President's Message - September 5, 2020

The City, Parks and Recreation and Golf Division Said Yes!! We Will Restart League Play  September 15th at Morris Williams. The Voting Has Closed and You Have Extended Your Board for an Additional Term.

It was very exciting to learn from Kevin Gomillion and I quote, "We have been given permission to allow our Tuesday Senior Golf League to re-start on Tuesday, September 15th at Morris Williams. A couple of changes to the format and Travis McWhorter may chime in on any additional information."  I have so chimed and we are ready to start. Some of the details will be covered later in this update. I can honestly say that "goose bumps" overcame me. Thanks to all of you and the board, we have succeeded.

The voting for extending the board has completed today and after 10-24 hour periods the voting was closed by Bruce Jones, voting coordinator. Since at the unanimous recommendation of the board we were suspending  our normal by-laws for this one time exception to the date of election and term limits the vote by the membership had to pass by a minimum of 2/3 of those casting a vote.  The final results were 86 sent back the email response. Those that voted yes were 84, no was 1 and without a vote 1. The without a vote was not counted, so we had 98.8 % approval. The Board and I do appreciate your vote of confidence and look forward to serving you until the appropriate election and transfer meetings in 2021. It would be nice that at some point during this time normality or something close to it returns. In the mean time we will zig and zag when needed and get the job done.

Now it is time to get ready to return to playing golf. Next week we will give you more information to help our return to golf go smoothly. It is important that we play by the guidelines we have agreed to. Remember that all sign up for tee times will be on line. The sign up for the Morris Williams Event will begin Wednesday morning at your convenience and will end Friday. You may want to review under Member Programs and then open Tee Time Registration. A complete outline of the program is then available by clicking on Registration Help. Those of you that played at our last tournament at Riverside used the program and all of you had a chance to practice it as we tested during our downtime.

A few key things about playing. We are now playing for the foreseeable future Individual net only. We will be playing under the Austin Senior Golf League as we will not play tournaments but league play only.  This was deemed to safest form relating to Covid-19 Guidelines for us to re-start. In time we will look into other safe formats. Carts are limited to three per group. If you are playing in a foursome at least one person will have to walk or if all wish to ride two will have to share a cart. Those requesting a cart alone will not have to pay extra, but will need to balance out the three cart maximum in some way. We will be working on a way to find out your desires up front so we can make sure to comply and help with the foursome groups to have enough walkers to make it work. In the event that some share a cart it is recommended that you each wear a mask when in the cart at the same time. The three cart situation is about quantity of carts available. In and around the club house you must wear a mask. At the first tee, practicing safe distancing of at least 6 feet or more if possible, you may remove your mask if you like. Please put it back on as you complete your round and turn in the score card. The course will take your appropriate fee plus Event entry fee of $5 by debit or credit card only when you arrive to sign in. Signs are everywhere explaining course protocol.  The score card properly signed and attested will be put into a receptacle near the front desk. ASGA Senior Golf League will be responsible for the scoring and results posted on the ASGA website as soon as possible after the event. Do not attempt  to hand the score card to the course employees. They are required not to touch.

Many of our officers will take on dual roles as a results of our playing as Austin Senior Golf League. I am the president of both our groups. Shawn Higgins is the Event Chairman. All the rest will do their normal duties while focusing on serving the Austin Senior League. All the age restrictions, membership etc are the same for both groups.

Paul Redden and Bruce Jones will be working hard to get all ready on the website to start taking your registrations on Wednesday. Do not call or go to the course to get reservations. We are hoping with cooler weather now here that we will fill up all our tee times available. We have a lot so come and play. We have worked so hard to return and now all you have to do is at your convenience sign up yourself or your group, select the approximate tee time range you would like and all will be treated equally as the computer with a tweak or two from last time strives for fun, easy and healthy golf. Let the events begin!! Think positively and play with respect and safety for all.


On behalf of the ASGA Board of Directors and Austin Senior Golf League

Travis McWhorter, President