Golfing in the Wind

I think the "March winds" are a little late getting here, but you can be sure, we'll have them to contend with.  Here's a tip from Golf Magazine that might help.

"A headwind calls for a low tee shot. Two small setup adjustments make it easy. First, tee the ball about a half-inch lower than normal. This reduces the chance that you#'ll make contact high on the face, which tends to produce more loft, particularly with today's oversize drivers.

"Next, move the ball two inches back in your stance so the clubhead makes contact while it's moving slightly downward. Don't try for extra power; focus on moving smoothly onto your left side through impact."

Another cancelled golf outing

Did you ever notice that "rain" and "cold" are both four-letter words????

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. 

Cleaning Tips

Thought I would share a couple easy cleaning tips that I've run across lately.

On the day of our SWGA Annual Meeting/Luncheon, a group of us were walking back to the parking garage from the University Club and we all had our arms full of "stuff".  Just as she approached the curb, Mary Gallagher tripped on the unlevel curb and went down, face-first on the edge of Travis Street!  She bled ALOT and was wearing the red all over her clothing by the time we were able to get her back on her feet.  (Hold on, I'm getting to my cleaning tip.)

As we helped her up, I got a spot of blood on the sleeve of my beige jacket.  I didn't have anything to clean it with at that point and forgot about it until I got home several hours later.  In the meantime, someone had told me about using plain ol' hydrogen peroxide to get the stain out. 

I figured I'd have the stain forever to remind me of Mary's scary fall.  BUT, when I got home, I put some peroxide on a cotton ball and dabbed the spot.  It was a miracle!  The blood disappeared.  A day or so later, I dropped chocolate syrup (fat-free/sugar free of course) on my white sweat shirt.  Used the peroxide and sure enough, the stain was gone.

I did a little research on it and found that some people had problems with discoloration on white clothes after using the peroxide IF THEY DIDN'T RINSE IT WELL after using the peroxide.  So beware of that possibility; but for most stains, I hear it works very well....including pet stains on carpet.

Incidently, after a couple weeks of hurting alot, Mary went to the ER and found that she had broken a rib, so no golf for her for a number of weeks.  Hopefully, she'll be healed up just in time for Spring golf!

My second cleaning tip is something I discovered to clean my golf shoes:  Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  I love it.  If you've never used it, it's a fine-textured sponge that doesn't require any soap.  Just wet it and use it.  All the discolored marks on my golf shoes disappear with just a wipe of the sponge. 

They are also great for cleaning shower doors and appliances.  I understand you have to be careful with appliances with a shiny black finish as the sponge will work so well it dulls the finish.  I personally use them on my satin finish stainless steel stove top and it works wonderfully.  Beware though, their life span is shorter than a "regular" sponge.

Happy Cleaning!! (LOL)

2010 SWGA Annual Meeting

Yesterday was our annual meeting, luncheon and election of new officers. If you are one of the 57% of members who were not there, this will give you the highlights of the meeting.  If you were there, this will serve as a reminder.

1. Although there was previous discussion about increasing our individual dues for SWGA membership, it was decided to keep the fee at $20.

2. Each club’s SWGA assessment will increase from $20 to $30 and the $50 Team Match assessment from each club will be dropped, so this will save each association $40 per year.

3. Next year, for the annual meeting and luncheon, members will pay the entire cost of the meal rather than SWGA picking up a portion of the expense.

4. The general membership voted to dispense with paying the monthly SWGA playday payouts. Recognition will remain the same, but there will be no funds paid out. This will put more money in our account to help with expenses for the City Championship, Team Matches, and the end-of-year special awards.

5. There was also a vote to change the rule regarding a member’s handicap index when it goes higher than 30.0 after joining SWGA. If, during the year, a member’s index goes above 30.0, the member can remain in the SWGA, but cannot participate in an SWGA event until her index comes back down to 30.0.

6. It was also voted to discontinue making the annual scrapbooks due to the new age of online picture systems.

7. The events that require your participation in order to achieve the 100% participation award at the end of the year are listed below all the blog postings on this page and are identified as such. The other SWGA outgings are in the section identified as “Other Golfing Events”.  You can print out any part of this blog by doing a "Print Preview" and printing the page you need.  It may be handy to print all these golfing events for your calendar.

We had a great meeting, and if you weren’t there, you missed some good fellowship. As information, the new Officers and Club Reps are listed in the right column of this blog.  There is also a slideshow presentation in the right column of this page.  Just click on any of the pictures and they will come up fullsize.

Since it would be very difficult to thank everyone individually for my "special" gift that was presented at the meeting, I want to extend a very heartfelt THANK YOU to the SWGA for this most thoughtful gesture.  If you weren't aware of what happened, I was presented two of the most wonderful Bodum insulated glass cups as a thank you for my work on this blog.  It certainly wasn't necessary nor expected, but it sure is appreciated.  I love doing the blog and just ask that you help by providing me newsworthy info and pictures to be included.  Thanks again.

Just a thought...

I listened to a program on the radio recently on one of my many trips into Shreveport/Bossier.  They raised an interesting point that I wanted to share, especially enlight of our losing five friends/acquaintances quite unexpectedly since Christmas Eve.

Consider this:  If you were told you had just one hour left to live and you could make only ONE phone call, who would you call?  What would you say?...........

Don't wait.  Do it NOW!! while you have the chance.