STATE OF THE IRON THONG  -- Sept. 16 Officers’ Meeting News

The officers and board members of the Iron Thong met on Sept. 16 to discuss the up-coming tournament and some other subjects. This is a report of what we discussed, decided and why.

IT’S THE TOURNAMENT, BABY

Oct. 2 marks the 9th Semi-Annual ITG tournament. This time it’s being held at Canyon Springs Resort and Golf Course, the first time we’ve held our tournament there. It’s going to be another great event with more than 40 players broken into four flights, which means more trophies, more prizes and more money!

I’ll send out a list of eligible players about a week before the tournament. When you get it, let me know ASAP if your status is incorrect. If I don’t hear from you, I won’t be able to make any changes, and this is the list that will determine the final pairings. John will send out a list of pairings a few days later so you’ll know who your cart partner is and who to look for when you get to the course.

All the info on the tournament is located on our website, right on top of the first page. Take a look so you know the rules and procedures. It’s important that we get going quickly and efficiently because we have to vacate the dining room area at 3 p.m. that afternoon.

SO WHERE AND WHEN DO WE PLAY OUR NEXT TOURNAMENT?

We decided not to decide that, at least not yet. In past years, we’ve played our tournaments at our home course and on the first Saturday in April and October. We decided that there’s no reason to limit ourselves to only one site and no reason to lock in a date quite yet. We’ll report back to you so you can mark the dates on your calendar months in advance, but we’re still checking with other courses to see what kind of deal we can get. We’re also going to take into consideration factors like three-day weekends, holidays and other tournaments scheduled in the San Antonio area.

IT’S THE COURSE, OF COURSE

We’ve filled all but six of our Saturdays in 2011 already. We’ll publish the whole schedule soon, but I wanted you to know that we’re all high-class, as in high-class courses next year! We’re playing Olympia Hills, The Bandit, The Republic, Alsatians, Hyatt Hill Country Resort, Pecan Valley, The Quarry, Canyon Springs, The Golf Club of Texas and The Buckhorn. What a lineup! And all for $50 or less, and most including range balls. We’ll fill in the other six with courses like ConCan and Pine Forest.

This has happened because of the outstanding reputation our club has gained in the San Antonio golf community and wouldn’t have been possible just a couple of years ago. Pat yourselves on the back – the ITG is first class!

I GOT A HOLE-IN-ONE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY …

We’re looking into a concept called “Hole-in-one insurance.” It will cost us some cash up front from the treasury, but if we have a hole-in-one carded during our tournament, there are big prizes for the ace-maker, and online gift certificates for everyone. Of course, if one of our members cards an ace at any time during our outings, the club will present that player with a trophy and $100 cash to help offset the celebration costs!

DON’T PICK UP THAT BALL!

We periodically have guests playing with us who aren’t used to our rules. Some of them get in the birdie pool, and some don’t, but either way we need to emphasize that all guests have to play by the ITG rules when they play with us. In other words, putt out, don’t move the ball, count all your strokes and play by the rules!

IF IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR JIM FURYK …

Recently we had a player show up late for an 8 a.m. tee time. Even though he finally did make it to the tee, and was able to play, it was a close call. The board wanted to emphasize to everyone that a tee time is official and another one of those USGA rules we follow. If you don’t show up on time, don’t expect to play. If you’re late and manage to catch up to your group, don’t expect your score to count or to be able to compete for any of the pools. It’s called a DQ. Just ask Jim Furyk.

DO I HEAR FIVE, DO I HEAR TEN – BIDS ARE OPEN

One of the things we’d like to do with our homepage is conduct online auctions of golf-related equipment that some of us own and don’t need any more. This could be plaques, lithos, clubs, balls, etc. Soon you’ll see photos of items up for sale with an opportunity to bid on them online. The profits from the sales of these donated items will be split 50/50 with the person donating getting half and the other half going to the club.

CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME AND ON THE COURSE

Your board discussed the idea of donating a percentage of our profits from our tournaments to a local charity. We think it’s a great idea and Pete Cliburn is looking into the details. It will give us a chance to get some good publicity as well as use our treasury money for a good cause. We’ll let you know more on this when we have more info.

EVERYTHING CHANGES AND HERE ARE A FEW

We voted on some changes for next year. Here are some. First you may have heard that the $1 payment to the kitty won’t be collected after the October tournament. That’s true. We were giving players credit for the $1 toward the tournament fee to make it a little easier to pay for the tournament, but it created some problems. First, it has become awkward to maintain enough $1 bills to make correct change every Saturday. Hopefully, this will help, although it won’t alleviate the problem. Your winnings will still be odd numbers, but we think this will help our poor treasurer get our accounting done quicker and easier. Besides, some of our members pay into the $1 kitty, but don’t play in the tournament. That’s not fair to them. On tournament day, you’ll pay your $25 tournament fee.

We’ve also voted to make some changes to our ground rules for next year, hopefully to increase the speed of play, something that has become a problem for us now that we’re fielding so many foursomes. I’ll go into more detail on that in a minute.

One thing that won’t change is your $20 dues. The ITG is still the best deal in town.

FIVE AND A HALF HOUR ROUNDS? SAY IT AIN’T SO

Well, unfortunately it is so. As we’ve grown in size, we’ve also gotten slower on the course. And this has got to stop. I know we joke around about this a lot, but we’ve got to take this seriously. One of the reasons we don’t hang around and have a beer or two after the round is that it just takes too long. Sometimes it’s a half hour between groups finishing play. It’s just too long. So we’re taking some steps to hopefully fix this problem with a couple of rules changes.

First, after this tournament we’re going to schedule (as much as possible) threesomes before foursomes. In theory, threesomes should play faster, so we’re going to put them in front so they’re not waiting on the group ahead.

Second, we’re going to play all our courses as lateral hazards only. This means that if you hit a ball and can’t find it, you take a drop within two club lengths of the point where the ball first crossed the margin of the hazard and incur a one shot penalty. This doesn’t apply to balls hit out-of-bounds. They’re still going to be played as stroke-and-distance, so if you think you may have hit it out, hit a provisional. If you hit the provisional out, hit another. If you hit that second provisional out, take a drop and give yourself a two stroke penalty.

Third, we’re going to encourage continuous putting. If you putt your ball, don’t take the extra time to mark it, pick it up, clean it, put it back and then check out the line. As long as you’re not standing in someone else’s line, go ahead and putt out. It’s quicker.

Next, we’re going to encourage that slower groups let faster groups play through. I know that some of us don’t think that makes anything go faster, but it’s proven that it does, especially when it’s a threesome playing behind a foursome. Swallow your pride and wave them up! The fact is that if you don’t let them through, they’ll never have the opportunity to get through the next group either.

Also, we’re going to encourage players to hole out while waiting for slower players to get to the green. We’ve all had the situation where one or both of the guys in the other cart have to wait to hit because of hazards, bad lies, bad luck, or whatever. Why wait for them to catch up to you? As long as both of you witness the strokes being played, it’s okay to putt out.

Last, open your eyes. Look ahead of you. If there’s an open hole in front of you, then you need to speed up and shorten the gap. We seem to assume that we’re not slow, it’s that fast group in front of us. Face reality. If there’s an open hole, speed up!

But how do we speed up, you ask? Play “ready” golf. If you get to your ball and you’re ready to hit, don’t wait for another player to get to his – go ahead and hit. If sharing a cart, don’t drive to the first ball and wait for the player to hit, drop him off and drive to your ball. You can go back and pick him or her up, or meet him halfway, but either way it’s faster. If you’re playing on a hole that doesn’t allow you to drive across the fairway, park at a spot equidistant between the two balls and take a few clubs with you. Don’t go look at your shot and then walk back to the cart to get the proper club.

When putting, read your line while the other players are putting. Don’t wait until it’s your turn. Step right up and putt.

Know the rules. We waste a lot of time discussing rulings on the course. To make this a little easier, I’m attaching a rules synopsis called “The 18 Most Misunderstood Rules of Golf.” Thanks to Paul Tenner for sending it to me. It’s great. Print it out and put it in your bag. It will settle a lot of disagreements quickly.

You’ll notice that I said “encourage” on most of these points. This means all of us. If we see one of our foursome taking undue time by taking multiple practice swings, walking back and forth to line up a putt, spending too much time looking for lost balls – in short, anything that holds up the speed of play – take the bull by the horns and say something to the player. We have to self-police ourselves. Don’t be afraid to offend the slow player. Do it nicely, but do it. Our five hour-plus rounds are just too long. It’s up to us to quicken the pace.

That’s all for now. The State of the Iron Thong is excellent. I can’t wait for next year to start.

Steve