SWGA City Championship

This year's city championship was supposed to be hosted at Northwood CC; however, due to Northwood being closed (hopefully temporarily), plans had to be changed in order to make firm plans for the year.  Therefore, the city championship will be hosted at Stonebridge this year.  The dates have not changed. It will still be on September 15-16 and you'll be able to play your practice round during the week prior to the tournament.  More to come on that later, but just wanted you to change your calendar to reflect the correct location.

Equitable Stroke Play

With the onset of our 2010 golf season, we might want to re-visit "Adjusting Hole Scores for Equitable Stroke Control (ESC)™".  We all want fair and honest handicap indexes and the ESC system helps with that.

ESC is an adjustment of individual hole scores (for handicap purposes) in order to make handicaps more representative of a player's potential ability. ESC is applied after the round and is only used when the actual score or the most likely score exceeds a player’s maximum number. ESC sets a limit to the number of strokes a player can take on a hole depending on Course Handicap™. Apply ESC to all scores, including tournament scores. Below is the maximum number a player can post:

Course Handicap                         Maximum Number

9 or less ...........................................Double Bogey

10-19........................................................ 7

20-29 ........................................................8

30-39 ........................................................9

Keep in mind that you use your ADJUSTED COURSE HANDICAP, not your handicap index.  Those of us who are in the 18-19 handicap index for example, will many times adjust up to a 20 or 21 course handicap.  In that case, instead of adjusting the 10 you made on a hole to a 7, you would adjust to an 8.

And don't forget, you should post scores even if you didn't complete the hole or the round (if you played at least seven holes).  There are provisions for both of these and according to the Rules of Golf, you should post those scores also.  So if you play 16 holes and decide to quit, for whatever reason, you should record your score for the last two holes based on the par score plus your handicap for that hole.  If you need help figuring it out, contact the Events Chairman Kathleen McCoy for assistance. 

USGA Course Rating Seminar

On Tuesday, Feb. 9, six of our SWGA members attended a USGA hosted Course Rating Training Seminar in Lafayette.  In addition to the classroom training conducted by the USGA, raters went out on the course at Oakbourne CC to practice rating....in very cold, windy, and wet conditions I might add.  But it was a great learning experience.

The state is divided into the North and South at Alexandria, and raters from both areas met to share ideas and methods.  Only the North team has lady raters....and that's US. 

Pictured here are the North area raters that attended the class, as well as the LGA Executive Director Carr McCalla and the USGA instructor.

We were also fortunate to have our new LGA Director of Member Services Lee Rainwater, who helps with our individual handicapping. 

Shown in this photo is Lee, Donna Cobb, and Brian Spence, also of the LGA Staff.

The six of us ladies have volunteered to be on rating teams throughout the year, helping to rate courses in Louisiana, anywhere north of Alexandria.  Should be an enlightening experience.