More Pace of Play, and Two Course Event Scheduled

Pace of Play

So why are we talking about pace of play again?  Because lately as more than 40% of groups rounds were over 4 hours and 45 minutes.  Golf should be enjoyable.  For some of our players, an enjoyable round takes less than 4 rounds while others enjoy a slower pace.  While we will continue to strive to help all our members rounds go more quickly, at the very least, our goal is to make rounds more enjoyable by allowing all players to play at the pace that works for them.  One of the most important ways to do that is to have faster players tee off first.  We will continue to enforce our current POP policy with one key change:  All groups that have been flagged as not keeping pace will receive the last tee times of the day.  Please refer to our Pace of Play policy  on the website to understand what keeping pace means. To help everyone see how they are doing, we have upgraded the Pace of Play Detail item at the bottom of the Results page.  Each week you will be able to see your start/finish times, the length of your round,  how far you finished behind the group in front of you, and  whether your group was flagged as not being on pace.

Two Courses--Coming

One of the contributors to longer rounds is the size of our events.  Over the past 3 years, the average field has grown from 90 to 135 players.  The classic good news/bad news situation!! We had great success last summer by splitting our event into 2 events with around 60 players in each event.  The latest tee times were around 9:00a.  Perfect for the summer heat.  Unfortunately, GolfATX is not allowing us to use two courses this year despite our pleas.  For this upcoming summer, we will be testing the use of Riverside GC as a 2nd event site.  Since we used this process last summer, we know this will work logistically.  However, members that have GolfATX Annual Memberships will have a price differential.  We've asked Riverside about lowering their rates, but that is not in the cards.  We're betting that having earlier, faster rounds will be worth the price difference for our members playing Riverside that have GolfATX Annual memberships.  And here's a bonus. We're playing Riverside at least FOUR times this season. So payments for Riverside winnings this year will be IN CASH (actually a check) sent to each winning member at the end of the season. The 1st Riverside Two Course playdate is June 23rd.  On that date, you'll have the choice of registering for one of the two course offerings for the day.  In this case, the choices will be Riverside or Morris Williams.  We'll do our best to honor everyone's preferences, but will re-assign players if needed.  If the event goes well, we have already reserved 5 additional summer dates at Riverside. 

We are also scheduling our modified Pinehurst events more in the hotter months.  Alternate shot events like this generally take 45 - 60 minutes less than other events...making them perfect our hot summer days.

One final thing....it would be helpful if each group that plays together regularly, designate a timekeeper.  Ensuring that we have accurate start/finish times filled in every week makes a big difference.  Every week, at least 3 or 4 groups' cards have to be adjusted due to missing or incorrect times.  Your accurate time is always better than our best guess.  Also.....neatness counts!!!!!!  Please and thank you.

Rule Modifications

Event Modification - 5 club challenge at Lions

Several events may be modified by club usage restrictions.  Examples include but are not limited to using a certain number or type of clubs.  The first of these will on March 31st at Lions. The event will be a 2 person scramble but with each player limited to  5 clubs.  All existing event rules remain the same with the exception that each player can only carry and use a maximum of 5 clubs. Putters are considered a club.  Players are not allowed to share or use each others' clubs.  Minor Event mods for an upcoming event will be communicated to the members via the website and/or email at least 3 days prior to the beginning of that event's registration period. 

Recording Your Scores

When recording your scores...you should only write down your gross scores....no matter what the tournament format is.  Writing and signing anything different from the gross scores will be considered an incorrect scorecard and subject to disqualification.

Last Item--10 Minute Separation

Each week as we've tried to maximize the number of players with the minimum amount of time, we're encountering continuing reports of slow play. When we play Lions Muny (with forced 10 min. tee times), our overall pace has been notably faster, so in an effort to reduce our average pace of play, this week we will be implementing 10 minute separation. Hopefully this will speed up play and make our rounds more enjoyable for everyone.

President's March Newsletter and More

Dear ASGA members, 

A Past Winter!

The seasons and life are  going by so quickly. Have you noticed? On November 6, 2025, your current board transitioned into being the newest board of directors. The next election is scheduled for 10-6-2026 That is only 7 months away. 

 At the minimum, we need one member to come forward to express an interest in joining the board at the next election. That person should likely have been a member for 1or 2 years. Longer could certainly be an advantage. The position is General Membership Delegate. Our Bylaws requires that this position is new each year as they become the conduit for members to communicate with the board and to help new members get the most out of ASGA.  Often they then run for another position on the board the next year. If you have interest please contact any of the board and especially me as the current president or Ric Chapa as the current General Membership Delegate. We will keep it confidential and keep you posted as the time grows nearer for the election.

Another set of seasons can be a bit confusing. On March 1, 2026 we began what is referred to as meteorological spring. This will be followed on March 20 by astronomical spring and all of that is trumped by March the 8th giving us the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. So regardless of which season you prefer to start your spring plans for golf, extra one hour of sunlight, which means heat, will be added to each golfing day until the saving time ends. 

February was the hottest on record in Austin and with that in mind, unless the weather gods decide to give is back the cooler weather we did not get it seems like the best thing for all of us to do is sign up to play, accept the tee times our group gets even if they are near the end of the tee times and play as fast as you can to beat the "heat" and stir up a breeze that might help to keep us all cooler. The positive thing in doing this now is that you can enjoy this "cooler" weather fully knowing that following the current season will be some days that the heat will really be hot later in the day and it could be really hot. However, it is possible that the summer season comes that finally the often mentioned  "that could be like a cool day in hell" could finally happen and both those spending their time in hell and us seniors trying to find cool time to play, would all enjoy.  

Enjoy the seasons we have at hand as time, Seasons do pass faster and faster and the most current ones are the only ones we can for sure count on. 

I hope you will consider the board and for sure play and have fun while you can

 

Travis McWhorter
ASGA President

Other Items of Note

Spring Event Reminder:

Since we have so many new members since last summer, we wanted to remind everyone that the Annual Spring event will be held on Tuesday & Thursday, April 14 & 16. More to come.

Rules Updates:

Effective Tuesday March 10th, we have made a couple of changes:

1.   Mulched areas around trees and shrubs will be treated under the same rules currently in place for rocks and tree roots:

1H.Lateral Tree Roots-Rocky Areas--Mulched Trees and Shrubs:  Ball may be moved to the nearest point of relief (off the rocks and/or roots and/or mulch)  but no closer to the hole. - No penalty

2. Special event club limitations:

1C. Club Limit:  You may have more than 14 clubs in your bag at one time except in a special format tournament where the number of clubs is specifically limited.  For special format events where the number of clubs is limited, players may only have that exact number of clubs or less in their golf bags.  Players are not allowed to share clubs with one another.

 

Honors Policy: 

We have finalized the new Honors Violation Policy that we previewed in December's newsletter.  The new policy is effective immediately.  Here's a quick refresher:

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.

The full policy can be read on the website under the Golf Information tab.  Questions....contact Greg Marshall, Events Chair 

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