
the early morning sunshine breaking through the clouds gave the Sierra Espuna a spectacular mottled effect – seen from the 5th green…………
Click on the image for an even better view…………………
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And here it is………….the format that most dread, where you keep going until the ball is holed! We only have 2 this year, but it is the purest form of golf – put it on the tee, keep hitting the ball until it is down the hole, then add all your strokes up at the end!
It has been suggested to put a cap on each hole (e.g. if you have got to 10 and not holed out, put a 10 on the card). My opinion is that if you have taken 10 on a hole it isn’t your day, so pick it up and put in a no return!
That is what happened to me on the 6th, but no problems for Dave Lloyd, who went round in 72 gross, 66 net to sign off in style before returning to the UK for Christmas.
Only 29 players this week, with 4 no shows – a long time since numbers have been so low, are they getting ready for Christmas?
1st Division
1st Dave Lloyd (3.7)………………………..72 – 66
2nd Chris McAllister (3.6)………………..75 – 70
2nd division
1st Dorothy Simpson (17.3)…………….95 – 73
2nd Ove Enger (19.7)……………………….99 – 74
This was the first week that we have trialled a new system called Handicap Master. This is a golf club management program which is in widespread use in over 1000 clubs in the UK & Ireland, and enables players to input their own scores – no points are required, just the gross. Handicaps are adjusted automatically.
It can recognise just about any format (various team events). The system ranks the players by specified division and calculates any ties by back 9, back 6, back 3 etc. It highlights any 2’s, produces start sheets, labels to affix to cards (name, handicap, start time, format etc.) and allows players access to the sheet and to pick their own time online, amongst other improvements.
One interesting piece of information available is a running analysis of the difficulty of each hole – e.g. after 2 test rounds every hole has an average score and is ranked by difficulty. Early analysis shows that hole 10 should be stroke one (as many of us have realised already!). The easiest hole is 17, which seems realistic, but early days yet. The initial conclusion is that the stroke index on the scorecards introduced by Polaris (made without any information to decide the ranking) is very inaccurate. Maybe with 12 months information, the management may be able to use this to revise the stroke indices when new cards need reprinting.
We will run both systems side by side until the new year, when it is anticipated that the old program will be replaced. As we test it, any problems will be identified and addressed. Updates on progress will be reported on this blog (which could also be a feature of the new system).
Screen shots can be viewed at:
http://www.handicapmaster.org/products/tour.php
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The day started of with brilliant sunshine but very cold (only 8 degrees at 9 am), so winter gear was the order of the day, but as we progressed, layers were shed.
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Ove Enger putts out in front of a very calm lake on 9………… a lost ball off the tee on the 18th cost him the 2nd division title………………
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The smart new white society shirts for 2017 are already being worn – order yours from Kevin on Wednesdays and Fridays (at cost price 15€).
The Las Colinas awayday on February 6th is almost full – just 5 spaces left for golf, the shopper’s quota is full. Contact me at barry@cdagolf.com if you don’t want to miss out.
Next week is a 4 person team event with 3 scores to count at each hole, and for the winter period our time slots now will start at 10am (in the past we have experienced delays for frost to clear).
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And it’s goodbye to Dave & Kim until next year, not Christmas yet so happy thanksgiving!
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Barry