We have a local rule which was basically introduced to prevent slow play.  If a player hits a ball, which appears there might be a slight chance that it might be lost or Out of Bounds, then they MUST hit a provisional ball. That is, if a ball enters any area of the course that is not fairway or standard length rough (first/second cut).  For example a ball entering undergrowth, weeds, flower beds, deep rough, woodlands etc.) This does not include water hazards.  In the unusual circumstance, that a ball is lost or O.B. and no provisional was hit (due to it appearing ok) then the following should occur. The player MUST NOT return to the tee or place where the lost ball was hit from, but instead drop a new ball at a point where the lost ball is believed to lie. The penalty will be 2 strokes (which is equivalent to stroke and distance). This rule does not apply to water hazards as a ball lost in awater hazard is a one shot penalty.  See the seperate post on Water Hazard rules.

The residents Cup is a match play event between the Red Team and the Blue Team.  This event will take place during rounds 2 through 7. Rounds 2, 3, 5 and 6 will be in the format of Fourball Better Ball Stableford. That is two players from the red team will play against two players from the Blue Team. On each hole the Red Team will use the best stableford score from their two players and compare it to the best stableford score from the blue team pairing. The team with the highest stableford score on the hole, will win the hole. After 18 holes the score will either be a victory to the team that is up or a halve. Regardless of the size of the victory the winning team will receive 1 point. If the match is halved then both teams receive half a point. Rounds 4 and 7 will be in the format of singles match play. Each member of the Red team will play against a member of the Blue team. As with the fourball better ball matches, the player (team) with the best stableford score will win the hole. There are currently no prizes associated with Residents Cup. 

The main tournament is a strokeplay tournament over 7 rounds. The scoring format will be a stableford format which is then converted to a net score. Stableford format is based on 0 points for net double bogey or worse, 1 point for net bogey, 2 for net par, 3 for net birdie and soon. The reason we use stableford is so that anyone failing to finish ahole will get 0 points on that hole rather than being DQed as in medal play. In order to convert the stableford score to a format similar to the scoring format used on the PGA tour we will take the player's stableford score away from a base 36 (ie 18 net pars). Therefore someone scoring 42 points will have scored -6, someone scoring 30 will be +6 and someone scoring 36 will be even par. The winner will be the player with the lowest score after taking the best 6 scores from the 7 rounds played.  If there is a tie, then the winner will be the player with best score from the discarded round.  If the scores are still tied then the score of the final round will be used (regardless of whether it was a discarded round), if still tied then use round 6 and so on down the rounds. The winner of the strokeplay tournament gets to keep the BDA Strokeplay Plate for 1 year and also receives the coveted Wobbly Fat Man Trophy which he gets to keep.

In 2008, the BDA Tour Matchplay Plate was introduced as a way to give hope to the perennial cellar dwellars (Nick, Rich, Andrew) after they finally realized that they had no chance of winning the strokeplay event!

Depending on the number of players in any given year, the matchplay event begins on round 5 and the seedings are determined by the Stableford standings after round 4 (throw away rounds are ignored).  This gives players who are well back in the strokeplay event the chance to still bring home some silver.  The matchplay event is a single elimination event based on Stableford points per hole as defined by the current strokeplay event rules. During the final round the two remaining matchplay contestants are paired in the same group for some die-hard head-to-head action.  Wagers are encouraged.
 
The winner of the Matchplay tournament gets to keep the BDA Matchplay Plate for 1 year.