Camiko's breach of the rules was talking point

It’s a good thing there was an extra day this past weekend.  The Bermuda Golf Association had a full plate of activities to cope with, what with the playing of its premier amateur stroke play event at Port Royal while trying to figure out how to handle effectively a violation of the Rules of Amateur Status. 

Oh, and there was also the small matter of determining who would represent Bermuda in Argentina in October at the World Amateur Team Championships.

I’ve played a lot of different golf courses over the years, some of which were difficult and some of which were not so difficult. 

I can honestly say, off the black tees with pins set in their tournament spots, Port Royal is as tough a golf course as you would ever want to play. 

It has a course rating of 74.2, compared to a par of 71, and it is not overrated.  Port Royal Black is tough. 

The Men’s division of the Bermuda Amateur Stroke Play Championship was won by Terrence Daniels with a score of 296.  While that is 12 over par, it is actually about one under the course rating and is an excellent 4-day total.  Mr. Daniels has clearly thrown down the gauntlet to our better known amateurs. 

The winner of the Ladies’ division was Katrin Burnie, who also won the Ladies’ Match Play Championship earlier this year.  Ms. Burnie has become the lady golfer in Bermuda to beat and others will need to sharpen their tools if they wish to try and knock her off the top spot any time soon.

Worlds

Bermuda will be represented in Argentina at the World Amateur Team Championships in October by Terrence Daniels, Jarryd Dillas and Jun Hardart.  This is a young team, all of whom have had the benefit of spending time in the United States, so it will be interesting to see how they do. 

The most intriguing part of the weekend was taken up by discussions on a violation of the Rules of Amateur Status by one of Bermuda’s top amateurs, Camiko Smith.

Camiko was one of three golfers who recently appeared in a newspaper advert for golf attire and when people saw that in the pages of the Royal Gazette, the cat was set amongst the pigeons.

Not surprisingly, Bermuda being Bermuda, everybody had an opinion and they made sure they voiced it. 

Fortunately, the Rules were quite clear.

Rule 6.2 prohibits an amateur golfer of golf skill or reputation from lending his name or likeness in an advert to sell anything and, by appearing in the advert, Camiko had indeed breached the Rules of Amateur status. 

Rule 8.2 properly handles inadvertent breaches such as this by empowering the Committee to examine the specific circumstances of the breach in question and, where warranted, not withdraw the player’s amateur status and instead simply require the golfer to refrain from the activity in question. In other words, common sense prevails with a substance-over-form ruling.