Mae Jo: Friday 11 October 2013

            We were blessed by a beautiful day with early morning fog followed by sunshine with a light pleasant breeze on the second 9 holes. Players included 21 members, and our new member William Craig (Iain’s son) putting in his first scorecard. The format was individual Stableford competition.
            Following on his great performance last Tuesday, Steve Metcalf continued his good form by earning 33 points to take third place. Tom Berger continued his consistent good golf by earning 34 points to take second place. Finally, despite a dismal start with his head in a tizzy, Captain Jim Hopkins managed to bring in 36 points due to a strong finish to take first place.

Tom, Jim, Steve

           He requests that all players report to the Captain and register not later than 7 a.m. to relieve his blood pressure prior to tee-off. We have several members (you know who you are) who consistently show up after the 7 a.m. registration deadline. This causes a certain amount of chaos in making the pairings during the final ten minutes prior to the first groups’ teeing-off – when some threesomes become foursomes, etc. As we go forward into the high season, the effect of late show-ups will be magnified upon all of our members, and we need to avoid significant re-pairings after 7 a.m. Thanks to everyone who played today for keeping up the pace – we managed to finish in about four hours.
           Today, Mae Jo starters informed Captain Jim Hopkins that it is most likely that they will not allow us to tee-off simultaneously from No. 1 and No. 10 in the future (high season). This is related to complaints from our members who completed rapid rounds after teeing-off on No. 10, and who then came around too fast – coming around to No. 1 expecting to tee-off immediately, while the starters have booked tee-times on No. 1 prior to that for other groups of their customers. We clarified that, while the global principle is that groups coming around to tee-off on No. 10 have priority, the opposite does not apply. This means that groups coming around after starting on No. 10 do NOT have priority to tee-off on No. 1, because the course has already booked and received green fees and caddy fees for many tour groups based upon their tee-off time on hole No. 1 throughout the high season. Please understand this phenomenon as we enter the high season. It looks like it will result in our 6-7 booked groups teeing-off on No. 1 throughout the high season. The result will most likely be that Frank’s first group will be having a late brunch and waiting for the rest of us to join them for lunch.
           Next Tuesday we will play a 2-person Scramble. If anyone has not yet notified Frank of your team composition, please do so as soon as possible.
Have a nice week-end!