(Almost) Winter News

 Proposed Honors Violation Policy

"We have had a number of concerns regarding rules violations in the past few months, so we are establishing a formal Honors Violation policy that will be presented to the Board soon to move towards including in our By-Laws.  As part of the responsibilities as Event Chair, I am leading a program implementation in order to have a standard way to deal with alleged violations that arise. Here is a quick overview of the policy:

If you suspect a rule is being violated, it's up to you and the players in the affected group to point it out to the offending player or team immediately.  One of two things will happen:
1)The player agrees with you, and they rectify the situation in real time. This avoids that player or team from being disqualified for posting an incorrect score.  Or;

2)if the player disagrees with you, you should let that player as well as the rest of your group know that you will be contacting the Event Chair regarding this situation.  Everyone in the group must understand why you feel there is a violation and why the other player does not.  The point of this is not to determine who is right, but simply to make sure everyone understands what happened. Without your group's on the spot understanding of the situation , any accusations after the fact are essentially hearsay.  We want to do better than that.  You should contact the Event Chair, Greg Marshall within 24 hours and advise him of the situation in writing.  Greg will take it from there and make a ruling as soon as possible.  Simple as that.  Please contact Greg with any questions or concerns."

Greg Marshall

Event Chair

Golf Carts Course Abuse

It has been noticed by GolfATX management that some cart drivers are: 

1) not using their handicap placards when authorized, and; 

2) getting very close, in fact too close to the greens. When it is allowed for handicap golfers to drive on the fairways, please use your placards so ASGA is not penalized for those who need to drive in Cart Path Only areas. Remember too for all drivers when approaching greens, you MUST remain AT LEAST 30 FEET from the greens. A request from one of the Golf ATX Professionals:

"(W)e are having an issue with some senior golfers with Handicap placards, and some without, getting way to close to the green during their rounds...What I would ask is if you could let your group know our concerns. The placard can get them to 30ft(10 yards). Any closer can compromise not only the soil but there are irrigation systems underground that can be damaged by the weight of the cart. Thank you in advance."

 Please take care when using this driving privilege. Thank you.

Pace of Play Update

There have been some more minor tweaks to the Pace of Play program. While we are enjoying some faster rounds, some played events still have room for improvement. 

Keeping Pace Policy

1st hour tee time groups not finishing in 4 hours or less will not receive 1st hour tee times for the following 4 weeks.

Groups taking longer than 4:15 **and** finishing 15 minutes or more behind the group in front of them will be flagged as slow. The exception is for 2-person Modified Pinehurst events, where groups finishing more than 15 minutes behind will be deemed as slow......regardless of the length of their round.

Groups flagged as slow will not receive tee times earlier than 10:30 a.m. for their next four events. If that group is flagged again during the following four events, those players will no longer receive tee times earlier than 10:30am on a permanent basis.

Remember to keep up with the group in front of you!

A quick note on teeing off. If your group is ready to tee off and the group in front of you is missing a player, if they decide to wait, have your group go ahead.

Pace of Play is not a recent topic for this group.👀

Dues Renewal for 2026

There are currently 90 members who have not yet renewed for 2026. If your dues is not received by January 1, 2026, you will be ineligible to play in events, and if paid promptly, may miss the first event of the new year.  If not received by January 15, you will be added to the waiting list of new seniors who wish to join our group. We are in process of trimming down our membership roster considerably to avoid overloaded event subscriptions. Thank you for your consideration.

Currently, there is a link on the home page to view a list of those who have not renewed. After January 1, you can determine if you are current by viewing the Handicap Listing. If your name does not appear, we did not receive your dues payment.

Playing an Event After the Schedule is Posted?

For some of our newer members, a reminder. Schedules are published Sunday morning, but there will always be members who need to cancel. If you wish to play that event but weren't on the schedule, you can always check with the course and ask if there are any openings in the schedule.. 

On behalf of the ASGA Board,

Bruce Jones
ASGA Admin

More on November 12

 

Chester Burks Passes

Chester Burks

With sadness we report that long-time member Chester Burks passed away October 28^th. 

Not many of our current active members were playing before 2006. Chester was one of the few. He participated in over 740 total events, with 20 of those happening this year! Our heartfelt sympathy to his friends and family. 

Here is a link to an on-line tribute to Chester.

 

 

Event Sign-Ups—What’s the Deal?

We are experiencing both our largest membership ever as well as our largest fields ever, which is impacting our ability to effectively manage our events. As you read above in the President’s letter, we have capped our membership at current level until we can reduce the size of our event signups. GolfATX is not allowing any further expansion, be it dual-courses or alternate days or additional single course tee times. 

This will be the current signup methodology going forward. All signups will be closed at 148 maximum. For any event where less than 148 will be allowed by GolfATX to play, removal will begin at last entry and work backwards as needed. It is our understanding Lions Muny will be most impacted.
Hopefully we can quickly reduce our event size as we go forward. 

Renewals Re-emphasized

It is important to re-emphasize another of the President’s messages.

If you fail to renew by Jan. 15, you will:
a)become inactive and therefore not be able to compete in events; and
b)will have to re-activate via the waitlist, after those already waiting to join.

 

Finances

A big thank you to our Secretary/Treasurer David Brader, who has been in this role since fall of 2021, and has signed up to help us once again for 2025-2026. The annual financial report to members created each year by David is available in the “Minutes and Reports” section under the “Our Organization” tab. 

On behalf of the Board, 

Bruce Jones
Admin/Webmaster

 

President's Letter and More...

President's Letter November 2025 

2026 ASGA Board Launched November 6, 2025 In the Harvey Penick Room at Lions.

Members,

The Transitional Meeting that closes out the previous board and brings on the new one often is fairly limited as to activity.

This Board is a very experienced and with so many action items on the agenda, I set out to get them done.

1. The board led in discussion by our new Vice President, Dan Roberts, decided that The 2-Person Grand Prix should be modified slightly to allow more members a chance to win as the season progresses. The scores that will count toward your team's  final score will be reduced from 11 to 9. Your  best 9 at season end will count. In the event you do not play in 9 events it will be your total score from all events your team played. In addition to this improvement Greg Marshall has added 2  2-person events to this year's schedule.  The Individual All-In Grand Prix will not be changed. The vote for this update was unanimous.

2. A few general members and a couple of board members pointed out that perhaps our 60 and up membership was too wide a span of ages.  They made the observation that by starting at some other age like 65 would be of value and curtail our membership. Bruce Jones provided some analysis of members from each age bracket from 60 and up and all of them have current members including 90 and up having 4 members. The review of the reasons why ASGA changed to 60 and up a few years back revealed that ATX offers annual memberships for Seniors 60 and up. The board unanimously decided to leave our age groups as they are.  We plan to continue to solve our growing membership another way. We believe we can solve it early next year  before daylight saving comes back and shortens our good morning tee times. In  the short run we have capped the membership and created a waiting list on our website. We really want to serve as many golfers in our area as possible, but we strive to make our rounds fun for all that are members now.

3.  Renewing your membership is very important, even more so when we have people on the waiting list.  At our annual membership meeting David Brader our Secretary/Treasurer sets up a booth and stays as long as you want to renew you annual membership. We also have a very convenient way to renew on  our website. They all should be done, but they are not. You need to get it done before the end of December to avoid paying a higher fee in January 2026. You board unanimously voted this year to say if you do not renew by the end of January 31 2026 you will be making a mistake. If you plan on playing with us in 2026 renew now. If you wait until February, or other months later in the year you will sign up as a new member and should we be still on the waiting list for membership you will be added to that list. So, please come on, get it done. On February first we will adjust our membership based on all signed up or renewed. It is only fair. Help us out.  Renew now!!!

4, Our newest board member is Ric Chapa. He serves the general membership with a focus on new members. He also is the perfect person to communicate with should you have an idea you think has merit. Ric will hear you out and get the proper hearing for your idea at the next board meeting. All of our board members are here to serve.

I am very honored to be your president this year. It will be my goal to see that we have a great year. The Board is one of the best I  have seen.

Sincerely,

Travis McWhorter
ASGA President 

2025 Annual Meeting, President's Cup, and Luncheon Info

This year’s President’s Cup, Annual Meeting and Luncheon will be held at Morris Williams Pavilion on October 21st. Here are some details of the event.

PRESIDENT'S CUP (MATCH PLAY)

The President's Cup

As we do each year, today’s event will be match play, with a shotgun start at 8:00AM. All players must be in carts by 7:45. You MUST rent a cart for this event. (You do not have to use it—if you don’t, please advise your opponent IN ADVANCE of heading to your starting tee.)

Past President Greg Marshall will lead Team Blue along with his Assistant Captain Jim Sallade, our current Handicap Chairman. 

Lewis Howell, a former ASGA president, last year led the 45-person RED team to a close 24-21 victory over Team Blue rival leaders Sam Mihalik, a former president, and Jim Sallade.

This year current President Allan Myers will captain Team Red, along with Bruce Jones as Assistant Captain.

The four leaders plus Shawn Higgins, Event Chair, will meet Saturday morning the 18^th to draft this year’s teams.

How do you get to be selected to play Oct 21? It is simple. Sign up or have your usual person sign you up to play in the event. The sign up will be open Wednesday the 15^th until 4 o'clock Friday the 17th. No need to select a time as the event is a shotgun start (appx. 8:00). You must sign up by Noon Friday. Maximum number of signups 144, first-come-first-served. Friday afternoon Bruce Jones will compile the list of signups and forward it to the Captains and Event Chair so they will have time to prepare for Saturday morning's draft. You will see on Sunday the 19th at the usual time which team you are on and who you will compete against in net match play.  

If for some reason you need to cancel after signing up, send an email to Bruce Jones so another opponent can take the missing place.

On Tuesday morning you will pay your usual fees at the course. A special scorecard will be handed out for each pair of matches, showing stroke differences, if any. The winning President Cup team members will win $14 whether they won, lost, or tied their individual match.

THE ANNUAL MEETING

At the meeting we will elect Association Officers for the upcoming 2025-2026 season. In addition, door prizes will be provided for those with luncheon banquet tickets, along with announcements of the Grand Prix winners, and of course the President's Cup. There will also be members recognized for special awards.

MOST IMPORTANTLY YOU CAN PARTICIPATE IN THE ELECTION OF OFFICERS.
Travis McWhorter led a nominating committee that is recommending, with Board approval, the following members for 2025-2026 board positions. Any member is also allowed to nominate a member from the floor during the election process.

COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS:

President:  Travis McWhorter
Vice President: Dan Roberts
Secretary/Treasurer: David Brader
Event Chair: Greg Marshall
Handicap Chair: Jim Sallade
PARD City Board Rep: Maury Miller
General Membership: (nomination from the floor per bylaws)
Website/Admin Chair: Bruce Jones
Past President: Allan Myers (automatic per bylaws)

THE BANQUET/LUNCHEON

Tickets for the banquet are now on sale on our website. The cost is $15, including fees. Allan Myers and Dan Roberts will oversee the banquet this year. After you vanquish your opponent 4 and 3, just head to the pavilion.  You’ll see Shawn (in his last official act as Event Chair) scoring the event in real-time. Pick up your banquet ticket from Allan/Dan. Keep your banquet ticket stub as it will be used for the door prize drawings.

RENEW YOUR ASGA MEMBERSHIP

In the banquet area you will have your first opportunity to renew your ASGA membership for 2026. We will have a table set up (look for David Brader, our excellent Treasurer) where you can easily renew your membership. Online renewals for 2026 begin November 1^st.

Renewal dues remain at $15 for next year. The main renewal period begins with the date of the Annual Banquet event and continues through December 31st. After December 31st if you fail to renew, your fee will increase to the new member rate of $20.00 to reactivate your membership.

Hope to see you at the Annual Meeting, President’s Cup competition and luncheon/banquet.

Any questions, contact Dan Roberts, Member Delegate.

On behalf of your 2024-2025 Board,

Bruce Jones
Admin/Webmaster

Another Successful Championship & One Other Item

 The Championship

We had a nice turnout for this year's championship, 125 players competing in 12 flights. Our new ASGA Champions are Hal Johnson, who posted a nice gross score of 136 over two days, and Terence Donovan, who claimed Net Champion with a score of 125! Their names are of course inscribed for history on our website, adding to our list of ASGA Champions. In addition to our course leaders, we had special events of Long Drive and Closest to the Pin. Here are those results:

Attendance was significantly higher than previous years, exceeding our previous high of 108 players in 2024.

Our next up significant event on the schedule will be our Annual Meeting and Banquet (liberal use of that word!) so stay tuned for that. 

Testing, Testing!

Some of you may have noticed a new tee time format this week. Golf ATX has graciously allowed us to test simultaneous #1 and #10 tee times.  If this works well, we may be allowed to continue this for other events in October. Currently we have a limitation of 128 entries this week, so we still have some work to do to figure out what we do if we exceed 120+ players. 

I cannot urge you strongly enough this week--if you wish this tee time setup to continue, you need to stay up with the group in front of you.

Link here to our video for tips to keep pace.

That's all for now. Hope your scores exceed your expectations!

On behalf of the Board,

Bruce Jones

ASGA Admin