We would like to have a Zoom meeting on August 5th at 10:30 to review the upcoming season. Hopefully you will be able to make the call, if not you can have another team member Zoom in. I will also have the agenda and all referenced documents linked on the website. We wanted to have this meeting in August since we will be discussing items needing action in September. Here is the Zoom Link and Information.
Team Size. We have been asked by a team to consider increasing the team size limit to greater than 10 members. The rationale is that if you can have more members who are committed to playing and are official team members, they can participate in the Hole-In-One Fund and also be eligible for Individual Year End Prize money. We are still keeping the requirement that you must play in 6 events to be eligible for Year End Prize money. The Executive Board discussed this request and agreed the Team Size could be increased to 13. We used 13 team members since any larger would not give all players the opportunity to play in 6 events. (Math= 80 possible slots to play for season divided by 13 = 6.1 opportunities to play).
Action: If agreed by Team Reps, we will need to update the Standing Rules to reflect 13 Team Members.
2024-2025 Schedule. Please revisit the Schedule Page and the 2024-25 Schedule Planning Notes to finalize your club’s offering. I would like to get the Schedule page updated with Finalized Price and whether Lunch is included or not.
Action: Get with your Pro and provide Lauren with the Final Details for your event.
2024-25 Budget. Lisa and the Executive Committee has put together a budget for the season. We carried over excessive funds from 2023-24 in part due to accruing funds to pay for 3 year website hosting renewals. We decided to just go to annual renewals so we are not carrying forward extra funds and really no significant savings on annual vs multi-year. So we end up basically spending all money that comes in (always keeping a reserve of $500 to avoid fees and Hole-In-One funds), we have increased the prize money. Additionally we eliminated the $6 to each team and increased other payouts and added a few new ones. See Prize Money link on website. Additionally, we will have about $700 extra to spend. We decided the best way to spend this would be to ask Laurel Oaks we it can be used to provide an extra something at the Holiday celebration.
Team Dues. Dues will be due to Lisa Harris (new treasurer) by September 15th. We have setup Zelle so it will be directly deposited to our Gulf Coast Account. Use the email [email protected] to Zelle your dues if you prefer that method rather than mailing Lisa a check.
Tournament Committee – Handicap Allowance. The Executive Committee had a discussion on adopting the USGA Recommendations for Handicap Allowances for Tournaments. Using the USGA recommendations, we will be using a 90% Handicap Allowance. This will be applied to the Course Handicap for that particular Course/Tees to calculate your Playing Handicap for the Event. You can read the USGA documentation at the link below. You will see we started with the 95% recommendation of Individual Stableford and adjusted that down by 5% since our league is more than 100 golfer and more higher handicap than lower. Our average Handicap Index at Waterlefe was 16.4 with 112 golfers that is 66 golfers between 16.4-24.7 (8.3 stroke range) and 66 golfers between 0-16.3. So you can see we do skew higher.
Action: We will need to update the Standing Rules.
Tournament Committee – Volunteers Needed. Additionally Lauren will be looking for volunteers to help with Tournament Committee. Responsibilities will include working with Golf Genius to setup events, setting up season schedule, working with host club reps/pro to make sure course setup is clearly marked.
Course Tees Selection. We have had this conversation in the past about trying to standardize the yardage / course difficulty played. We have never made progress on this topic and by default play the tees based on what Ladies’ Leagues are playing. This has lead to a variety of yardages ranging from 4,756 (LBK) to 5,308 (LO) and a variety of Rating/Slope with Ratings ranging from 68.1/119 (Esplanade) to 71.1/127 (Palm Aire). What is interesting is when you look at the results from this year, we actually had the most players scoring more point at Palm Aire. I believe a driver of this is that based on the Rating at Palm Aire (71.1) vs. Esplanade (68.1) – a player will get 3 more strokes at Palm Aire resulting in more opportunities to improve Net Score on those 3 additional holes.
Attached is a summary of the season play that supports the above data. You can also look at the Course/Tee options at clubs on this link:
Action: Do we want to standardize around a Rating/Slope that we play in the league. For example target the tees that provide a Rating between 69-70.
Rules Committee. Heidi Phillips and Christine Veator will be working to develop a set of League Playing Rules.
Website Committee. I do have two volunteers. I will get with them to start training and delegating some of the website updates.
Team Uniforms. Don’t forget if you are changing your uniform that you need to send it to Lauren for approval. Really just making sure there are not duplicates.
Code of Conduct. The Executive Committee has drafted a Code of Conduct for the League to Adopt. We took information from Mid-Gulf’s Code of Conduct and FSGA Code of Conduct. With various issues that have been brought to our attention during the season, we felt it best to adopt a Code of Conduct that can be shared with all players. This way they will know what is expected of them as part of the league and the consequences if violated. Here is the link to the Draft Code of Conduct for all to review.
