The Hackers and Whackers Monthly Newsletter and Journal
DUES, DUES, DUES
Dues are now due for the 2009 campaign which has a fairly diversified schedule. We have added several tournaments on Saturdays which, we hope, will help to bring in more members that otherwise aren't able to play during the week. Dues will remain at $110.00 for the coming year and are due no later than December 15, 2008. WE MUST HAVE A MINIMUM OF 20 MEMBERS IN ORDER TO REMAIN AN NCGA AFFILIATE CLUB. Please don't let this club just roll over a die, folks. We've had too many years of fun and camaraderie to let that happen. It doesn't take much to get new members in. We just have to work at it a bit and I can't do it all by myself. Give me a hand here and let's get this train back on track! Hopefully, the name change will bring about that extra boost we need to help us expand. I'll be looking to a number of members to help me with this so I don't have to make the decision on my own. With the passing of Bob Valva several months ago we are going to need someone to step up and take the reins of the Presidency so I'm open to volunteers. During the month of December I would like to make these changes so when we renew the club's NCGA membership we'll have all the pieces in place.
With the new schedule coming up in 2009, along with the addition of Saturday tournaments, hopefully we'll be able to gain in numbers. We have several ladies that may be joining us this next year and I have some other thoughts that I may institute into some of the tournaments just to make things a little more interesting.
ADVERTISING
Purely by accident the other day, I happen to come across an item in a Google program relating to web advertising. It's called Google AdSense and it gives those that have an active website the opportunity to have advertising that's related to the content of the website contained within that website. Income from that advertising is derived from the number of "clicks" that the site provides the advertiser. I figure that we may be able to develop some income from this that will provide us with bigger and better prizes each month. The way I look at it...Nothing ventured, nothing gained! We'll see what happens. So, if the next time you open the website and see advertisements for Titleist Golf Balls or some golf course in Northern Ubabainia you'll know what it's all about.
HANDICAPS
I finally gave up!! After trying to get the NCGA / GHIN program loaded on three different computers...I went out a bought a new laptop that, hopefully, will work with this program and I can get our database up to date and the past tournaments scored and those scores posted! I'll be loading the program sometime this week (11/20) and will keep you all up to date on the progress. As of today (11/16) the program is UP AND RUNNING...FINALLY!!! I will now need to backtrack and re-load all of the tournaments from this past year so I can get the tournament scores in before year end (hopefully) and then get out the winners list.
I have also had several of our members bring up the fact that we are scoring our tournaments (I know...when we score them!) as "T" scores with the NCGA and GHIN when in fact we are not playing by NCGA/GHIN rules when we are allowed to bump the ball, take the ball in at exit point (when hitting out of bounds), etc. I have had several suggestions made that may clarify the "T" scoring rule. 1.) Those that wish to have their tournaments scored by NCGA rules...should play by NCGA rules. The rest will continue to play by club rules. 2.) We should continue to play by club rules and turn in scores as an "A" (away) score. 3.) Because tournaments are scored differently when calculating handicaps we should all play by NCGA/GHIN rules. My take on this...purely from the standpoint that I have probably been around longer than anyone else (I'm starting my 27th year as tournament chairman), is that we should go back to playing the game the way it's supposed to be played. We started the bump rule, the OOB rule, the double par pickup rule purely in an effort to speed play. Of course, this was back before we joined NCGA and also when we were getting 70 to 80 players each month at the tournaments. I will go along with whatever the majority wants. We'll talk more about this in the near future.
PARADISE VALLEY G.C.
The turnout was good (12 members) but the weather was even better. An absolutely gorgeous day for golf. The course was in great shape (as it always is) and it appears that the scores weren't too bad either. It seems that November is the time to play Paradise Valley as I remembers a few Mays that were a bit warm. In any event, I've rescheduled us again for November 2009.