We're all booked for the first week of the new season.
I really wanted to go to a specific course in Pinellas, but I encountered a whole new low of incompetence in the golf industry.
So we'll maybe push that off a week — assuming my patience returns. We're instead booked at Lexington Oaks at 9am (site of the BGR's first tournament).
Rate is $38 after tax. Range balls not included... but it's so early, most of you people won't have time to hit them anyway.
-------------------------------
Our 2020 Fantasy Golf Pool is going to be released soon. You'll only have a couple of weeks to enter. Every year I post it... and every year someone tells me they didn't see it.
When you see something... get on it. Late entries will be rejected.
-------------------------------
See you all THIS Sunday.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Monday, December 23, 2019
End of the Off Season
Two weeks out, and we got a few lazy / deadbeat members to discuss.
Dave and Danny, still need to fill out their registration form. I'll be booking the first week very soon, and will assume any blanks or ??? are not attending.
And the following people have yet to pay league dues:
Danny - $37
Katie - $40
Ho - $110
Reid - $63
Troy - $20
Failure to pay before teeing off in any event results in a DQ. Every DQ makes my chances of winning improve. So while I'm all for it, it's probably better to open up your favorite Millennial payment app and send over some of that money you pretend to make.
------------------------
In other news... just got word that the Bayou Club is going to get us on for $65 plus tax. It's a private Tom Fazio design that I've been trying to take us to for a few years — but could never make it work due to their renovation and maintenance schedules.
It's also where Geoff got married.
Current plan is to play it for the DPT Open (week 3).
------------------------
I've also been in contact with the USGA, attempting to get us on their internal computation platform. It might happen... hopefully... but it seems they're really going to decimate their list of Directly Authorized Clubs.
Type 2 Clubs (like ours) are about to find themselves "unofficial" with very few options. There's a chance we can change that. But regardless, expect our own modified handicaps to be used for all of next season.
Dave and Danny, still need to fill out their registration form. I'll be booking the first week very soon, and will assume any blanks or ??? are not attending.
And the following people have yet to pay league dues:
Troy - $20
Failure to pay before teeing off in any event results in a DQ. Every DQ makes my chances of winning improve. So while I'm all for it, it's probably better to open up your favorite Millennial payment app and send over some of that money you pretend to make.
------------------------
In other news... just got word that the Bayou Club is going to get us on for $65 plus tax. It's a private Tom Fazio design that I've been trying to take us to for a few years — but could never make it work due to their renovation and maintenance schedules.
It's also where Geoff got married.
Current plan is to play it for the DPT Open (week 3).
------------------------
I've also been in contact with the USGA, attempting to get us on their internal computation platform. It might happen... hopefully... but it seems they're really going to decimate their list of Directly Authorized Clubs.
Type 2 Clubs (like ours) are about to find themselves "unofficial" with very few options. There's a chance we can change that. But regardless, expect our own modified handicaps to be used for all of next season.
Monday, December 16, 2019
2020 Handicaps - What's the Deal?
As you may have heard, handicaps are changing for 2020. We'll officially no longer be... official... since we won't be tied into the new USGA system/database.
The goal is to get "official" at some point, but in the meantime we're going rogue!
I'll implement as many of the changes as possible, and we should ultimately be good enough for government work.
Bottom line: in our tournaments you're going to get a number... you're going to play to that number... and you're going to like it. Most of you can stop reading now.
Anyone who wants to know how the sausage is going to be made, continue below:
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 3.1(a) now states that when establishing a handicap, the max score you can take is par + 5. Coincidentally, this is what our Board of Directors implemented over a year ago.
Action: Great job voting in a Board that's ahead of the times. Again, this only applies to handicap establishment. Once you have an Index, you get to deal with the bullshit in the next section.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 3.1(b) changes your max allowed for handicap reporting. While it was based on the ESC grid, the new number is "net double bogey".
Action: Your Club Chairman handles this adjustment after each tournament round. It's on YOU to report your adjusted scores correctly during non-tournament rounds. This requires you to look at the hole-handicaps on the scorecard and decide if you made worse than "net double bogey," and then adjust accordingly. It's a huge pain in the ass. And most of you probably weren't reporting your ESC rounds anyway. We'll hammer this more later once next season has started.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 4.1 says you must submit your rounds IMMEDIATELY after play. This is due to your Handicap Index now changing DAILY, instead of BI-MONTHLY (Rule 5.4).
Action: We are NOT going to change how often your "DPT/FBGC Index" is updated. Ain't nobody got time for that... until we're on an automated platform. So for now, two updates a month per usual.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 5.2(a) changes how many rounds are used in your Index calculation. Currently, it uses the average of your best 10 of previous 20 differentials, with a 4% reduction. The NEW RULE uses the average of your best eight differentials of the previous 20 (with no additional reduction).
Action: We'll be able to implement this change, and for most people it'll only change your Index a few tenths. If you have a wide spread of scores, it'll probably lower you down a point. And a the super high handicaps might actually gain points since the 4% reduction was pretty large up in the bad golfer stratosphere.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 5.3 increases the maximum allowed Index to 54.0.
Action: I mean... sure. But if you ever sniff a number that high... you probably shouldn't be playing golf for score/points/money.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 5.6 applies extra adjustments to your Index based on "playing conditions." The process requires crowd-sourcing scores at a specific course for a specific day, and determining if the reported scores are out of whack.
Action: It's impossible for us to implement this change. Also, it's not going to change your differential very often. The BEST thing this will do is alert the USGA when a course is incorrectly rated (ie: players consistently reporting low net scores like at ChampionsGate CC). How quickly that causes a course to pay their own money for a re-rating is yet to be seen. They're only required to do it once every 10 years unless there are major architectural changes.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 5.8 determines how HIGH your Index can increase over a 12-month period. It compares every revision to your LOWEST Index in the last year. That Index can never increase more than 5 points. And there's a soft-cap that slows any increase after it reaches 3 points above your "lowest index" in the previous 12-months.
Action: This was a huge pain in the ass, but I got it implemented. I don't see the "hard cap" coming into play very often... but starting in January 2020... Gary and John are already in the "soft cap" zone. Sandbaggers!
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 5.9 deals with exceptional scores. If you ever record a round where the calculated differential is 7+ lower than your Index... you get a -1 point reduction in your previous 20 round differentials. If you ever record a round 10+ lower... it's a -2 point reduction. And if you ever do it more than once, the application is cumulative. This is the ultimate sandbagger penalty, and it WOULD affect some of us from time to time. Like when Adam shot an 85 at Buffalo Creek despite having a 21.8 Index (he won by 8 strokes).
Action: A complete nightmare using the duct-tape that makes up this blog. But for the most part, we're ready to roll on this.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 6.1 changes how Course Handicaps are calculated. Currently, an extra calculation is only done if players are on DIFFERENT TEES. This is something we weren't doing correctly in our early existence... and then ultimately figured out when we started allowing you to pick your own tee boxes. Turns out, the USGA is tired of people ignoring this extra step (Darryl). So now... YOU HAVE TO APPLY IT TO EVERY TEE BOX ALL THE TIME!
Good luck explaining how to do this to the masses. Anyway...
It causes a few things... 1) par now matters, since that's the basis for the adjustment 2) your Course Handicap for any given day is definitely going to be different than before.
The net result won't affect our Club events in terms of where you will finish on the leader board. But it WILL cause more bad pitchers to be purchased, since most of us have rightfully embraced the "tee it forward" initiative. The tees that are "correct" for us are usually easy for Scratch Golfers, which is the basis for the Course Rating.
Action: Rounds that were net +8 or +9 are now going to be in the Pitcher Zone. Faz will be able to do average pitchers per round comparison, but if we continue to rack up "owed pitchers" expect the Board to take action against the deadbeats.
The goal is to get "official" at some point, but in the meantime we're going rogue!
 |
| It's gonna be nuts. |
I'll implement as many of the changes as possible, and we should ultimately be good enough for government work.
Bottom line: in our tournaments you're going to get a number... you're going to play to that number... and you're going to like it. Most of you can stop reading now.
Anyone who wants to know how the sausage is going to be made, continue below:
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 3.1(a) now states that when establishing a handicap, the max score you can take is par + 5. Coincidentally, this is what our Board of Directors implemented over a year ago.
Action: Great job voting in a Board that's ahead of the times. Again, this only applies to handicap establishment. Once you have an Index, you get to deal with the bullshit in the next section.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 3.1(b) changes your max allowed for handicap reporting. While it was based on the ESC grid, the new number is "net double bogey".
Action: Your Club Chairman handles this adjustment after each tournament round. It's on YOU to report your adjusted scores correctly during non-tournament rounds. This requires you to look at the hole-handicaps on the scorecard and decide if you made worse than "net double bogey," and then adjust accordingly. It's a huge pain in the ass. And most of you probably weren't reporting your ESC rounds anyway. We'll hammer this more later once next season has started.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 4.1 says you must submit your rounds IMMEDIATELY after play. This is due to your Handicap Index now changing DAILY, instead of BI-MONTHLY (Rule 5.4).
Action: We are NOT going to change how often your "DPT/FBGC Index" is updated. Ain't nobody got time for that... until we're on an automated platform. So for now, two updates a month per usual.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 5.2(a) changes how many rounds are used in your Index calculation. Currently, it uses the average of your best 10 of previous 20 differentials, with a 4% reduction. The NEW RULE uses the average of your best eight differentials of the previous 20 (with no additional reduction).
Action: We'll be able to implement this change, and for most people it'll only change your Index a few tenths. If you have a wide spread of scores, it'll probably lower you down a point. And a the super high handicaps might actually gain points since the 4% reduction was pretty large up in the bad golfer stratosphere.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 5.3 increases the maximum allowed Index to 54.0.
Action: I mean... sure. But if you ever sniff a number that high... you probably shouldn't be playing golf for score/points/money.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 5.6 applies extra adjustments to your Index based on "playing conditions." The process requires crowd-sourcing scores at a specific course for a specific day, and determining if the reported scores are out of whack.
Action: It's impossible for us to implement this change. Also, it's not going to change your differential very often. The BEST thing this will do is alert the USGA when a course is incorrectly rated (ie: players consistently reporting low net scores like at ChampionsGate CC). How quickly that causes a course to pay their own money for a re-rating is yet to be seen. They're only required to do it once every 10 years unless there are major architectural changes.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 5.8 determines how HIGH your Index can increase over a 12-month period. It compares every revision to your LOWEST Index in the last year. That Index can never increase more than 5 points. And there's a soft-cap that slows any increase after it reaches 3 points above your "lowest index" in the previous 12-months.
Action: This was a huge pain in the ass, but I got it implemented. I don't see the "hard cap" coming into play very often... but starting in January 2020... Gary and John are already in the "soft cap" zone. Sandbaggers!
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 5.9 deals with exceptional scores. If you ever record a round where the calculated differential is 7+ lower than your Index... you get a -1 point reduction in your previous 20 round differentials. If you ever record a round 10+ lower... it's a -2 point reduction. And if you ever do it more than once, the application is cumulative. This is the ultimate sandbagger penalty, and it WOULD affect some of us from time to time. Like when Adam shot an 85 at Buffalo Creek despite having a 21.8 Index (he won by 8 strokes).
Action: A complete nightmare using the duct-tape that makes up this blog. But for the most part, we're ready to roll on this.
--------------------------
New Rule: Handicap Rule 6.1 changes how Course Handicaps are calculated. Currently, an extra calculation is only done if players are on DIFFERENT TEES. This is something we weren't doing correctly in our early existence... and then ultimately figured out when we started allowing you to pick your own tee boxes. Turns out, the USGA is tired of people ignoring this extra step (Darryl). So now... YOU HAVE TO APPLY IT TO EVERY TEE BOX ALL THE TIME!
Good luck explaining how to do this to the masses. Anyway...
It causes a few things... 1) par now matters, since that's the basis for the adjustment 2) your Course Handicap for any given day is definitely going to be different than before.
The net result won't affect our Club events in terms of where you will finish on the leader board. But it WILL cause more bad pitchers to be purchased, since most of us have rightfully embraced the "tee it forward" initiative. The tees that are "correct" for us are usually easy for Scratch Golfers, which is the basis for the Course Rating.
Action: Rounds that were net +8 or +9 are now going to be in the Pitcher Zone. Faz will be able to do average pitchers per round comparison, but if we continue to rack up "owed pitchers" expect the Board to take action against the deadbeats.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Inaugural BGR 2-person Scramble
Hello loyal readers! We are back after an offseason of football, family, and not enough booze golf. With bowl season and the next DPT (anxiously awaiting the official name change and logo announcement) season just around the corner, the BGR wanted to get some friends and family together for a fun event doing what we love: golf and booze.
After uncounted hours of planning, we were set for a 10-person field at Lexington Oaks on Sunday the 8th of December. Brendan spent the night before concentrating orange juice so everyone could get their vitamin C in when they arrived at the course. Aside from the OJ, the Martha Stewart-esque goody bags included a shot of fireball to be used in case of a mulligan emergency and a beer for each booze golfer celebrant. Wonderful job, Brendan.
The play itself was inspired, with all groups putting in some great work on the day. Pairings were made by handicaps, lowest with highest, second lowest with second highest, and so on and we ended up with the following:
No strokes given as the selected teams should have been relatively even. May the best golfers on the day win the whole pot. At least that was the plan until Chandler the cowardly sandhill crane chimed in to suggest second place gets their money back. So the pot was set: $80 to the winning team and $20 to the first losers. On to the event!
With 5 groups of 2-person teams, the pairings would be tough to manage. There was a convoluted plan to have groups switch between twosomes and foursomes during the round, but with the lead group waiting on each holes we decided to go with a six-some in there instead. Despite some yelling from the ranger, the six-some idea finished the day and fun was had by all, but mostly the group traveling with a papoose for the day.
The Brendan-Faz combo had to be told numerous times that you must take the fireball before the mulligan. I don't think a Patrick Reed-Billy Mayfair pairing would have bitched as much about not being able to take "provisional mulligans." They were solidly in contention until the Fireball blew up their round on the 12th green when a 5-foot putt just didn't want to go in for them. After that the John-Darren combo joined with the Brendan-Faz and Chandler-Dub teams in the lead six-some and got to witness the glory that was the Chandler-Dub victory lap around the field. Putts were going in from all over the greens for the heroes of the day and victory was never in doubt after the birdie on 13 from Chandler's mulligan 9-iron sticking 10-feet away and Dub draining the plinko style putt. It was a veritable clinic and the only sad part is that not all five groups were able to witness such brilliant play. John and Darren finished a valiant second place. It was hard to see the other two groups from so far out in front, but I'm sure they had fun, too.
While some played on and others went to continue the booze fun with lunch at Winghouse, we will all remember forever the Inaugaral BGR 2-person Scramble. Thanks to everyone who participated and those who put it together. Looking forward to the next BGR event. Course ratings still to come after incomplete data, but suffice it to say, it's not too tough to sneak stuff on out there.
After uncounted hours of planning, we were set for a 10-person field at Lexington Oaks on Sunday the 8th of December. Brendan spent the night before concentrating orange juice so everyone could get their vitamin C in when they arrived at the course. Aside from the OJ, the Martha Stewart-esque goody bags included a shot of fireball to be used in case of a mulligan emergency and a beer for each booze golfer celebrant. Wonderful job, Brendan.
 |
| Drink in case of two shanked drives. |
The play itself was inspired, with all groups putting in some great work on the day. Pairings were made by handicaps, lowest with highest, second lowest with second highest, and so on and we ended up with the following:
- Chandler and Dub (-31.8 combined handicap)
- Faz and Brendan (-31.3)
- Ho and Ben (-31.8)
- Gary and Crum (-31.2)
- Big John and Darren (-30.9)
 |
| The official pairings sheet raw data. |
No strokes given as the selected teams should have been relatively even. May the best golfers on the day win the whole pot. At least that was the plan until Chandler the cowardly sandhill crane chimed in to suggest second place gets their money back. So the pot was set: $80 to the winning team and $20 to the first losers. On to the event!
With 5 groups of 2-person teams, the pairings would be tough to manage. There was a convoluted plan to have groups switch between twosomes and foursomes during the round, but with the lead group waiting on each holes we decided to go with a six-some in there instead. Despite some yelling from the ranger, the six-some idea finished the day and fun was had by all, but mostly the group traveling with a papoose for the day.
The Brendan-Faz combo had to be told numerous times that you must take the fireball before the mulligan. I don't think a Patrick Reed-Billy Mayfair pairing would have bitched as much about not being able to take "provisional mulligans." They were solidly in contention until the Fireball blew up their round on the 12th green when a 5-foot putt just didn't want to go in for them. After that the John-Darren combo joined with the Brendan-Faz and Chandler-Dub teams in the lead six-some and got to witness the glory that was the Chandler-Dub victory lap around the field. Putts were going in from all over the greens for the heroes of the day and victory was never in doubt after the birdie on 13 from Chandler's mulligan 9-iron sticking 10-feet away and Dub draining the plinko style putt. It was a veritable clinic and the only sad part is that not all five groups were able to witness such brilliant play. John and Darren finished a valiant second place. It was hard to see the other two groups from so far out in front, but I'm sure they had fun, too.
 |
| Your inaugural BGR 2-person Scramble Participants! We even took the time to pose for a group photo. |
While some played on and others went to continue the booze fun with lunch at Winghouse, we will all remember forever the Inaugaral BGR 2-person Scramble. Thanks to everyone who participated and those who put it together. Looking forward to the next BGR event. Course ratings still to come after incomplete data, but suffice it to say, it's not too tough to sneak stuff on out there.
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
BGR Update
Let’s put a stop to the rumors, yes it’s happening!
Date: Sunday, December 8th
Time: 9:30 AM
Course: Lexington Oaks
Two man scramble format.
We will randomly generate parings.
Bring $10 winning team take all.
Please reconfirm your attendance.
Please reconfirm your attendance.
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Words from the Commish
As of right now, the following people owe club dues:
Adam - $35
Danny - $37
Katie - $40
Ho - $110
Reid - $53
Troy - $20
We start back up in 5 weeks so get those submitted.
---------------
10 of you need to fill out your registration for the next season. I might lock that down 2 weeks out, depending on where we play, so claim a spot if you're in Week 1.
---------------
Irish Dave requests a Red Dog gathering on Saturday, December 14th. Be there if you'd like to partake in our Club's social obligations. 7pm or so.
---------------
The entire Blue Team from the 2019 Rapture has been awarded this year's "Pain Stewart Award" [sic].
Not the one given to someone whose "values align with the character, charity and sportsmanship that Payne Stewart showed." But the award for horrifically crashing and burning.
Adam - $35
Danny - $37
Katie - $40
Ho - $110
Reid - $53
Troy - $20
We start back up in 5 weeks so get those submitted.
---------------
10 of you need to fill out your registration for the next season. I might lock that down 2 weeks out, depending on where we play, so claim a spot if you're in Week 1.
---------------
Irish Dave requests a Red Dog gathering on Saturday, December 14th. Be there if you'd like to partake in our Club's social obligations. 7pm or so.
---------------
The entire Blue Team from the 2019 Rapture has been awarded this year's "Pain Stewart Award" [sic].
Not the one given to someone whose "values align with the character, charity and sportsmanship that Payne Stewart showed." But the award for horrifically crashing and burning.
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