HOW TO BECOME A REFEREE

My first real brush with the Rules of Golf came in an early competitive round when a fellow player told me in no uncertain terms that I could no longer play my first ball, despite finding it safely in bounds, as I had failed to declare my second ball a provisional. It was a mistake I’ve never repeated.

I never set out to look after Rules pages, and don’t recall how or why I came to do so, but I do know when – July 2008. A year later, I attended The R&A’s Referees School in St Andrews where I scraped through with 66 per cent. Now, 11+ years down the line, it seems I’m not alone in stumbling into the Rules world. Andy McFee, long-time European Tour chief referee until last October, found his vocation by ‘right time, right place’ too. McFee, who played off 1 as a youngster, tells