dlwicks@sbcglobal.net

Scamming Metro Senior Members

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Recently, many of you have received emails that appear to be legitimate from Metro Senior Board members requesting that you purchase “Gift Cards” and send them to the sender.  This is a scam!!  If anyone sends you an email requesting you send anyone “Gift Cards” please delete the emails and DO NOT REPLY!

There are many of you who believe the sender is being “hacked!”  This is not what is happening.  Whether these notes are coming from an email, on Facebook or Instagram, are not breaches, but rather scammers trying to mislead you and scam you out of money.

When in doubt, do not reply, but call the person on the phone and ask them about the note you just received.  I’m certain they will say they never sent the note. This activity will continue, no matter what we do, as long as we publish everyone’s email address on a public list.  The board will be addressing this issue to find a suitable solution.      

Error corrected in Events Calendar

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“Eagle Eye” Al Clarke spotted an incorrect address in the Events Calendar.

Apparently the venue address for Fore Honor (Deer Creek) was linked incorrectly. Now fixed.

If you exported the calendar to your personal calendar before today (March 7, 2021) please check that the address is for Fore Honor in House Springs, MO.

If you spot an error anywhere in the Website, please let us know. You can comment on the page to give everyone notice. We want accurate and timely information on the site. Your spotting of errors, broken links, or other issues will help.

March 10th General Membership Meeting

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To ensure safety for all, the General membership meeting will be held on Wednesday March 10th, at Kirkwood Rec Center, 111 S Geyer Rd. Kirkwood Mo. 63122. Division meetings will be separated to ensure safety. The room can accommodate up to 450 but we will be set up for 150 for each meeting.

Here is the Schedule:

Division 2 and 3 – 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM

Division 1 and 4 – 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM

Division 5 and 9 – 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM

Please do not arrive more than 30 minutes before your divisions scheduled meeting time and please do no congregate in any area.  You must wear a mask while in the meeting. 

Item to be discussed at the meeting:

  • 2021 Preview of all courses
  • Membership Report/Treasurer
  • Championship Tournament
  • Pins, bunkers, drops
  • Special Events (spots still available/wait list)
  • Demonstration on how to get a tee time and view tee time schedules using new program Golf League
  • Vote of New Bylaw Change-ratification from membership
  • New Division 9 rules to join for Div 1-5 members
  • Discount Cards for 2021 season and where list may be found
  • Order Apparel for 2021 Metro Seniors season (table with items and information on how to order)
  • Golf lessons for all Metro Senior members from the Legends Country Club (Chris Scott PGA Teaching Professional)
  • Signup as a Starter/Scorer
  • Metro Plus Information
  • Meet “New” Vice President of Metro Seniors (Dennis Black)

Handicap Committee Reviews

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The Handicap Committee has completed the course data review for 2021. The data will be posted shortly.

Our goal in Metro Seniors is to organize golf tournaments that are fun and as fair as possible. This includes:

  • A wide variety of courses
  • 2 or more selected tees for all players
  • Uniform, standardized handicap calculations for all players
  • 4 flights organized by small ranges of player handicaps

Handicap Committee and Annual Reviews

The Handicap Committee is tasked with overview of the handicap system as key to fairness. Each year we make sure that the data used in handicap calculations is the best available. Why? Because things change. We add or drop courses. Courses may change their layout or tee locations that affect playing difficulty. The United States Golf Association (USGA) requires all listed courses to be re-rated at least once per 10 years or if a major course revision is implemented.

Last year we changed our handicap calculations to better conform to the new World Handicap methods. This required reviewing all courses and adding hole handicaps, yardages and pars for all courses, by selected tees and gender. CLICK HERE for a great example of how handicaps are calculated for Metro Seniors.

This year we added a special 3rd tee for men wishing to play from the most forward tees (usually Red). We also dropped a couple of courses and added one.

Technically the Course Rating and Slope (by tee and gender) are the critical course data. For 2021 with 25 courses, male and female, and 2 or 3 selected tees we have almost 125 different ratings and slopes to review. Fortunately only about 10% change each year.

What Exactly Are Rating and Slope?

CLICK HERE for a good review of Rating and Slope.

USGA as a service develops course ratings by tee and gender for enrolled clubs based on very technical measurements and calculations. These ratings are not cheap. Many courses will officially rate “most” of their tees. Red tees for men frequently will NOT have a rating. CLICK HERE for a description of how USGA rates courses.

CLICK HERE for a searchable listing of all USGA Rated Courses

Where Do Rating And Slope Come From?

USGA ratings are our primary data source for Metro Seniors. It is standardized and most courses have “invested” in them.

Course Scorecards are secondary source but less reliable than USGA. Most courses will include Ratings and Slope on their scorecards. “Most” of these will match with their USGA listings. However, we have seen examples where the ratings do not match with USGA. Why? Many reasons – the course changed, tees changed significantly, course was USGA re-rated but scorecards were “old”. Some course scorecards had obvious errors.

How do we get a rating and slope on “un-rated” tees? We use a USGA procedure based on course yardage from the nearest rated tee (by gender). USGA has developed this procedure from their huge data set. So the “estimate” is pretty good. More important, it is standardized and uniformly applied and fair for all. CLICK HERE for more.

Handicap Committee reviews all this data to make sure the “best available” information is compiled. It is then loaded into the handicap calculation system before the start of the season. We also publish these in OurGolfStats in the course schedule and on this website.

We may also look at scores for Metro Seniors to see if a specific tee has unusually low or high scores. This could lead to a change in the ratings we use but only after close inspection.

How Are Rating and Slope Used?

Your Handicap Guide is used to calculate your Course Handicap by selected tee for each scheduled outing based on the Rating, Slope and Par. Each week your new scores are added in and a new Handicap Guide is calculated along with new Course Handicaps.

Division 2 (Only) Schedule Revision

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Schedule for Division 2 has a date adjustment. With agreement between Metro Seniors, Far Oaks and Florissant, we swapped dates.

The revisions for the schedule are now posted on the Metro Seniors website. This includes changes to the All Division Schedule, The Div 2 Schedule, our Wallet Schedule, and our Events Calendar. The revisions are dated today 1-22-21.

Division 2 members, please adjust your calendars as needed.

We are willing to work with our partner courses for the benefit of all. Even a “simple” change like swapping 2 dates requires cooperation between Metro Seniors and at least 2 courses, sometimes several more.

Our close working relationships are critical in our ability to give all our members a full and fun schedule during the year.

You as members are important to maintaining these relationships. Please respect the courses’ rules, their personnel and their property. The continuing pandemic simply makes this even more important.

Vaccine Information

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The State of Missouri has announced beginning Monday that everyone who is in category 1B, which would encompass all seniors over 65, the vaccine will shortly be ready for distribution. Each county has a link where you can sign up for the vaccine. Here are the links:

For Illinois, we have 4 counties that we know of:

If we find out more information, we will gladly put it up.

2021 Wallet Sized Schedule Card

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Wallet /Credit Card sized schedule is available as a PDF file (below). This includes all 26 weeks of tournaments for Division 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 plus our Special Events.

This is a one (1) sheet 8.5×11, two (2) page form that includes all five weekly divisions plus the Special Events calendar information. One side has all 26 weeks in calendar order with a separate list of Special Events. The other side has the Special Events included in the calendar order with the Weekly Tournaments, useful if you are playing most Special Events.

Each division is printed in a 2.25″ length X 8.5″ width. Cut your division from the printed form. Then fold on the “FOLD LINE” to credit card size 2.25″ X 2.75″ size.

If you have a duplex printer (prints on 2 sides of paper) you can print it directly and cut out your division.  IMPORTANT – Print option to “flip on long side” to have the front and back for each division properly aligned on front and back. Print this on card stock for more heft.

If printer is not duplex, print both pages, cut out your division and attach the 2 sides together. Then fold at each “FOLD LINE” to credit card size.

Click here to download the PDF file for printing.

This is what the form will look like.

2021-Wallet-Schedule-Rev-1-22-21

Updates to Division Schedules

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A minor update to the Division 1-5 schedule data. Tamarack price was adjusted to $31 from $30 and new revision date.

Plus the Events Calendar was adjusted to include the last half of Div 5 season. It was not completely imported to the calendar.

We sometimes have to make adjustments to the schedules during the year. Usually the schedules and the events calendar will be updated unless the change is really minor. The 1 page schedules will include a revision date (upper right hand corner).

For major changes (changed day or a rescheduled event), we will post the information on the website. If you are “SUBSCRIBED” you will receive an email notice from the website. In addition, your Division VP may also send a separate email.

The best way to stay up on everything is to be subscribed to the website. If you change email addresses during the year, you will need to “re-SUBSCRIBE” with the new email address.

Checking the website every once in a while for the schedules and events calendar is good to make sure you are up to date. Check the recent posts for news and changes.

Starter/Scorer Schedule for Division 4

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Division 4 has published the Starter Scorer Schedule for 2021 season. You can view the schedule at the bottom of this page.

As an all volunteer organization, we need all members to do their duty and help out with the Starter/Scorer duties for about once per year. It takes about 2 hours at the course. In addition a little extra time for preparation a few days before.

It is not hard. We are working to make it as easy as possible. Your Division VP will usually check with you and help as needed.

IT IS IMPORTANT! If a Starter fails to show up or is poorly prepared, everybody on the event suffers.

For Starter/Scorer Instructions click here

Div-4-1-14-2021-STARTER-SCORER

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD