R&A take Referees' School to Malaysia

FROM THE R&A WEBSITE

This month Glenmarie Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will host the first R&A Referees School to be held in Asia and only the third held away from St Andrews.

Representing The R&A at the three-day programme will be:

Alan Holmes, Chairman, Rules of Golf Committee.

David Wybar, Deputy Chairman.

Grant Moir, Director – Rules of Golf.

Kevin Barker, Assistant Director – Rules.

Sixty golf referees from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, China, the Philippines, Hong Kong, India and Thailand will stay in Kuala Lumpur for the duration of the School, chosen as the venue in recognition of the Malaysian Golf Association’s past hosting of numerous R&A Rules Schools and of the large number of active referees in Malaysia.

The purpose of the School is to help the delegates, who will already have a good knowledge of the Rules, to improve their refereeing technique through a programme involving the detailed study of the technique of top officials through the analysis of televised Rules incidents, practical demonstrations of the Rules, role-play sessions during which the students will deliver rulings to the R&A instructors, and, finally, the completion of a written exam.

“This Referees School represents an important milestone in the development of golf in Asia,” commented R&A Director – Rules of Golf, Grant Moir, ahead of the trip.

“Although we have welcomed many Asians to our Referees Schools in St Andrews, it is a long and expensive journey for them to make, so it is great to take the School on the road, knowing that there are plenty of accomplished officials from the region who wish to participate."

“We see this as the logical progression from the many Rules Schools that we have previously run in Malaysia,” added Alan Holmes, Chairman of the Rules of Golf Committee.

“Those Schools have provided the basic knowledge of the Rules, and the next step for officials is to work on ways to improve their refereeing techniques, which will enable them to officiate at the highest levels of the game.”

Following the Referees School, The R&A Rules team will head to Thailand and the Philippines for two more Rules Schools before returning to St Andrews.