. Players who participated in the first KGF Team Championship will have entry priority for the 2010 event. Online entry will be available at www.kansasgolf.org.
   All funds raised will go to support the Kansas Junior Golf Scholarship, which is given annually to five deserving junior golfers who will attend a Kansas college or university. For more information about the KJGS, go to www.kansasgolf.org/foundation/scholarships.
   For information about playing or becoming a sponsor, contact Phil Miller, Kansas Golf Foundation executive director, (785) 842-4833 ext. 205 or by email to phil@kansasgolf.org.

Groove rules will affect sectional qualifying
   The United States Golf Association will adopt the new groove rules as a condition of competition for the 2010 U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Senior Open starting with the sectional (final stage) qualifying events for each of the three championships. The condition of competition regarding grooves will not be in effect at local (first stage) qualifying events for the 2010 U.S. Open Championship.
   The USGA will adopt the condition of competition for U.S. Open local qualifying beginning in 2011 and for the national championships and team competitions it conducts for amateur players no later than 2014, as originally indicated.
   “We plan to adopt the condition of competition for all stages of Open qualifying in 2011, but

2010 will be a transitional year for the 9,000 players who typically try to qualify for the U.S. Open,” said Mike Davis, USGA senior director of Rules and Competitions. “The important point is that any player who is one step from making it into any of the three Open championships will be playing with clubs that conform to this new condition of competition.”
   Announced by the USGA and R&A in August 2008, the revisions to the Rules of Golf, which place new restrictions on golf club grooves, went into effect starting Jan. 1. The regulations control the cross-sectional area of grooves on all clubs, with the exception of drivers and putters, and limit groove edge sharpness on clubs with lofts equal to or greater than 25 degrees (generally a standard 5-iron and above). The rules apply to clubs submitted to the USGA for conformance evaluation on or after Jan. 1.
   The PGA Tour (including the Champions and Nationwide Tours), European PGA Tour and other members of the International Federation of PGA Tours, as well as the LPGA, intend to adopt this condition of competition at their tournaments beginning Jan. 1. The PGA of America and Augusta National Golf Club intend to adopt this condition of competition at the PGA Championship and Masters Tournament, respectively, in 2010.
   Additional information about the new regulations on grooves, including technical specifications, may be found in the Equipment section of www.usga.org.

Study focuses on cheating in golf
   This is a story about cheating and golf – and it has nothing to do with Tiger Woods.
   According to a study done by Duke University, you are much more likely to cheat at golf while playing with a client than with your friends. The survey, which included responses from 14,800 golfers from across the

United States

, also claims that you are more likely to cheat

while playing with your friends than if playing with your boss. But in each scenario, the likelihood of cheating by respondents was less than 25 percent.
   So golf’s claim as a “gentleman’s sport” appears in tact as the study supports most golfers are not willing to “improve their lie” even if it ensured a club championship.“Golf’s reputation as a ‘gentleman’s game,’ with a premium placed on etiquette and perceived honesty, appears to explain this trend,” the study stated. “Although there is the added incentive of winning a trophy if you cheat, the consequences of disqualification coupled with the resulting social fallout do not prove an acceptable tradeoff.”
   But what about that frequently mentioned eraser on the end of your scoring pencil?
   The study stated that you’re much more likely to pencil in a better score for a hole after playing it (14.7 percent of the time) than you are to change the score for the hole at the end of a round when you realize your final score and feel you played better than your final score would indicate (5.38 percent) for a 65 percent decrease.
   “The physical act of changing a score appears to be morally more taxing than simply changing it when you write it down in the first place,” the study stated.
   Other factors can determine if you are more likely to cheat in golf, according to the study. It claimed single people are more likely to cheat (9.8 percent) versus those who had been married at least once (around 7 percent). Those that were divorced were no more likely to cheat than those still married, the study suggested.
   It’s not known which of these categories the game’s best player will find himself as 2010’s golf season begins.