OFWW Newsletter March 2023
Message from the President
Its February 2023 and the weather this year has already given us everything that Houston has to offer. Temperatures ranging from the 20’s and the 80’s, abundant sunshine, weeks with rain, storms and tornadoes and for us golfers CPO without end. Hopefully the taste of spring that we are going to see in the coming weeks will be much friendlier for most of us (fairer weather) golfers.
The Board has received and considered multiple requests to revisit the Lift, Clean and Place rule ending by March 1st. It is obvious last couple of years that fairways have insufficiently recovered from winter conditions by end February and many times we find our balls covered in mud in the middle of the fairway or even having a decent lie.
So for this year again the Lift, Clean and Place rule is extended through the end of March and we will put this rule up for vote in November to make it permanent or continue as is.
Another rule change we are making starting March 1st is that for Playdays we will no longer be splitting the flights solely based on hard handicap index numbers but going to the methodology of equal number of participants per flight. The current payout calculation system remains unchanged and will result in the place payouts being equal per flight. You will find more details about this later on in this newsletter where Greg Jensen will give a more comprehensive explanation how this is going to work.
The Board debate about this topic has been going on for the better part of the last 6 months and we feel that it is time to implement this now so that the participation levels per flight becomes much more balanced and pay outs become more equitable. Skins pay outs are obviously not affected by this rule change. This change is determined as a temporary rule change which means that at the Annual Meeting, we will ask for your vote and you can decide to make this a permanent rule or not.
Edwin Goldman.
Play Day Flight Assignment and Payout Equalization – Temporary Rule Change
We are revising the playday flights to better equalize the number of players and the cash payouts among all the flights for that day.
Playday players are to be divided into equal flights based on handicap index.
- Scores continue to be net strokes based on current Handicap Index.
- If players number 6 or less no flights will be created with no fees collected or payouts, ie., not a playday.
- If players number between 7 - 13, players will all be in one flight.
- If players number between 14 - 20, players will be divided into 2 equal flights. If there is an odd number, the odd number will be assigned to the flight with a player with the closest HI at the break point.
- If players number 21 or greater, players will be divided into 3 equal flights. If there is an odd number, the odd number will be assigned to the flight with the closest HI at the break points.
- Payouts will be made using the current payout table so that all flights pay equal number of places for the same dollar amount. Skins payout will continue to be made based on the current payout tables and should be more consistent across flights considering the number of skins earned.
Please feel free to chat with me if you have any further questions or concerns.
Greg Jensen
March Bash
If you need to cancel during the signup period, you can go into Golf Genius during the signup period and cancel. If you need to cancel after the signup period, please send an e mail to both Tim and Stan letting them know as soon as possible including the night before Timothy.Lovell@invitedclubs.com Stancoburn@embarqmail.com. If you don’t cancel you will still be charged the registration fee.
Sign up will be using Golf Genius. Please look for the mail with the sign-up link or you can go to KCC-OFWW2023.GolfGenius.com
Please feel free to send Stan a note with any comments or suggestions. Stancoburn@embarqmail.com.
2023 Preliminary Bash Schedule
The monthly bashes are a team event and a great way to meet new people and compete for slightly higher cash prizes.
The bashes are generally held the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 9am except for January (3rd Tuesday) and December (1st Tuesday).
March 14
April 11
May 9
June 13
July 11
August 8
September 12
October 10
November 7
December 5
A social with beer and soft drinks is planned after the bash in the scoring area for all bashes except for November and December.
Please remember that this is a preliminary schedule and subject to change.
February 2023 Bash Results
Pink Ball Tournament
Divot Days
Divot days are when club members volunteer to fill divots on the golf course. It is a way to help our club maintain nice courses and each volunteer earns one point each time towards the year end volunteers tournament hosted by the club. 3 points are needed to qualify for the volunteer tournament. The volunteer tournament usually includes a lunch or snacks, and numerous prizes are awarded to the winners and participants.
Divot days are usually scheduled on Wednesday mornings with a breakfast provided by the club starting at 7:00. Volunteer usually head to the course at 7:30 in one of 4 groups (starting on 1, 9, 10 and 18) and we are usually done by around 9am with the course scheduled to open at 9:30 for regular tee times.
March 8 – Forest
April 5 – Marsh
May 3 – Island
Play Days
The play days are a great way to have a tournament type competition and win some money. Stroke play in one of 3 flighted fields for a very small entry fee. You sign up for any available tee time and you can meet other golfers by signing up to play with different golfers each time.
You can also find the results for each play day under the results tab on the OFWW website.
Couple of things to note:
You do not need to check in at the pro shop before the play day. The starter notes the information for billing.
You must enter your score in the Golf Genius app. You do not need to turn in a paper scorecard.
You do not need to enter your score into the GHIN system. The pro shop transfers it over.
Payouts for winning are now credited to your golf shop credit book account once a month. Players should check the amounts to verify they are correct. Questions about the amounts should go to Tim.
The play day schedule for March is:
Thursday March 2 – Forest Playday
Tuesday March 7 – Island Playday
Wednesday March 8 – Divot Day Forest
Thursday March 9 – No Playday – 2x Senior Interclub Marsh
Tuesday March 14 – BASH – Forest
Thursday March 16 – Limited Play – 1x Senior Interclub Forest
Tuesday March 21 – Forest Playday
Thursday March 23 – No Playday – 2x Senior Interclub Lake
Tuesday March 28 – Marsh Playday
Thursday March 30 – Island Playday
Note – Every association will have a playday on a scheduled Cart Path Only course each month that we are scheduling the CPO course for the week, (OFWW, KWGA 9, KWGA 18) so that the non-association members do not have the CPO course every week.
We are continuing the OFWW policy of allowing any member to play the forward tees on the Island course without any restrictions. Please make sure you indicate that on the tee sheet when you sign up.
We currently expect that every day lift clean and place rules that the OFWW uses in the winter will end on February 28th unless the board votes to extend them because of poor course winter conditions.
Golf Genius OFWW Member Portal
All of the content on the old OFWW Web Site has been moved to the Golf Genius Member Portal. Please visit the site at WWW.KCC-OFWW2023.Golfgenius.com or using the GG App every once in a while. Lots of good information, play day and bash results, event sign up and other information. Updates and Training materials, including FAQs to help with the complete transition to Golf Genius (GG) can be found under the “News” tab.
OFWW Interclub
The Kingwood OFWW has two teams that participate in the "North Houston Retired Senior Men's Golf Association". Each team plays home and away matches at other participating clubs, usually on Thursdays. It is a great way to meet people, participate in exciting competitions and play different clubs for just a cart fee. You do not have to play every week.
From the end of February to mid October, the teams play weekly matches with 11 other country clubs in the North Houston and Montgomery County area. The clubs include April Sound, Atasocicta, Bentwater, Elkins Lake, Hearthstone, Lake Windcrest, Northgate, Panorama, River Plantation, Walden Lake Conroe and Walden Lake Houston. It is a great way to play these other courses for just a cart fee.
The Lake Team will play its first match on February 23rd at home against Northgate and the Marsh team will play its first match on March 2nd at Northgate. For the full schedule please contact your respective captain.
To join a team contact:
Joe Blankenship - Captain Marsh Team (joeblankenship54@gmail.com)
or
David Bradley - Captain Lake Team (dandbbradley@outlook.com)
Or reply to OFWWkingwood2022@Gmail.com and one of the captains will contact you.
OFWW Member Hole-In-One
If you get a hole in one during a playday or Bash to please notify Tim Lovell at Tim.Lovell@Invitedclubs.com and Jack Alexander at Jalexand76@Aol.com about that. The Golf Genius system doesn’t necessarily flag your hole in one, for example if your score on that hole is tied with somebody else. Please tell Tim the hole and course, witnesses, club used, enclose a picture if you took one etc.. If you are in the hole in one pot Tim can get the payout process started.
Please do participate in the HIO pot and win some money to buy your playing partners drinks.
2023 OFWW Officers
Please feel free to reach out to any of the officers with your questions, comments, and suggestions. The board works hard with the club pros, primarily Tim, to run the play days, bashes, and other events.
2023 OFWW Officers
President Edwin Goldman
VP Greg Jensen
Secretary David Wenner
Treasurer Frank Zampello
Tournaments Stan Coburn
IT Support Brent Johnston
Lake Team Captain David Bradley
Marsh Team Captain Joe Blankenship
Communications Jack Alexander
Treasurers Report January 2023
The following is the Treasurers Report as of Month End January 2023. Our 2023 dues have not been credited to us by the Club yet. Our cash balance at the end of January was $2,380.
Please direct any questions to our Treasurer Frank Zampello.
Member Fund Raising Activities
Do you have a fund raising activity or charity you are raising money for? Send a note to Jalexand76@Aol.com with the information and we can post it to the next newsletter.
Rules We Play By
5 Key 2023 Rules of Golf Changes
Rules Question on Balls Hit Out of Bounds
Rules Question on Balls Hit into the Woods
We have gotten some questions recently on the rules about what happens when a ball is hit into the woods and some questions about why some of the woods are marked with a red line and can play as a lateral hazard and some woods do not have any markings and should be played using the lost ball rule.
The KCC local club rule is that unless the wooded area is marked as a hazard (red line or red stakes) it is not a hazard. If the ball goes in there the usual rules apply. Ie. If the ball is lost or hit out of bounds (white line or white stakes or clearly in someone’s lawn) then the local rule is you drop it in the fairway (not rough) closest to where it went into woods for 2 stroke penalty. If the ball is found then you have option to drop within 2 club lengths not closer to the hole for 1 stroke or go back on the line between ball and flagstick as far as needed and drop for 1 stroke or go back to tee and hit another shot for 1 stroke (stroke & distance).
Whenever in doubt after your shot play a provisional and make sure to announce it is an provisional.