Jan 5, 2024 

MEMBERS – Happy New Year !!!    There are some changes in our Board of Governors, Major Tournaments, Golf Team, and a New Local Rule:

1. The 2024 Board of Governors is attached.  We welcome Pat Weishan as the newest Governor.  Pat is the Senior Club Champion and brings a wealth of golf knowledge and managerial experience to the Board.  Pat will also be the Team Captain for the Admiral Baker Golf Team which is the current Southern California Military Golf League Champion.  John Bepko will remain as the other Team Captain.  John will also serve in 2024 as the Chairman of the Southern California Military Golf League ( Admiral Baker, Miramar, Sea n’ Air, and Camp Pendleton) 

2. The 2024 Major Tournament Schedule is attached. The only changes will be if the  2024 Course Maintenance Schedule ( as yet not firmed) interferes with the tournament schedule.

3. The Rules Chairman, Don Longacre has announced a New Local Rule for North Course #18.  The attachment describes the new Local Rule in detail.  This Local Rule is in effect immediately for all Men’s Club play, including the Blitz, tournaments and casual rounds.

4. The Tuesday Blitz is now considered a “Competitive Round” which means that scores are weighted for handicap purposes more “heavily” than ” casual rounds.”  The definition of a ‘Competitive Round” will be posted on the Men’s Club Bulletin Board in the Locker Room.

5. Pace of Play.  The Board of Governors has been discussing the problem of inconsistencies in the time it has taken to play a round during the Tuesday Blitz. The earlier groups routinely play their rounds in 4 1/4 hours or less.  However, starting with teams 11 and above the rounds get increasingly longer. There have been many observable causes for this and it does not have to do with the golf skills of the teams that take longer to play 18 holes. One of the biggest causes for teams to take longer than others is “poor golf cart management.”  Too often it has been observed that when a cart stops at a ball, only one player gets out, hits his shot, then the cart moves a short distance to the other player’s ball, stops, he gets out, hits his shot and the cart then moves onward.  If the balls are far apart that is understandable; however, all too often the balls are only a few yards apart !  Better “cart management” is for the “non-hitting player” to get out of the cart with a club or two, walk the short distance to his ball, hit his shot, and by that time the cart has come to pick him up. It is unlikely that the “typical player” needs the EXACT distance to the green. Sure, PGA Tour Professionals want to know if the hole is “125 yards OR 130 yards” because they are THAT good.  Let’s face it, most of us ( like 99.9%) do NOT need that level of preciseness.  Additionally, the policy of the Men’s Club has been ‘Play Ready Golf” for many years. Only in Match Play does the “Order of Play” become important; and the Blitz is not Match Play.

We have heard many complaints from players that “XXXX” takes too long to hit his shots.  In the recent past ( a few months ago) a team was identified as consistently holding up players behind them.  They were informed in writing of that tendency and they have since “picked up their pace.”  Each Governor has been tasked to pay attention to the groups around them.  We certainly understand that occasionally a player(s) have to search for their ball ( 3 minutes maximum, of course) but when a team consistently holds up play for the teams behind them, we need to step in to “fix the problem.”  There is no logical reason why teams 1 through 10 always finish in under 4 hours 30 minutes ( usually less), while later teams take 5 hours or even more.

Let’s try to keep the pace going and make the Blitz smoothly flowing for all teams.

6. The 2024 SCMGL Season will be starting this Spring.  ALL Regular members are eligible to play in any Match.  There will be 6 Matches this season.  If you are interested in playing in one or more matches, please email me at johnbepko@cox.net and i will provide more details.

As always ,  See You On The Course  

John Bepko
President
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