Rules

Name and Object

The Society is known formally as the Down In One Golfing Society. The Society is known informally as DIOGS.
The object of the Society is to promote and facilitate the playing of golf within a social environment.

Constitution

The Society is a members' Society with activities organised by a Committee elected at each Annual General Meeting

Membership

Any male aged 18 years or over may apply to become a member. Members born after 1st January 1952 are classified as Juniors and members born before 1st January 1944 are classified as Veterans.
Members are elected at Committee Meetings.
The Committee may refuse to elect a person to membership without providing that person with a reason for such refusal.
The classes of membership are as follows:

Full - a member who wishes to play golf with the Society and whose residence is within 10 miles of the centre of Leatherhead;
Country - a member who wishes to play golf with the Society and whose residence is within the boundaries of the UK but is 10 miles or more from the centre of Leatherhead;
International - a member who wishes to play golf with the Society and whose residence is outside the boundaries of the UK; and
Social - a member who does not wish to play golf with the Society.

Every member on joining the Society must undertake to comply with these rules. The Committee may request the resignation of any member who does not comply.
A member wishing to resign must notify a member of the Committee.
The Committee may revoke a person’s membership without providing that person with a reason for such action.

Fees and Subscriptions

There is no joining fee but:

each Full Member is expected to buy two rounds of drinks for the Committee at the earliest opportunity following his election;
each Country Member is expected to buy one round of drinks for the Committee at the earliest opportunity following his election;
each International Member is treated to free drinks by the Committee at the earliest opportunity following his election; and
each Social Member is expected to buy two rounds of drinks for the Committee at the earliest opportunity following his election.

There are no regular subscriptions but each member is expected to contribute towards refreshments when attending any meeting of the Society

Committee

The Committee defines the rules of the society and manages the society’s affairs according to these rules.
The Committee consists of four officers: President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. A member can hold more than one of these positions on the committee at the same time.
The President is responsible for proposing policy and chairing all meetings.
The Vice President is responsible for taking over the President’s responsibilities in his absence.
The Treasurer is responsible for maintaining a record of expenditure during each competition event and apportioning this expenditure amongst the competitors and collecting the contributions due.
Secretary is responsible for administering entry details for each competition in conjunction with the competition organiser, recording the results of each competition, updating the handicap of each competitor at the end of each competition and managing the society’s website.
All committee members may be assigned additional responsibilities as agreed with the committee and may delegate some or all of their responsibilities to another member with the agreement of the committee.
Members are elected to serve on the committee at each Annual General Meeting. The term of office for each committee member starts at the end of the Annual General Meeting.
An Extraordinary General Meeting will be called to elect a replacement for a committee member should a vacancy arise before the next Annual General Meeting.

Other Positions

In addition to the committee members the society has a Captain, Security Officer, Welfare Officer, Director of Misinformation and Director of Commitment.
The Captain is responsible for liaising with competition organisers to choose which courses to play, and selecting players for society matches.
The Security Officer is responsible for safeguarding the activities of the society and advising on any security precautions that the members should to take.
The Welfare Officer is responsible for promoting safe practice within the society at all times and ensuring that each member of the society has adequate golf insurance cover.
The Director of Misinformation is responsible for gathering information for future society leisure activities that he believes to be correct at the time but later turns out to be wrong.
The Director of Commitment is responsible for ensuring that those members who say they are going to participate in any society event actually do participate.
All of these positions may be assigned additional responsibilities as agreed with the committee and may delegate some or all of their responsibilities to another member with the agreement of the committee
Members are elected to one or more of these positions at each Annual General Meeting. The term of office for each starts from the first day of the month following the Annual General Meeting.

Meetings

An Annual General Meeting is held during each Autumn Golf Break. In the event that there is no Autumn Golf Break the meeting is held at the earliest opportunity after October 18th.
The Committee may call an Extraordinary General Meeting at any time.
The quorum for a General Meeting is four members. Each member is entitled to speak and has one vote.
Any member of the committee may call a Committee Meeting at any time. Any General Meeting to be held on the same day is held prior to the Committee Meeting. Members not on the Committee may attend as observers.
The quorum for any Committee Meeting is three officers. Each officer of the Committee has one vote.
In the event of an equality of voting at any meeting further votes are taken and the meeting continues until the equality is resolved.
For security reasons there will be no written record of any meeting.

Rules of Play

Each society golf game is played in accordance with the R&A Rules of Golf supplemented by any rules local to the course being played, unless otherwise specified in the society’s rules.
The definitions in the Rules of Golf and the World Handicapping System (WHS) Rules of Handicapping apply to the sections that follow.

Competitions

A Competition Event consists of one or more competitions.
A Qualifying Competition is one where the gross scores of each player are recorded for the purpose of updating Handicap Indices at the end of the Competition Event.
For each competition in a Competition Event the Handicap Index for a player who is also a member of a golf club will be his club Handicap Index.
For each competition in a Competition Event the Handicap Index for a player who is not a member of a golf club will be his society Handicap Index at the start of the Competition Event, as shown on the Members page, calculated from his Score Differentials in previous Qualifying Competitions.
The Club Handicap for each player is calculated from his Handicap Index * Slope Rating of the course /113.
The Playing Handicap for each player is calculated from his Club Handicap x Handicap Allowance for the competition being played as set out in the WHS Rules of Handicapping.
In Match Play competitions the player with the lowest Playing Handicap plays off zero strokes relative to the other player(s). The other player(s) receive(s) the difference between their own Playing Handicap and that of the player with the lowest Playing Handicap.
There are no “mulligans” in competitions.
The maximum gross score recorded for a hole will be 10.
Putts may be conceded during a stroke play or stableford competition if the distance of the ball from the hole is less than one foot.
Where two or more players obtain the same overall score in an individual stroke play or stableford competition the finishing order for those players is determined by count back.
The number of holes to be played in any competition may be reduced (e.g. because of poor light, bad weather etc.) with the agreement of more than half of the players.
The treasurer determines the entry fee and allocation of winnings for each competition.
Any entry fees are collected through the record of expenditure for the Competition Event.
Any winnings are distributed through the record of expenditure for the Competition Event.

Longest Drive Competitions

The hole to be used for the Longest Drive competition is decided by the organiser of this competition.
The player whose first tee shot on the nominated hole is furthest from the tee and on the fairway is winner of this competition.

Nearest the Pin Competitions

The hole to be used for the Nearest The Pin competition is decided by the organiser of this competition.
The player whose first shot on the nominated hole is nearest the pin and on the green is the winner of this competition.

Nearest the Pin in 2 Competitions

The hole to be used for the Nearest The Pin in 2 competition is decided by the organiser of this competition.
The player whose second shot on the nominated hole is nearest the pin and on the green is the winner of this competition unless another player holes his tee shot in which case he is the winner of this competition.

Tous Trois Trophie

This prize will be awarded to the diog who accumulates the most points from all of the par 3 holes played in stableford competitions.
In the event of a tie the highest scores on the individual par 3s, starting with the longest to the shortest, will be used to decide the winner.

Down In One Golf Society