Thank you Eric!

On Friday, April 26, the SMGA presented Head Golf Pro Eric Steele a photograph signed by the membership as a thank you gift for his years as Woodmont's Head Golf Pro.  Eric is leaving us for new ventures in his home state of Michigan.  Thank you Eric, and best wishes for the future!

2024 SMGA BUBBA

[Pictured:  Overall Winner Paul Blocker, 2nd Place Overall Jeff Moore, Tom Achilles]

Gents: Thank you for participating in this year's SMGA Bubba Tournament. I don't think that we could have asked for a nicer day to play and I hope that you had a great time, both playing and with the post-game pizza get-together.

Results:

Overall Winner: Paul Blocker (a great net -14!)

2nd Overall: Jeff Moore (-12)

3rd Overall: Gary Wallpe (-11, scorecard runoff)

Flight 1 (1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th)

• Jeff Ross - Jerry Matthews - Thomas Achilles - Rob Thornton

Flight 2 (1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th)

• Bob Norman - Jay Dishong - Jim Banta - Chuck Wills

Flight 3 (1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th)

• Bill Wall - John Lindemann - Art Walsh - Rudy Maul

Flight 4 (1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th)

• Rick Fahrney - Mike Connaway - Keith Mann - Wayne Judy

Flight 5 (1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th)

• Tom Gambeski - Bill Greenwald - Wilbur VanderLinden - Gary Kaneshiro

Flight 6 (1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th)

• Jeff Moore - Gary Wallpe - Roger Ross - Wendell Clark

Flight 7 (1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th)

• Paul Blocker - Leo Brandino - Ray Krawiec - Bill Reimer

Congrats to all players for a well-done tournament. Regards Club Credits:

• Flight 1st Place: $120
• Flight 2nd Place: $90
• Flight 3rd Place: $70
• Flight 4th Place: $50

• Overall Winner: Additional $75
• Overall Runner-up: $60
• Overall 3rd: $50

Again, thank you for playing and thank you to Eric, Philip, Dane, Robert, Kris, Veronica & Team for making a wonderful SMGA event.

[After the Bubba...Paul, Don, Bill outside after the award presentation; Paul Gary, and Bill inside enjoying pizza]

2024 OPENING DAY SCRAMBLE

Congrats to Rob Thornton, Larry Callison, Dave Turner, Bill Kell for winning the 2024 season's first tournament!

Under near perfect weather, the members of Woodmont Golf's SMGA had a near perfect 2024 SMGA Opening Day Scramble, March 20. Thank you to all the participants and thank you to Joe, Eric, Robert, Kris and the entire Club staff for providing the great weather and course.

With 68 players across 17 teams, the final results could not have been closer, as all teams finished within 6 strokes from first to last. Just as impressive is that each team was under gross par, not counting the net handicap corrections. As the saying goes, however, there can be only one winner. That winning achievement and honor belongs to the team of Rob Thornton, Larry Callison, Dave Turner and Bill Kell, edging out seven teams within 2 strokes. Another recognized fantastic achievement was Bill Wall’s gross eagle (a “2”) on #14 - a net “hole-in-one.”

The top eight teams (gaining POY performance points and in the money) were:

1. Rob Thornton, Larry Callison, Dave Turner, Bill Kell
2. Bob Norman, Kerney Hall, Dan Cox, Klaren Alexander
3. Dave Cerny, Don Ritter, Wendell Clark, Ray Krawiec
4. Scott Holder, Scott Bower, Wally Buchleitner, Michael Edd
5. Jeff Ross, Rick Fahrney, Wilbur VanderLinden, Dan Yuhaschek
6. Jim Brill, Wayne Judy, Ed Ferguson, Bill Reimer
7. Thomas Achilles, Jeff Sanborn, Jim Carey, Jeff Moore
8. John Huot, Jonathan Kaufman, Dan Hall, Terry Moore

Again, thank you to all for making a great SMGA tournament. Our next events are:

• Tuesday, March 26: Breakfast with the Superintendent
• Monday, April 8: SMGA Bubba Tournament

Handicap Committee Update

February 20, 2024

Note: For those of you unable to attend Tuesday's workshop with the GSGA covering the 2024 Handicap System Revisions, here's a recap put together by our Handicap Committee Chairman Tom Guthrie.  Tom's contact information is at the end of the summary if you have questions.  Thanks, Tom!

 I had the opportunity to attend the GSGA Handicap Seminar at the Pinetree Country Club a couple of weeks back and a number of you attended a similar presentation at today's SMGA Breakfast. As a quick summary for everyone, I wanted to share this note on the changes to the USGA Handicap System.

Earlier this year, you should have received an email from GSGA outlining the changes to the Golf Handicap system that went into effect on 1/16/2024. The changes are largely focused on how to post incomplete rounds. The changes that impact you most directly are outlined below.  They may be a little confusing so if you have questions, contact me by email, text or phone.

1. You may not post a round unless at least 9 holes are played.  This comes into play in any event where 9 hole rounds or matches are involved (ie. Member Guest, Member Member, Thursday League). The tournament committee for each event will have to make the decision about completing rounds that have ended before 9 holes have been played (ie. you get closed out on the 8th hole) but in order to post the round, you must continue to play until the 9 holes are complete. No more using NET PAR to post a score.

2. When you post a 9 hole round, the GHIN system automatically creates an "Expected Score Differential" for the 9 holes not played. It is based on a golfer of your handicap index playing on a course with as Standard Slope of 113.  You don't have to do anything special and there is no more waiting for a nine hole round to be combined with another nine hole round.  The SCORE you see is the score you posted for the 9 holes played but the Differential for the round (which is what is used to create you handicap index) is for 18 holes.

EXPECTED SCORE CANNOT BE CALCULATED FOR PLAYERS WHO HAVE NOT ESTABLISHED A HANDICAP INDEX.. If you are a new player and have not yet played the 54 holes required to establish an index, you may only post 9 hole or 18 hole scores. Once your index has been established, you may post HOLE by HOLE in the GHIN App.

3. If your round ends after 10 holes have been played but before 18 holes have been completed, the scores for the holes played are entered and the system will calculate the rest.  YOU NEED TO ENTER YOUR SCORES HOLE BY HOLE IN EITHER THE GHIN App or Golf Genius. If you are using Golf Genius, leave the scores blank for holes that are not played. If you start a hole, you must post a score even if you don't finish that hole.  Post the score you think you would have made if you finished the hole or in the worst case, post NET DOUBLE Bogey.  If you post a score in GHIN or Golf Genius that is more than NET DOUBLE BOGEY for your handicap, the system will adjust automatially.  If youy are posting scores by hand, be sure not to post any hole scores that are greater than PAR+2 STROKES + handicap strokes from your Course Handicap.

Managing our Handicap Indexes is a labor of love.  The toughest part of the job is calling people out when they don't appear to be posting rounds correctly.  PLEASE POST YOUR ROUNDS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AFTER PLAYING YOUR ROUND.

The USGA is providing some new tools to allow Handicap Committees to review and adjust handicaps based on the data in the system. We will be using those tools along with the LightSpeed Golf Management System to audit handicaps beginning in April. 

If you are interesting in learning more about the handicap index system and you would be interested in serving on the SMGA Handicap Committee in 2024 please send an email to Tom Guthrie at tgguthrie@yahoo.com or Jimmy Brownlowe at jimbrownlowe@gmail.com. We plan to keep the committee small (3-5 max) so please include your qualifications and level of interest in your email.

See you on the course,

Tom Guthrie

Handicap Chairman

678-756-2112

tgguthrie@yahoo.com