President's Message -- May 12, 2021

	Inside Your President's Mind.  It Is Half Gone.  Followed by Note From Bruce. Recently I saw a tee shirt that read, "Sometimes I Talk To Myself And Afterwards We Both Laugh And Laugh." That statement is easy for me to understand and maybe some of you can relate to it as well. In fact the headline for this update could both be the same subject, my mind, but in fact I plan to discuss two different items. Last week at Kizer was one of the few times as president I was faced with a tough decision about our event play. Generally Shawn and I or in the past other event chairs, when I was previously president, make them very routine, with the event chair going it alone most of the time. The decisions usually take on the personality of the event chair. The goal is always play as often as we can and only cancel when either the course closes for weather or other issues that come up that is deemed the best for our members as to fairness and safety. The best call is one that can be made the night before, but that is often very hard to do. Shawn has proven to be pretty good at reading the tea leaves and weather. I saw my first weather forecast at 4:30 AM and all looked good to me. It did look like there could be brief shower in the early going as a front from the north came through and  it would last only a few minutes. I personally don't love wind and rain together, but was determined to play when I got to the course and it was beginning to look more threatening than planned for our 8:10 tee time. Several foursomes were in front of us on the course and in fact they called us to the tee a few minutes early. I was the only walker in our group and each of the others had a cart. As the wind freshened and rain started to fall I rushed to take the first tee shot so I could get my umbrella employed. With the aid of a 30 mile per hour gust I hit one of my best drives ever from hole one, turned for praise only to discover all three of my foursome were wheeling to cover. Lightning and thunder accompanied the front and I saw many coming off the course. When I got to one of the covers finally I was asked by a few if we were going to cancel. Knowing that it was supposed to blow through promptly and discovering that Shawn had headed home, I said not yet. When I went inside to consult with the course management for the day, they thought it would last just a few moments. I went back out and advised to hold tight. Unfortunately it stalled and kept adding lightning and more rain and even some small hail. Many were deciding for themselves that they were not playing and several were waiting. After a rather long wait, I went back inside and witnessed many later arrivals canceling or not registering and the phone was canceling more.  I overheard the course say, if and when we resume play it will become cart path only and some time would be needed to check the course. I then conferred again and due to many cancellations and the uncertainty, I was advised to cancel the event.The thoughts that went through my head were these: I should have canceled sooner, I was aware of at least one group that was still playing and more that were waiting to see.  If we had canceled sooner at least our members would not be at risk of being injured. It felt that more that half had canceled out and who knows how many more would cancel when they came to realize that tee times they were expecting would be delayed.  I canceled and caught up quickly with Shawn by phone and he did not disagree. Now as I finally got near my car the rain picked up again and I talked to myself and we concluded. Good job. Get home and build an ark. However, before I made it home the rain was gone and I ended up mowing my perfectly dry yard just 15 miles away from the course. 20 or more players did go ahead and play on their own I was later to find out. I cannot truly second guess though as I felt like it was the best thing to do at the moment and I slept fairly good that night. I did hate to quit with a perfect shot on the course. Now here is a short point. The current board's allotted time is half gone and the election is coming in October. In the near future we will begin looking for new nominees for the next board. Please tap me on the shoulder or email me or other board members and say that you would like to be considered for nomination and what position you would enjoy serving. I am sure most of you will want the president or event chair positions. The pay is good if you like myself enjoy serving and an occasional thank you. Most of you have been very good about that and likely would make outstanding board members. New ideas and new members on the board will ensure our future. Now that you have spent some time inside my mind, we should all have a good laugh together.  See you Tuesday. Oh, of course there is a 50% chance for rain or thunderstorms in the current forecast. ______________ A Note from your Website Administrator Over the last few months, I have received five emails from coordinators (contacts) who were positive they had signed their teams up, but it didn't show up when the Event Tee Times were posted. Sadly all these emails arrived on Sunday, AFTER I've created the schedule, posted it, and copied the applicable course. We're all disappointed when that happens--and I'd like to make a suggestion to prevent it from happening to any other group. On Saturday, have someone in your group assigned to check for your team's entry. It doesn't have to be the coordinator (contact) who did the sign-up. Merely check the "View Registrations" page in the Tee Time Registration System section. If you don't see your names, send me an email. There's a selection titled "Registrations/Cancels" which will allow you to easily send that email, so I can add your missing group before Sunday morning. It is also advisable for the coordinator (contact) to check "View Registrations" immediately after registering as the registered names will be there by the time you check if all is in order.  Thanks--and hope to see you on the course, Bruce 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 - 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

President's Message - September 23, 2020

Morris Williams Sept. 29th  Perfect Forecast. Individual Format Continues.

courtesy of weather.com

The weather forecast got in our way yesterday and we only had 16 play. The good news for those that did is that the course did not receive any rain during the event. We were the last group to finish and it was hard to believe how nice it was. Now the forecast for Morris Williams September 29th is near perfect, so sign up and come out to play. I usually look at the forecast when choosing the period of time requested for tee times. As the weather cools that may be more important.

Next week will be our third event since given the green light to play and we really need as many of you that are ready to play to sign up and come out. Also, I wanted to tell you that our sign up system is working well and we are looking forward to gathering some data as the fall seasons starts and when winter comes. With this data we hope to end up with a system that makes the most people happy, comfortable and well maybe even greater golfers. For sure during this pandemic we have likely all bulked up. That concept, though maybe more muscle oriented, sure worked well for Bryson DeChambeau.

A few of you have been questioning why we are only playing individual net.  When we were given the green light to play again, we had to demonstrate that we could play safely. The individual format and all the other protocol we have previously presented to you were determined to be best format to engage. We have been encouraged to continue for the next month or so and then we can review again. There are so many things we have given up, but being able to play even one format, get exercise and have fun is important. We want that to continue. Shawn Higgins, our Event Chairman, has updated the next few events to be individual format. With work being done on the irrigation system for Jimmy Clay we will be moving around between the other three courses as you will see when you review the Event Schedule on our website.

I am forecasting that you will have fun next week. Commit, sign up and show up to play.

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

Travis McWhorter, President

Bluebonnet Event Notice

ASGA members, would you like to see more timely posting of event results?  If so (or if you don't care😏),  help is on the way.

Tournament Chairman Samuel Jenkins and Handicap Chairman Paul Redden are jointly announcing that scores at the Bluebonnet Hill event on March 7 will be reported and recorded as the members complete their round. This should result in the following benefits:

• Timely posting of event results
• Elimination of scorecard errors from  legibility and math issues
• Significant reduction or elimination of revisions to the posted results

To reap these benefits members are requested to take the following actions as they complete their round:

•  Verify that the scores on the scorecard are correct and legible
• Deliver the signed scorecard to the reporting station ASGA volunteer
• Verify that scores are entered correctly by the volunteer

Note:  The last step is optional; however, the scores as entered will be final.