President's Message -- April 18, 2021

 The Two Year Wait Is Over. Practice Your High Math Counting.

It has been two years since we have had a 2-day event and full tournament play is still not back. This Tuesday and Thursday event is a great start towards earning the right to have tournaments again, possibly on or before our planned annual election in the fall. This event will help us continue to prove we are a very responsible league.

Though we have conducted no formal survey, based on many conversations over the last few weeks it is my opinion that over 80% of our membership have completed the vaccination regimen and that a few more only need a second shot to complete. There may be a small number that have not started. Even if this is accurate or the actual is even better, we need to continue to practice the protocol the city courses have asked us to follow: Show up about 30 minutes before your tee time, wear your mask in the club house while signing up and give some space to the person taking their golf shots on the course. You should use your best safety judgement when sharing a cart.

Our Upcoming Two-Day Event

The scoring on Tuesday's Best-Ball round will be computed and the results posted by Wednesday, so you will know how your team stacks up in your flight entering Thursday. The Tuesday score will be used to calculate future handicaps so you will need to enter all gross scores for each player. The system will produce each team's best ball net and that will be posted Wednesday as well. For Thursday's Select-Shot round each two person team will have only one score recorded on each hole. The total score for 18 holes will be added to Tuesday's score to produce the two-day event score and that will be posted as soon as feasible following all cards turned in for Thursday. The total score of both days will produce the final results and prize payout. This is a fun event because it is two days and ASGA will be adding funds to the normal two day pool roughly doubling the prize money. Playing is fun. Winning is more fun. Getting extra money when you win is the icing on this "fun cake."

Remember you will pay for both days on Tuesday, so there is no reason not to show up on Thursday. Also, a suggestion for deciding on the 4 clubs to use the following week in the 4-Club event. If you do well reward the clubs that helped you the most in the 2 day event and bring them with you as your 4 for the next week. If you do poorly, leave those "faulty" clubs at home.  So practice your high math by scoring accurately during the 2-day and subtracting the right clubs in the 4-club event the next week. Also, continue to practice safe and courteous play. Let's have fun the next 2 weeks.  See you Tuesday!!

This News has been brought to you on behalf of the ASGA Board of Directors and The Austin Senior Golf League,

Travis McWhorter
President

President's Message -- April 2, 2021

First Hole-in-One and Yes, We Will Count Your Clubs April 27th!!

It was mid-morning March 23rd coming up to the eighth hole, par 3 at Morris Williams and Grady Morris was thinking,"I should use my new hybrid and try hard to get my ball on the green." That is a nice goal for one of the harder par 3's on the ASGA senior circuit. He did just that and looked away jubilantly as one of his foursome then said something like "the ball disappeared in the hole." Yes, he did not see it go in. He was playing with Karen Walsh, Joe Noon and his regular golfing partner Robert Sebring. Grady said Karen was just as excited as he was about witnessing such an accomplishment.

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For the records and many of you that have not made your first hole-in-one, do not fail to sign up for the new pot that will be at Lions again next week. The picture shows Shawn Higgins (at left), our Event and Hole-In-One Chair, handing Grady over $300 from the pool that had been accumulating for a year or more. We have had a new winner, in less than a month, so don't procrastinate.  We have also had a handful that made a hole-in-one and had not signed up. Once you have signed up, your name will show up on the website under Member Programs, Hole-in-One entries, so sign up when you see the box at Lions and your name is not currently on the website.

Now one more amazing thing about Grady--he only took up golf about 10 years ago after he reached the age of 62 and first played in an ASGA event at Bluebonnet in February of 2012. This was his first hole-in-one and even one of the new stars of the PGA, Bryson DeChambeau, took approximately 23 years to make his very first. Bryson was at the Masters and he got a piece of crystal. Grady can buy his own crystal or perhaps another hybrid with his winnings. Congrats Grady! For getting  the  ball on the green with your new club and of course that is a must in getting the ball in the hole in only one stroke.

One of our ASGA rules is that you can have in your bag as many clubs as you like normally. However, mark your calendar for a fun event that Shawn Higgins has scheduled at Morris Williams for April 27th. We are bringing back the Four-Club Individual at the request of several of you and most recently R.H. Harris. Joe Noon really loves it and when last played he scored what was then his lowest gross as a senior regardless of the number of clubs. I told him he should play only 4 all the time. There will be more details to come, but remember to sign up for this fun event and that day leave all your clubs at home that are not the 4 you wish to play in the event. Yes, we will count your clubs on April 27th.

This News has been brought to you on behalf of the ASGA Board of Directors and The Austin Senior Golf League,

Travis McWhorter
President