The 18 Hole 2017 Season is set with courses and schedules for Divisions 1 – 5.
The Tournament Committee selected 20 of the courses to repeat from last year (2016). Four (4) “new” courses were selected to swap in based on comments from members, surveys, participation, and discussion within the Tournament Committee.
Note revised 11-14-16 – two date changes for Div 2 only – to Landings – 4-14-17 and Falls – 8-18-17
COURSES
We have 24 separate courses on the schedule. Links @ Dardenne is scheduled to be played twice making up our 25 weeks.
We added 4 courses
- The Legacy – Granite City, IL
- Incline Village – Foristell MO
- The Acorns – Waterloo, IL
- Florissant – Florissant, MO
To make room for the “new” courses, we dropped 4 courses for 2017.
- Hills @ McKendree
- Normandie
- Mystic Oaks
- Quail Creek
The final details for each course (Tee Selections, Ratings, Slope) are in review between the Tournament and Handicap Committees now.
I appreciate the fact that the organization would like to hear my feedback. Well here it is. The 7:00 a.m. shotgun start is ridiculous. For several reasons:
Reason Number 1: You must get there at least by 6:30 a.m. That means you must leave your house by 5:30 a.m. That means getting up by 4:30 a.m. It isn’t even light out until 6:30.
Reason #2: Most of the time at that time of the morning there is still dew on the fairway and greens and often it is very foggy.
If is left up to the golf course we would be wearing miners’ hats with a light on it so we could get off their golf course by 11:00. It is about time that we set the times when we start and not them calling all the shots. They are making a lot of money off of the Metros.
Thanks for this opportunity to voice my opinion.
RE: Shotgun starts. We have added more shotgun starts over the past few years to match members’ interests. We work with the courses for the start times. Some cannot deal with early start shotguns (extra staff required for cart setup). About 1/2 of the Shotgun starts are at 7:30 to 8:00 AM.
RE: Faster Play – Shotgun starts may be contributing to longer play times. With over 100 players on the course at once, several holes have 2 tee groups. If EVERYONE (all tee groups) played to 10 minutes per hole = 4 Hr 10 Min round. However at 15 minutes per hole = 6 hour round.
Also with shotgun, one slow group delays EVERYONE. Everyone slows to the slowest group pace. (See the Pace of Play comments https://www.golfstlseniors.org/pace-of-play-committee-volunteer-now
RE: Tee Order Starts – In Division 1, usually 8 to 10 4s are waiting at the course BEFORE the start time to get an early start, early finish. If you show up an hour or so later with a full 4, you can usually register and tee off almost immediately. I have friends who like to come just before the registration close to sleep about 2 hours later.
As someone who recently joined Division 1 (currently at 106 members), I can understand the rationale for moving the 1.5 hour window down to only a 1 hour window for sign-ups to play. My first week in Division 1, I arrived 15 minutes after the scheduled start time and only the Starters went out after me on the round. Division 1 golfers mostly seem to sign up before or near the scheduled start time, leaving the Starters much time to wait, with little to do, until they can tee off.
In Division 3 (currently at 157 members), showing up 30 minutes into the scheduled time results in about a 45 to 60 minute wait until one can tee off. Division 3 could use that extra half hour sign up time.
Lots of averaging being done here, but so far this year, Division 1 is averaging 62 golfers a week. Call this 16 4-somes, going off 8 per side at 10 minutes per group, means it takes 80 minutes, on average, to get everyone on the course. I know a lot of 3-somes go off, but use this to compare to the other Divisions averaging 86 to 100 golfers per week. Same logic gives us 22 to 25 4-somes, or 11 to 13 per “nine”, or about 2 hours to get everyone on the course. At least in Division 3, there is a lot of wait time to even get started on the course.
Please consider longer sign up times for the bigger Divisions in order to minimize the “wait time” of our members. Pace-of-Play addresses wait time on the course. I think allowing a longer sign-up period for larger Divisions would help minimize wait time before the round. There is no reason why the sign-up times need to be the same for each Division. I propose the 1 hour window for Division 1 and 1.5 hour window for Divisions 2-5. Or, better yet, let the Division VP decide what works best for their Division. All Divisions need not be the same on this issue. Thanks for your consideration.
Thanks for the comments. The original suggestion came from someone in one of our full Thursday Divisions who observed dead time for starters, too. Plus the extra 1/2 hour adds that much more time to the Scorers too as they wait from the Starters to finish.
Div 1 guys tend to show up very early. The first 8 to 10 tee spots are filled immediately more than 30 minutes before the first tee time. The first 5 or 6 tee groups on each side usually play at 4 to 4 1/4 hour pace. No one in front slowing them down.
With 1 hour closing after opening tee, we are getting players there, ready to play, putting a little pressure on faster teeing. Might be helping pace a little.
I also think that this is an issue that can be handled as a local option by the Division VP. Big divisions with big turnouts, perhaps could benefit from more than 1 hour. Tournament Committee (VPs and First VP) will be asked to review, recommend, act.