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Leonard Hartmann from Division 2 got his “First” Hole-in-One ever today while playing hole # 16 at Far Oaks.  Each member who score a Hole-in-One in any Metro Seniors event wins $100.00. 

Congratulations to Leonard. If you see him, you should let him know!

For the past 6 years Dan Glenzy has served at the Membership Chair for Metro Seniors. He he done an outstanding job, setting up the program, calling members who didn’t renew to find out why, informed the Division VP’s of new members, designed our current welcome letter and solicited new members. He will be a tough act to follow. If you see him, please thank him for the job he did!

Effective immediately Dan Duvall and Michael Dersch both from Division 3 have decided to take over the position as co-chairs. The membership committee in 2020 will engage in a new marketing plan to attract more members and will handle all the duties Dan Glenzy did in the past. Both are in their early 60’s so in this group they will bring a fresh approach to the committee. Their information, email/phone can be found on the Metro Seniors website under Operations/Board-Committees.

Going forward Metro Seniors will no longer accept cash for any payment. Only checks, debit or credit cards will be accepted.

Starting July 1st, all Metro Senior members can now take advantage of Golf Lesson by PGA professionals at The Legends Country Club. Previously, this was only available to Metro Plus members is now being offered to all Metro Senior Members.

The Legends Country Club has partnered with Metro Senior to offer professional golf lessons at unheard of prices. Clinics of 6 students maximum on driving the golf ball, short game, wedge play, fairway shots, putting and seminars on a wide variety of topics are now being offered in August.

Everyone who signs up and pays for at least one clinic receive one FREE one hour golf lesson from Chris Scott, PGA, Teaching Professional with The Legends Country Club. Its easy to sign up, payment is by cash or credit card on the day of the clinic and all lessons are on the Golf Course.

Metro Plus members who have taken advantage of this offer have been impressed and some are looking forward to taking more lesson to improve their game.

Here is the link: https://forms.gle/WViDfmjAVLxpdApM8

I have recently received many emails and phone calls concerning what the direction Metro Seniors is taken to ensure the safety of all the members in each weekly tournament, Special Events and Metro Plus golf outings for the remainder of the year. 

2020 will go down as a difficult year in Metro Seniors golf.  The climate is changing almost weekly, so what we tell you now, in a week from now may not apply.  We negotiated in May, in good faith, for all our events in June to be single cart only. When the governor of Missouri opened the state up on June 15^th, all bets were off and courses could use their own judgement on how they wanted to operate.  Our agreements/contracts were no longer applicable, and if we wanted to play at the courses we had to adjust or the courses would move on.

The golf industry as a whole has seen a tremendous upswing in participation and many country clubs have membership levels they haven’t seen in many years.  We no longer have, hockey, baseball, soccer, basketball, to attend as fans and everyone is looking for a release…an outlet.  Public courses during the week, usually their slow period, are having 250-300 golfers playing daily.  The demand for tee times are high, therefore there are many that will play by whatever the rules the course sets, regardless if scientists say this is not safe.  Its business!  Online tee times are the future and if the demand is high the price will increase significantly.    Believe me when I say this “once the prices goes up, it’s never coming back down.” The computer tracks everything.  The higher the demand, the higher the price will be.

There are some courses that are still conservative in their approach and are allowing single carts out at no additional fee, but some that are allowing single carts some are charging an additional fee for this, that is significantly higher.  Soon all the courses will get rid of their rental carts which are costing them a lot and implement rules requiring 2 in a cart.

The pandemic is far from over, and I will not get political. Many believe the best policy is to error on the side of caution.  When making decisions on golf rules they did not confer with me.  Everyone will approach it differently.  I get it, believe me.  My wife is very high risk, so I must be safe, so I do not bring home anything that she may get.  It’s a choice.  If you want to play, you need to find someone who is comfortable with you and vice versa and play/ride with them cautiously, pay the rate if available for a single cart (some places are not offering this) or do not play that week, Special event, Metro Plus outing. 

On June 23^rd the entire board met for the first time since January.  A long and spirited meeting where the theme by the end of it was “Change.”  For the remainder of the year we will continue with assigned tee times, and until Illinois and Missouri mirror in the rules and regulations, we will play by the same pin and bunkers rules we have been using since June 1^st.  No one knows when that will be, and it may be sooner than some of us want.  A committee of many members is looking into a future registration process to be presented to the board in August with implementation for next year.  We may go back to doing things the old way.  We just don’t know.

Look for continuing changes in your weekly tournaments and when the rules are relaxed enough, we will allow CTTP’s again.  Stay in touch with your VP’s for they will be informing you of additional changes as we find out, and pass that info on to them. 

This week is an off week for all of us.  No golf on Thursday and Friday in observance of July 4^th week.  This has been the policy for years.  Promise me you will all be safe out there.  Enjoy the holiday but please don’t do anything foolish.  I want to see all of back playing golf starting week July 6^th.

Larry Roth President Metro St Louis Seniors Golf Assn

The Metro Seniors apparel store is now open with many new items. There was a glitch in the system that has now been fixed. The store will remain open thru June 15th. The link to the Metro Seniors apparel store may be found on the Metro Seniors website, in Member Resources, by clicking on Metro Seniors Apparel highlighted in blue.

https://sga2020.itemorder.com/sale

Starting Monday June 1^st for 15 days the Metro Seniors Apparel store will be open again.  Items that are ordered during this period will be delivered around July 1^st (shortly thereafter) or may be picked up at the St Louis Sportswear location starting July 6^th.

There will be several new items including a pull up mask with Metro Seniors logo.  Masks will be in Black or Red.  After the store closes on June 16^th it will remain closed until September 1^st. 

Everyone has been impressed with the clothing and hats.  Order yours June 1^st.

Did you order your Metro Seniors apparel thru St Louis Sportswear?  If you did and have not picked it up, St Louis Sportswear will be open starting Monday May 18^th from 9:30 AM till 4:00 PM daily for you to pick up your items you ordered.

St Louis Sportswear is located at 3615 Ridgewood St. Louis, MO. 63116.

If you didn’t get a chance to order Metro Senior apparel, the Online apparel store will be open starting June 1^st for 15 days.  Items ordered during this period will be available for pick-up or delivery starting July 1^st. 

On June 1^st we will post the link’s address in another post. 

Playing golf is what most of us have been looking forward to.  Metro St Louis Seniors Golf Association will start weekly play June 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th depending on your division.  Many things have changed so it’s very important to read all the emails you will receiving from your Division VP.  This year more than ever they will totally be in charge of the weekly events.  Email is our way of communicating with everyone, so please be diligent and look often!

Social Distancing is the “New” rule and until these rules change, we are obligated to adhere to these rules.  We will have additional volunteers this year to make sure we are in compliance. Please make sure you follow the directions of these volunteers.  All members must adhere to all the changes we have instituted.  Violations of these rules may result in immediate termination of membership from all Metro Seniors operations without refunds.

For this year no one can arrive at the course early and wait in line for a tee time, regardless if you have a foursome, threesome, twosome or as a single.  All members must obtain a tee time thru their Division VP.  This is the only process you can use.

The complete tee time reservation process will be explained in detail from your Division VP.  Each division’s process will mirror the other division.  You should expect this shortly.

If you have been playing in Division 9 you will need to contact John Reinhardt by email at stlthunder@gmail.com He will send you all information so you may register and play on Wednesdays.  Division 9 will start play the first week in June.

The first 3 Special Events have been canceled.  Refunds for those who paid, will be issued in the next 30/60 days.  The remaining are still on.  We will address them by July 1^st.

For those in the Metro Plus league, an email will be sent to you shortly regarding the season.  Metro Plus will start in early June. 

These are difficult times and difficult choices sometimes must be made.  We will make sure our league is operated safely, within the guidelines set out by our local and state government, at the same time providing the best Senior league in the St. Louis area. If you wish a refund for this year, refunds will be issued based on the policy manual on our website and must be requested by June 1, 2020. Please send your requests to your VP only!

I hope to see many of you on the golf course this year.  If we don’t know each other please introduce yourself to me.  If your questions go unanswered you may always email me at larry@lgr-sri.com

Larry Roth

President Metro St Louis Seniors Golf Assn.

Good News!

The state of Illinois has announced opening of Illinois golf courses starting May 1, 2020.

However, there are very strict guidelines for operations. All is focused on “social distancing” to protect golfers and the service staff.

The course capacity will be very limited with only twosomes in a group and 15 minute separations. This limits capacity (max of 36 players on the course at any time). It may make reservations difficult.

No golf carts, essentially walkers only. You must either carry or bring your own pull cart. There MAY be opportunity for golf carts for handicap situations. Be sure you have handicap carts set up before you go. Expect only one person in a cart.

Ask about their refund policies. A no-show may be expensive.

See the Official Illinois Guidelines below.

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