For the purpose of Good Fellowship and Golf
dlwicks@sbcglobal.net Division 4 was rained out today, Thursday, July 27, at Florissant Golf Club.
George Arft, Division VP, has rescheduled this outing for Monday, August 14. Shotgun start same as originally scheduled. Time is now 7:30 AM Start, per George’s announcement.
Playing well this season? Winning some flight money? Your handicap going down some? Did you know that we have the Association Invitational Championship outing?
Great! You may be in the running for an invitation for the Association Championship on August 29. Please mark your calendar for the possibility.
Please note, that each year we have several members from each bracket who cannot attend. This means that even if you are 17th to perhaps 22th place you have a high probability for an invitation. As of today, invitations would go to the top 20 (and even into the 30s places for Bracket 4). Because several low net players don’t have the required minimum 10 rounds.
You can see the current status Championship Qualification Report for the entire Association at Ourgolfstats.com on the Green Sheets Report. It is the second report, on each Division, before any weekly results.
DIRECT LINK TO GREEN SHEETS and Championship Qualification Status
Check this every week through August 20 to see where you stand.
The Final Qualification Report will be available about August 22. However, even if you are in 17th to perhaps about 30th place you might qualify as an Alternate.
If you are invited to play as a top 16 (or as an alternate further down the list), please be ready to commit IMMEDIATELY. We will be scrambling to fill slots and we don’t have much time.
Although play is completed August 18, we won’t have final scores and analysis in until August 22. We will have only a few days to get the invitations issued, and all spots committed.
For 2017 Season we now allow A Flight to pick either Forward or Back tees like all other divisions. This required a change in the Championship Qualifications for Bracket 1.
Now Bracket 1 will used only NET SCORES for the qualification, exactly the same as Brackets 2, 3, and 4. Previously we allocated 1/2 of the Bracket 1 to Low Average Gross, and 1/2 half to Low Average Net when all A Flight was required to play from the back tees. This is no longer appropriate with both Forward and Back tees available.
We have a new report (7/10/17) of Norton Web Safe blocking the Metro Seniors website and posts as malicious. This apparently happened because of a broken link that was published and emailed about a Special Event result. This is NOT a malicious site problem simply a typo.
There is nothing wrong with the Metro Seniors site. We have security to prevent problems.
Unless a site subscribes (pays) to a Norton service, Norton assumes that the site is malicious. They will block access for Norton Web Safe users for a wide range of issues. Including having a variety of files to view and download like our schedules, tournament results, rules, regulations and so on. We have these to give members information they want.
Requesting Norton to reclassify a site for a non-subscriber is not easy and can be delayed.
If you use Norton for antivirus, you will have Web Safe and you may be blocked from the Metro Seniors website for “false positives” as they call it.
As a Norton user you can fix the problem by reporting “false positives”. This will reclassify our site as non-malicious and will let you have access again. This may be the fastest way to fix the problem.
Please use the following links to review your actions for fixing your Norton Web Safe and reporting this False Positive.
This links to Norton’s information on Web Safe and False Positives. It provides information to fix your Web Safe and reporting errors. CLICK HERE
This links to Norton process for reporting False Positives.
As an alternative, I suggest that you turn off the Web Safe portion of Norton to access Metro Seniors.
More information from Norton’s site
In discussions on pace of play several issues come up including:
The Pace of Play Logs are giving us lots of data on Pace Time. Flights, scores, handicaps, tees played, and course rating and slope by tee are in OurGolfStats. Plus we have players’ age data in our membership database.
Combining this data gives us lots of opportunity for analysis.
I wanted to better understand why Division 1 had 10 to 15 minutes slower pace the Division 2-5. I have summarized the Division and Event data for the first 11 weeks (through 6/22/17). This is 53 rounds representing over 4300 individual rounds of golf.
Summary Data By Division
| Average | Avg Gross | Avg HCP | Avg Pace | |||
| Division | Events | Count | Age | Score | Guide | Avg |
| 1 | 10 | 686 | 71.8 | 98.8 | 25.2 | 04:41 |
| 2 | 10 | 781 | 69.5 | 92.4 | 20.9 | 04:26 |
| 3 | 11 | 1015 | 71.5 | 93.6 | 22.1 | 04:25 |
| 4 | 11 | 899 | 72.9 | 94.4 | 22.7 | 04:30 |
| 5 | 11 | 974 | 68.6 | 95.1 | 23.5 | 04:31 |
Observations
Average Player’s Age
There is no clear relationship between pace and average age of players either by Division or by individual events. We range in average age of actual players from 68.6 to almost 73. Division 5 is our newest and youngest. But, Division 4, our oldest, plays at the same pace.
Course Difficulty
There was no relationship in course difficulty (Rating, or Slope or even a combination or Rating and Slope). Why – with many of our members playing forward tees, the average slope and rating for most courses get reduced. By averaging the actual rating and slope of tees played, the Divisions’ ratings were essentially 66+ Rating and 112+ Slope. Even looking at events’ averages, the data was very scattered. Other factors were far more important.
Course Crowding
There was no clear evidence of course crowding on average pace. Most events ranged from 75 to 100 players. At this level number of players is not a major factor on slow play. This is why Division 5 was formed – to keep average players around 100 at most. One event with 132 players (tee start) did slow play, but the average for that event was still better that 4:30.
Course Conditions
Although we had a lot of rain and wet conditions at the start of the season, there is simply not enough data to show any clear directions. On many of the rain or path only events, we had fewer players. That may have compensated for slower Path Only conditions.
Player Skill (Handicap Guide and Gross Scores)
Player Skill as measured by Handicap Guide or Gross Scores is by far the strongest factor for Division and Event Pace of Play. There is almost perfect correlation by Division and very strong correlation by Event.
Every 3 strokes added to the Average Gross Score for all players adds 7 minutes to the average Pace of Play.
Now more questions
Why is Div 1 Handicap Guide so high?
Why is Div 2 Handicap Guide so low?
Are more Div 1 players playing back? Fewer low handicap players?
Division 1 Members – following is a course schedule change. We had to swap dates between Far Oaks and Incline Village due to issues beyond our control. Only the dates were changed, everything else remains the same.
Vince Italiano, VP Div 1, will issue a confirming email the week of each tournament.
REVISED SCHEDULE
Friday, July 21 – Incline Village $25 Split Tee Start – First Tee Time 6:30 AM
Friday, September 8 – Far Oaks $32 Shotgun Start – 8:00 AM
ST L METRO SR Div 1 Date SCH Rev 7-10-17
70 Golfers from Division 1 & 2 participated in the holiday 2 person scramble @ Deer Creek Golf Course to benefit the United States Veterans on July 7th. Organized by Larry Roth and Charlie Van Deman from Division 1, golfers for the most part enjoyed a golf course not part of our weekly tournament schedule.
Not including “skins” there were 41 different winners out of the field with 50 total winners.
CTP winners Jerry Wells-2838, Dan Loyd-1815, Ron Lipovsky-1633, Rod Hollenbeck-2327, Bill Kolar-1361, Bob Cooper-2555, Terry Johnson-2177, and Jim Pisoni-2290 were all $10.00 winners.
Each flight paid $60.00 1st place team, $40.00 2nd place team, $25.00 3rd place team, $20.00 4th place team and $10.00 for 5th place team.
In “A” Flight, 1st place went to, Mike Stoll-2643 & Jerry Moore-2717, 2nd Jerry Wells-2838 & Gary Pahl-2008, 3rd Bob Cooper-2555 & Gerry Rachels-2344, 4th Bill Kolar-1361 & Dan Loyd-1815 and 5th to Tom LeFaivre-1140 & Mike Smith-1288
In “B” Flight 1st place went to, Nick Meyers-2053 & John Morgan-2527, 2nd Ray Lowry-2438 & Jim Pisoni-2290, 3rd John Reinhardt-2369 & Bob Nelson-2472, 4th Jim Wilson-1482 & Bob Debrock-1120, 5th to Larry Roth-1080 & Charlie Van Deman-1515
In “C” Flight 1st place went to, Thomas Shadrach-2989 & Michael Ebert-2831, 2nd Charlie Page-2430 & Dave Pikul-2204, 3rd Bob McDaniel-1938 & Wardell Patterson-1947, 4th Mike Henry-2830 & Pat Smith-2550, 5th to Larry Beeman-1747 & Mike Campbell
In “D” Flight 1st place went to, Don Brandt-1311 & Rich Perschbacher-1738, 2nd Vince Italiano-1007 & Bob Seitrich-1249, 3rd Keith Brown-2252 & Terry Johnson-2177, 4th Glenn Young-2682 & Rod Hollenback-2327, and 5th to Brad Bradley-2070 & Ned Buckmaster-2071.
The 2 skins winners were the teams of Bob Cooper/Gerry Rachels & Larry Roth/Charlie Van Deman
The Pace of Play results are continuing to show significant improvement over 2017. This is especially good since the wet weather and path only conditions early in the year were expected to hurt the pace.
Thanks for your cooperation on the Pace Logs. The data is important in helping better define issues with courses, starts, conditions and differences between divisions. More data and analysis needed, but this will lead to changes in courses and probably rules and starts.
Division 2 and 3 are especially fast, even with more players per event. Almost all tee groups are doing a great job of keeping up with the group ahead.
The division and course summaries for 11 weeks of play are summarized below.
Key Points YTD
Division VPs have had discussions with a very few of our most frequently slow groups and players. We have received some complaints. However, we are working for cooperation and improvements. Saving 1 minute per hole for our slowest groups could virtually eliminate pace of play problems.
Keys to speedy play are:
Pace of Play for 9 weeks (about 1/3 of the season) has improved significantly over 2016. Averages across all Divisions and courses is running about 10 to 15 minutes faster. Tee Starts and Shotgun starts are both running faster.
Our fastest players averaged just over 4 hours across 43 events, even with the weather and path only conditions. All players averaged 4:31.
Our 5 longest times were at Bear Creek (2 times), Florissant (new course), Belk Park and Prairies. Bear Creek and Florissant are our most difficult courses. Bear Creek requirements for Reverse Shotgun start creates significant crowding increasing times. Florissant was new, had several blind tee shots with lost ball opportunities.
We still have work to do.
After the first 8 weeks, only 9 members repeated in 3, 4, or 5 slow groups. They lost significant time against the group ahead and finished with a hole or more open ahead. They typically delayed several groups behind them.
These frequently slow groups have been asked to work with their VP to improve pace. With improvements of as little as 1 minute per hole, we should faster averages with less delay for groups behind.
One of my favorites – Ditch the head covers! Do you realize how long you spend with on/off for every shot? Paint nicks don’t hurt your ball flight. A scratch on your iron does not reduce your back spin on the green. Are you keeping them beautiful for when you get OLD? Saving them for your great grandchildren? Think about it!
Clubs depreciate faster than cars or even computers, so that $500 from 10 years ago is probably worth $20 on Ebay (plus shipping). The head cover might be more valuable than the club.
Here are the rest of George’s suggestions! Perhaps you could share them with the really slow guy in your tee group – it is always the “other guy”.
As this season has developed, some really good questions have been asked by members in one-on-one. On reflection, these are good for all members to experience.
Q. How do you identify individuals when all data is for a tee group?
A. The data for any outing is collected for a group, but we do have each ID number for all players. For each outing each tee group is responsible for their management of Pace as well as rules (ball searches, lost ball drops, max nine strokes, and so on).
Over the season, most members play in different groups. Over time, the slowest members will have many more outings where they are in the slowest groups. Based on 2016 data, 75 to 85% of members will have none to 2 outings where they were “slow” for the 25 week season. Our slowest groups/members had many more outings where they were slow.
If a group of close friends always plays together and is frequently slow, all those members will be identified as “slow”.
Q. Our group got behind because two guys played really slow. After we were way behind, they wanted to catch up by skipping a hole and taking a 9 max. I was having a good round, why should I have to take a 9 because they were slow?
A. For any outing, if a group falls behind, ALL members of that group are responsible for taking action improve as early as possible.
For example, if someone searches too long, the other group members MUST get them to stop and play a new ball. If someone is over 8 strokes, others must get them to stop and record 9. If a member is having a health or mobility problem, his group members should act to help in any way that is reasonable. Be more active in getting them to their ball. Help them reduce the non-golf activities.
If a group is way behind, voluntarily skipping a hole and scoring 9 is needed and should be done. This is similar to having a marshal telling the group to move up. He won’t care if it was the “other cart”, he won’t care if it is a good round for you. You must move up then.
By the time skipping a hole is required, significant damage has been done. Several groups behind are already delayed. This will help, but still too late.
Q. I play with a couple of friends/carpool who are slow. They don’t cooperate when I suggest that they speed up, or point out Ready Golf. How can I not be branded as slow?
A. Do the best you can to RESPECTFULLY suggest that they speed up. Model good play behaviors. Stay aware of the group ahead and remind your group.
If they continue to be uncooperative, please advise the Pace of Play Committee of your concerns. We may be able to help get the point across to the others in your group.
Consider playing with other members. Fellowship is a key ingredient in the Association. Playing always with the same small group keeps you from meeting other members, making new friends, and playing at a better clip.
Telling your friends that you want to play in other groups may feel awkward but friendship is a dialogue. If they don’t respond to your needs you might question the value of the friendship.
Q. What information is used to identify slow groups? How is it used?
A. Historically we have used total time of play and the separation gap from the group immediately ahead. In our rules if groups play longer that 4 1/2 hours AND they finish more then 15 minutes later (separation) from the group ahead, the VP may use enforcement rules (warnings).
The Pace of Play Logs now collect more of this information
We are collecting the times and conditions. We have standardized definitions for the times to record – Start Time, Finish Time, and Scorer Time. We calculate total times, min. max, and average play times, Start Gap, and Finish Gap.
Plus, I have been refining the calculated times for total play time and the separation times.
For Total Play Time – we are still targeting course times (4 to 4 1/2 hours). But we know that Cart Path Only will be slower. The fastest foursome group for the round becomes an “indicator” of course conditions – the best we could hope for, that course, that day, and so on. The Average Time Played is yet another indicator – 50% of groups played FASTER. Groups that are significantly (more than 10 minutes over average) will be looked at more closely. Groups that are 30 minutes or more more than average or an hour or more slower than the fastest group will have the most focus.
Example if you started 10 minutes after the group ahead AND you finished 10 minutes after the group ahead – Great! you kept up – playing at the same pace as the group ahead.
If you finished 20 minutes behind – not so good – you lost 10 minutes – almost a full hole. But if you were behind a really fast group and you played below the Average Time – I don’t see your group as a problem.
Shotgun Starts have special data problems. The calculations are adjusted for the A/B starts and the start separation – an A group on #5 will be finishing when the B group on #6 is just starting.
Also, slow groups impact more groups across the course.
General Guidelines
NO PROBLEMS
SLOW GROUPS
SLOW PLAYERS
Q. What will be done with “slow” groups and players?
A. Our rules currently allow for the VP to issue warnings for each incident of “slow play”. After at least 3 warnings, the VP may recommend sanctions up to and including termination of membership for specific players or groups.
We will be enforcing for slow play.
Each Division VP will review the data and consider if and when warnings should be issued. VPs may request that slow groups “split up” or limit play (Split Tee Starts only and only as the last group starting). We may ask for “mentors” to play with some of the group to offer suggestions or to evaluate players ability to play at pace. We want the slow groups to improve.
Groups or players will be subject to membership termination for:
Q. We let a faster 3some play through. Why did we get identified as slow when we lost time for the play through and were letting group play faster.
A. If your total play time was over average and you finished more than 10 minutes behind the group immediately ahead, you would be highlighted as slow for that round. The 3 could not have played through if you were staying up with the group ahead of you. If you kept up with your original forward group, or the 3some, no problems. If the group behind the 3some caught up to your group, more evidence that your group was slow for course, conditions, and field that day.
If you made comments about the play through on the Pace of Play Log, it would help all to understand and correct the calculations.
Q. My number showed up in two different groups for the same outing, how can you punish me when data is wrong?
A. Data entry on the log sheets is not perfect. Sloppy handwriting, erasures, transposed numbers, wrong numbers – all happen. This is same as Universal Scorecards and some members miss a flight prize because they signed on an incorrect scorecard. This happens on every outing in every Division. Even with Starters and Scorers reviewing the data, we have errors. The good news,