President's message
February 2019 - Message from the President
Hi Ladies-
You might have heard that Alice Dye, the "First Lady of Golf Architecture" died last week. If you're not familiar with her, she was an excellent amateur golfer and she collaborated with her husband, Pete Dye, on a number of famous golf courses, including TPC Sawgrass and Harbour Town Golf Links. Perhaps her biggest impact on golf came from her belief that golf should be playable for everyone, and she especially wanted to make golf courses more manageable for women. She was a strong advocate of designing courses with an additional forward tee for women that would provide a challenging and fun golfing experience for the average woman golfer. Her "Two Tee System" was revolutionary back in the day when the forward tees were often 5800 yards or more.
Speaking of multiple tees, the USGA handicap system accommodates this. The main purpose of the USGA Handicap System is to make the game of golf more enjoyable by enabling players of differing abilities to compete on an equitable basis. Each set of tees has a course rating and a slope. The course rating is the score a scratch golfer would be expected to shoot from that tee. So, from our Plum tees, a female scratch golfer could expect to shoot 69, or 3 under par. The slope rating then adjusts for the relative difficulty for higher-handicap golfers compared to scratch. Both the course rating and the slope are used to set equitable handicaps for golfers. When people play from the same tees, the slope is used to convert each player's handicap index to their course handicap. The course rating doesn't factor into handicap calculations when everyone is on the same tee since they are all playing the same difficulty course. When people are competing from different tees, the course ratings for the different tees are taken into account, reflecting the varying difficulty of the courses. People playing the harder course (the higher course rating) have strokes added to their course handicap equal to the difference between the course ratings of the different tees. For example, consider two women, one playing from the Rust/Plum tees (rating 69.5) and another on the Plum tees (rating 68.7). The woman on the Rust/Plum tees would receive 1 additional stroke on her course handicap to compensate for the increased difficulty of the Rust/Plum tees (69.5 vs 68.7, which rounds to 1).
With all the rules changes in 2019, one of the most polarizing is whether or not to leave the pin in while putting. Here are a couple of studies that looked at pin in vs. pin out and both conclude that you'll make more putts and finish closer to the hole on misses when you leave the pin in. It takes some adjusting, but it might help your scores to always leave the pin in.
Upcoming events
Many thanks to our 2019 sponsors. So far, we have 12 sponsors:
Jean
Hi Ladies-
You might have heard that Alice Dye, the "First Lady of Golf Architecture" died last week. If you're not familiar with her, she was an excellent amateur golfer and she collaborated with her husband, Pete Dye, on a number of famous golf courses, including TPC Sawgrass and Harbour Town Golf Links. Perhaps her biggest impact on golf came from her belief that golf should be playable for everyone, and she especially wanted to make golf courses more manageable for women. She was a strong advocate of designing courses with an additional forward tee for women that would provide a challenging and fun golfing experience for the average woman golfer. Her "Two Tee System" was revolutionary back in the day when the forward tees were often 5800 yards or more.
Speaking of multiple tees, the USGA handicap system accommodates this. The main purpose of the USGA Handicap System is to make the game of golf more enjoyable by enabling players of differing abilities to compete on an equitable basis. Each set of tees has a course rating and a slope. The course rating is the score a scratch golfer would be expected to shoot from that tee. So, from our Plum tees, a female scratch golfer could expect to shoot 69, or 3 under par. The slope rating then adjusts for the relative difficulty for higher-handicap golfers compared to scratch. Both the course rating and the slope are used to set equitable handicaps for golfers. When people play from the same tees, the slope is used to convert each player's handicap index to their course handicap. The course rating doesn't factor into handicap calculations when everyone is on the same tee since they are all playing the same difficulty course. When people are competing from different tees, the course ratings for the different tees are taken into account, reflecting the varying difficulty of the courses. People playing the harder course (the higher course rating) have strokes added to their course handicap equal to the difference between the course ratings of the different tees. For example, consider two women, one playing from the Rust/Plum tees (rating 69.5) and another on the Plum tees (rating 68.7). The woman on the Rust/Plum tees would receive 1 additional stroke on her course handicap to compensate for the increased difficulty of the Rust/Plum tees (69.5 vs 68.7, which rounds to 1).
With all the rules changes in 2019, one of the most polarizing is whether or not to leave the pin in while putting. Here are a couple of studies that looked at pin in vs. pin out and both conclude that you'll make more putts and finish closer to the hole on misses when you leave the pin in. It takes some adjusting, but it might help your scores to always leave the pin in.
Upcoming events
- March 5 and 6 is the SBRWGA President's Cup -- our first Major of 2019. This is a two-day low net event with the winner having the lowest combined net score for the two rounds. Watch for more information on this event.
- February 25 is the Southern District Winter Scotch event at the Ranch. This is a 2-person Chapman format (a modified alternate shot format). The entry deadline is Feb. 18, though the event is filling up, so grab a partner and sign up.
Many thanks to our 2019 sponsors. So far, we have 12 sponsors:
- Coyote Golf Cars is sponsoring our bimonthly Coyote Queen event, and congratulations to Mary Fung who is our first Queen, winning in January.
- Hardin Automotive is a new sponsor this year. They are providing our range balls before our weekly play days.
- Dr. Kim Tucker is our Solheim Cup sponsor
- Golf Cars of Arizona is sponsoring the upcoming President's Cup
- Life is Good Chiropractic is the Club Championship sponsor
- Melissa Hawkins of Farmer's Insurance sponsors the Sadie Hawkins event
- Dr. Patrick Shaffer Dental sponsors the Member-Member tournament
- AZ Golf Cart Repair is a Gold sponsor
- Gerry Hause - Long Realty is a Gold sponsor
- Born to Travel - Pilar Borm - is sponsoring our monthly Closest to the Pin contest. Our first winners were Kathy Brennan and Stephanie Gaskill.
- Patrice Meyers Interiors is a Bronze sponsor
- Dr. Anthony Lux Dermatology is a donor
Jean
Click on the dates below to download the President's Message from previous months.