We are now only a few days, like around 30, from our first scheduled event, although with the Flood predictions, I doubt we will be able to play Edgewood on April 8, so then hopefully we will get out on April 13 at Maple River. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. As you can see, I did not put out anything in February because I just wasn’t sure what I could add to the last couple of Monthly Letters.
We have got the New Scorecard ready for use, now we hope the system will be up and ready when the Golf Season starts. I met with George Cook, Reino Fleck and Dick Anderson on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 for Breakfast so I could get a status update from Dick Anderson on our Web Site. He says all will be done and working before our First Event. I have all the confidence in the world that Dick Anderson has it handled.
Scorecards: The scorecards will have one more column on them this year. There will be a box for Regular Handicap and one for Forward Tee Handicap. Every golfer will have both handicaps listed but in order to play from the Forward Tees, you must be eligible, which means your age plus handicap must be 90 or higher. Those that are eligible to play from the Forward Tees will have a box with F.T. in a box right after the 2 handicap boxes. If you are eligible to play from the F.T., and don’t want to, then cross of F.T. and we will use your Regular Handicap…If you are eligible and play from the F.T., cross out the Regular Tee handicap. It will be up to the first golfer on the scorecard to make sure the scorecard is properly filled out before turning it in.
This is an email we received from one of our members about leaving the Flag in when putting, so I thought I would pass this along.
The latest edition of Golf Digest shows the results of testing whether it is better to leave the flag stick in the hole to improve putting. Their answer: No. There may be reasons a golfer might want to leave the flag stick in, but not to improve putting success.
I played last year with numerous groups with players who wasted time putting the flag back in or keeping it in believing it would help them. The point of the new rule about not being penalized when a putt hit the stick was consistently being misinterpreted. It has nothing to do with improving putting. That's from Golf Digest. It is something to educate tour members about.
This is a response I received on the above concern about putting with Flag In/Out.
There are people who practice on putting greens with the flags in the holes. If they get familiar with this and feel they putt better so be it. Once you get to the green, you can ask who wants to putt with flag in, let them all putt out and then take flag out for those who want it out. I’ve never had a problem with this, but it should be something that can be easily resolved.
That being said, it is still up to the golfer on what he would like to do or not do, just remember when done to move off the green as quickly as possible so the golfers behind you can play if they are ready.
We have added a couple of new courses this year, Ada and Wadena. For most of us, they are new but for the old timers, they had been used before and had been dropped because the Course Reps who handled those courses dropped out or no longer wanted to be Course Reps. We had talked about adding them back on and Reino got it done. Thank you Reino, for all you do.
Course Rep Meeting: We have a Course Rep Meeting for all Course Reps on Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at 9:00am at the Fargo Frying Pan. Please try to be there as we really would like to spend some time on the New Scorecards and the responsibilities of being a Course Rep. If you are unable to attend, please see if someone can attend in your place. I am still looking for a Course Rep for Balmoral. Larry Wright will help the first time but would really like to give it up, so if anyone or two of you are interested please let me know.
I am looking forward to another Great Golf Season. It is a pleasure to serve this Great Group and as always please let me know if there is something you are concerned about so we can address it.
David