By John M. Bodenhamer, Executive Director, Pacific Northwest Golf Association
(first published in Pacific Northwest Golfer, September 2000)

Oftentimes golf courses have little quirks about them that contribute to their charm and character. During the recent PNGA Senior Men’s Amateur Championship, we encountered such a quirk at Sunriver Resort’s marvelous Crosswater Club. When designing this world-class course, architects Bob Cupp and John Fought left intact an old settler’s cemetery adjacent to the fairway on the 11th hole. Suffice to say that golfers who strayed into this area ran the risk of getting "the ultimate in buried lies!"

Needless to say, this cemetery was a hot topic of conversation during the championship. And of course, at least one golfer was heard to say, "If you hit it in there, you’re dead!" The club does a wonderful job of maintaining the white picket fence surrounding the headstones and keeping the inner area of this graveyard mown. But how do the Rules of Golf apply for a ball in this area?

Our Rules committee deemed the cemetery to be ground under repair during our event. We did have a few people in and around the area, but nobody was really "Dying to get in there." To best define the area, we also painted a white line around it signifying it to be ground under repair. Out of respect for those that had passed on, the committee also prohibited play from the area and made relief mandatory.

Rule 25-1b, which fittingly is Abnormal Ground Condition, addressed each instance of interference we encountered regarding this area. For a ball in this area, a player:

1) determines his nearest point of relief which is not in a hazard

2) lifts and drops the ball without penalty within one club length of and not nearer the hole than the previously determined nearest point of relief

3) avoids interference by the ground under repair and is not in a hazard (this got a little tricky since there was a series of bunkers near the area)

While this cemetery was covered under the Rules of Golf like any other area of ground under repair, we did have a few seniors who seemed a little nervous to be so close to this final resting place. Who wouldn’t be?