President's Message - October 29, 2020

Your Board Meets, Team Events Return and Grand Prix Results

Your Board of Directors met yesterday on-line via Zoom. As you know next year, with your overwhelming support, the board will be the exact same as this year. When Lino Oballo Vice President's team completes the financial audit we will begin the new board.  I would like to personally express my appreciation of the membership support in this bizarre year and to say that this board worked harder than any board I have seen.  Please give them  an air or email high-five to thank them for their efforts in keeping us together during this pandemic.

We accomplished a great deal and will be a better ASGA as we move toward 50 years having passed our 46th year in 2020. Can you believe it we have come from a behind the club house meeting after a round at Lions in 1974 with a simple question "are you playing next week?"  to set up the tee times to our on-line reservation system and the board meeting on Zoom. Wow!! Life does begin at 62 these days.

You asked for it often through Lewis Howell General Membership Delegate, and now thanks to the Parks and Recreation Golf Division, Shawn Higgins Event Chair, Bruce Jones Website Chair, Bill Burke Handicap Chair,  and the rest of the board we have added 2-person team events starting November 10. Check your schedule. Next week's update will talk about the procedures to sign up, your play at the course is the same as individual and the score card as it relates to your part in 2-person scoring. Get your partner chosen.

Daylight Savings goes away this Sunday the 1st and you will see all tee-times move up about an hour next week at Kizer. The event weather does look good at this time.

We have now played eight events using our on-line sign up system and over 120 of you have played 1 to 7 events. The ratio of sign-ups to playing, discounting iffy weather days in both years, has actually gone up a couple percent compared to the previous way. That is a very good sign of your support. However, using the empirical data  of the real events and the survey that Bruce Jones is asking this week we now are ready to make another tweak that we believe will improve your positive feeling even more. Next week's update will also cover the fact that we will refine sign up periods to a total of four. We will explain it more then, but this change will give you the option to have a little later tee times than very early without the risk of getting the very first few tee times which is perfect for some and too early for others. This should also help with pace of play as we are going to encourage the groups in the first groups to commit to setting a reasonably fast pace to get us all going a little faster and avoiding gaps.

GRAND PRIX RESULTS: Paul Redden, Grand Prix Chair, has announced the final standings. Congrats to the winners, Oliver Crinkelmeyer Individual and Travis McWhorter and Don Visness Team.  The top four in the individual and team standings will receive a check in the mail from Treasurer Sam Mihalik: 1st $50 each, 2nd $25 each, 3rd $15 each and 4th $10 each.  

The Grand Prix is a year long contest with the goal of playing well and often. It is quite an accomplishment. Paul is forming a committee to develop the Grand Prix program for the coming year and we will announce the outcome soon. Review the final results at this link and/or on our website under Member Programs.

That is enough for one week. I told you that your Board of Directors are good. Make that great.

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

Travis McWhorter, President

President's Message -- October 19, 2020

 This Update Is as Simple as 1,2, and 3. Take Time To Read It.

1. Kizer is the last chance to make it into the top 5 of the Grand Prix Individuals. Last week there were some great pushes. Play hard and shoot a low score.
2. It is important to tee off on time and to stay up. Sometimes we get ahead at the events. Please show up at least 30 minutes before your scheduled tee times. In most cases we have been gaining 10 or more minutes on tee times as the day progresses. This will help to speed up the event for everyone if you are ready to go. And remember to avoid gaps. It is always the group's responsibility to stay within 1 hole of those playing in front of you.

3. Turn in clean score cards with the first and last names of the players.  We prefer all the scores for one group on one score card using the lines from the top down. Please have the scorer sign and one of the group attest. This helps in entering the scores for handicap purposes and to determine the winners. We are doing our own entry into the computer. You are all responsible to check the score card for accuracy before it is  turned in. The computer will check your numbers, but getting the card right makes it easier and faster.

System report: Those signing up and those playing has been really good with our new system. It is performing at a higher percent than our previous system. Next week is the last week before daylight saving time ends and that will move all tee times an hour earlier and that should be very popular. Bruce Jones and I have one more tweak planned in a couple weeks.  Armed with our experience we believe we can perform even better. We will keep you posted.

1, 2, and 3 and you are free to go and have some fun on the golf course.

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

Travis McWhorter, President

President's Message -- October 12, 2020

 Grand Prix Is Down to Two Events for the Individual this Season

The standings have been updated for the Grand Prix today by Paul Redden and below are the top 15 for the individual contest for this season. You can review the entire standings on our website. The Team Standings are final as there are no more team events, but with many points available in these next two events you need to play hard tomorrow and next Tuesday and you can move into the top five of the Individual standings and claim your name on the trophy for 1st some extra money in the top 5.

The winner of the Individual Championship will win $50 as will each of the members of the winning Team Championship. Second place individual and team members will receive $25 while third place holders will pull in $15. Fourth place will finish up with $10 each.

All members are entered and the top 15 are listed here for the Individual so you can plan your push. The Points start out at 100 for winning your flight and the higher you finish in your flights the better the chance. Play to win your flight and move up into the top 5 by the end of the event play  scheduled for October 20th at Roy Kizer. The final standings will be posted and the results withing a couple weeks of the final event. Good Luck!

Current top 15 through October 6th

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

Travis McWhorter, President

Carl Hedrick Passes

Carl Hedrick (1938-2020)
(courtesy of Legacy.com)

President Travis McWhorter reports that a long time member of ASGA passed away September 24, 2020.

"Though I did not know Carl well, my association with Paul Redden as a fellow player and friend of Carl's made me wish I did. Paul always spoke so highly of him." 

ASGA extends our warmest feelings and prayers for the entire family.

"Carl was a long-time ASGA member and a good friend and golf partner of mine for several years," said Paul Redden, ASGA Board Member and Past President.

Carl had many accomplishments in life as well as displaying his love of his country having served 39 years in the United States Air Force. You can read more at the link to his obituary below.

He enjoyed ASGA and will be greatly missed by all of us and especially Paul Redden, his long time golfing partner.

Carl Hedrick Obituary

President's Message - October 5, 2020

 Most Valuable Players. Turn In A Great Card. Make it Count.

Lions Clubhouse

One of our goals is to have healthy fun playing golf. Last Tuesday the weather was near perfect and the turn out was nearing 100% of those signing up and then showing up. Let's do it again at Lions this week. Come join the fun.

 

When you sign up as a foursome, we depend on that group to deal with the city courses three-cart maximum per tee time, so one or more of them must walk or share a cart safely. When you sign up less than a foursome, the Saturday committee strives to fill up groups the same way. This is a requirement for us to continue to play during this Covid-19 era. So you riders that have a cart to yourselves for your comfort please hear this!! Volunteers who share a cart and walkers are making this all possible.

So take your hat off and thank them from a safe distance and respect their space on the course. A couple of ways I can think of are:

1. When you in a cart and a walker are approaching a bridge or narrow space let them go first. You can find your ball in the rough soon enough. 
2. If a walker hits their ball in what might be a hard space to find their ball try zooming over and spotting it for them.  Walkers learn the short cuts to the next tee box  and when possible all of us should park our walking or driving carts on the exit side of a putting green so you can move out of the approaching players quicker when putting out. This all helps keeps the pace, but also have a dab of patience. Remember the walkers and the cart sharers are the most valuable players. We need one or more in each foursome to play. They make our play possible. 

Bill Burke, our Handicap Chairman, could write a good humor book about score cards. Did you know that Bill, like all of us on the board and committees, is a volunteer? Bill plays almost every week and in addition has volunteered to take control of the score cards for hole-by-hole entry. He often invests 8 to 10 hours on Tuesday so you can find out if you won some "money' and how you did with your peers. Here is a bit of humor relayed to me--maybe not so humorous for Bill. We had a score card turned in with only first initial of each player, and one hole not added in. On another, two players forgot to turn in their cards, and a third example were a few turned in that were less than legible. 

Why are the scorecards not filled out in advance with names and handicap and why do we not turn in scorecards to the course for them to calculate like in the past? For health reasons and to be able to play we agreed to use standard cards and keep our own scores. It is not that hard to find your handicap on our website and it is not that hard to write the last name and at least the first initial of each player on the card. Bill's preference would be that the two best scorers in each group keep all players on one card each with the last name first and then first name or initial on the line to the left of their score line.  At the conclusion total each and if they match, turn in the cleanest, with the other attesting the scores. Each of you should keep you own score to verify your score. If you decide to keep one card each and cross verify with one scoring and one attesting that is fine, but please, please check your math before attesting. Bill will have a lot more cards to store and enter the data from. Also, don't forget to turn in your score card. In many cases Bill will find a comfortable place to take your cards and key the scores in as he goes once he completes his round. In all cases you can ask the folks behind the counter and they will either take them, show you the box to put them in or tell your where Bill is if he has finished. I was near the end last week and that is exactly what I did. It worked. In some cases Bill may leave and come back to pick up the cards.  But make sure you turn in your card. Make it legible and accurate. In the end you must have a card turned in to count and it is the computer and what Bill reads to enter that produces the final score. Make it Count!!

Remember to wear your mask in the common areas, not just the club house. That is what we agreed with the City to do. When you reach the first tee, separate safely and remove your mask if you like. I am forecasting that you will have more fun this weekend and clean score cards!

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

Travis McWhorter, President