Month: March 2020

Lots of Information for the New Year

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The Metro St Louis Seniors Golf Association will hold its Spring General Membership meeting at Kirkwood Recreational Center on March 24th 2020, located at 111 S. Geyer Rd. Kirkwood, Mo 63122.  The meeting will start at 1:00 PM sharp but there is so much going on I’d suggest you arrive by noon.

St Louis Sportswear, Metro Seniors apparel company will be displaying all our items that are available to order and have by the 2nd week of the Metro Senior golf season.  Logo shirts, hats, golf towels and other items will be on display with instruction on how to order them and how to get them immediately.  Payment for these items is ONLY by credit/debit card.  The “store” will be open until March 31st at midnight just in case you forget to bring your credit/debit card with you.

Pro-Am Golf Center will have for sale golf items that we use every time we play.  Balls, shoes, hats, clubs, and other items will be for sale at their table.  They take cash, check or credit cards for payment. 

If you haven’t signed up for a Special event, there is a table dedicated just for these outings.  Stop by, sign up and get involved.  If this is your first year in Metro Plus, stop by the table and introduce yourself to the committee.  They will have some handouts just for Metro Plus members that may of interest you.   

Make sure you stop by your division table, especially if this is your first year in Metro Seniors.  Introduce yourself to the Division VP, sign up for a starter/scorer if you haven’t done so, and pick up your wallet schedule & your Discount cards.  These cards may be used for various discounts at golf courses and shops.  The complete list of all participants may be found on the Metro Senior website under Member Resources/Metro Senior Membership Discounts.

At your Division table this year are Metro Senior business cards.  In the meeting we will explain how each of you can help us get more members in Metro Seniors with these cards.  One of the best ways to promote Metro Seniors is by word of mouth.  This form of advertisement will hopefully help us to gain more members.

Have you had your photo taken?  We would love to put a name together with a face.  Each of your handicaps may be found on Our Golf Stats, our handicapping service we use.  If you need instruction on how to use this service, check with your division VP.  There is so much information on Our Golf Stats link once you learn how to use it, you will be coming back frequently.   With photos we will be developing social media pages to promote Metro Seniors.  Soon we will be developing pages, groups, and links, because you provided us your photo. 

Our 2020 Rules presentation will be a part of this year meeting.  All those items you are been either hearing or reading about will be discussed.  I’m sure there is something each of us can learn that we didn’t know.

I encourage all of you to attend our Spring General Membership meeting and hope I will see you there. 

Donating to First Tee

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First Tee will be accepting donations this year again. They will be present before the General Meeting of Metro Seniors on March 24th at the Kirkwood Recreational Center. Their van/truck will be outside the facility by 12:00 PM.

First Tee will be accepting golf balls, gently used golf clothing and shoes, Junior Golf clubs and bags, and Golf Clubs that are less than 7 years old an in good condition. They are especially looking for brands, such as Ping, Callaway, Nike, Titleist etc.

Most of the adult clubs they receive cannot be used by our kids, so First Tee is looking for clubs that have some value that they can ship to their partner Swing ‘Em Again. They in turn give us money for those clubs and we use those funds to purchase new sets for our young golfers.

If you have items that you are no longer using please donate to First Tee and bring them with you to the meeting.

Handicap Changes in 2020

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There has been much discussion about the proposed handicap changes in 2020 as well as many things written about the changes and how to understand them. This is a synopsis of the changes and how they will affect Metro Seniors in 2020.

Max Handicap Guide

In 2019 the maximum handicap guide was 36.4 for males and 40.4 for females. In 2020, this will be increased to 54.0 for both males and females. What impact will this have to Metro Seniors? Only to D Flight, where those who really had a higher handicap guide than 36.4.

PS – If you had a max handicap guide of 36.4 at the end of 2019, you may start 2020 with a higher handicap guide due to this change.

Number of rounds considered for handicap guide

In 2019 we used the lowest 8 out of your last 16 rounds (no earlier than 2017). The USGA changed their usage to 8 of the last 20 rounds, so we changed ours to be a similar percentage, by using the lowest 7 of your last 16 rounds. In addition, all scores prior to 2018 will disappear from our records.

Course Handicap in 2020

The change in 2020 revises the formula by replacing the Course Rating delta between the Back and Forward tees to Course Rating – Course Par. This will not impact your competitiveness against others, but it will decrease the strokes you might receive at a particular course. As an example, a 10 handicap golfer at Gateway National might have received 11 strokes in the past, but only 6 in 2020. But ALL golfers will be similarly impacted, losing 4-8 strokes from the strokes they received in 2019. Net scores better than par will be an exception, not the rule. Another way to put it is that handicap guides will not change; course handicaps will.

Clear as mud? Bob Zaruba will discuss this briefly at the Annual Meeting on March 24th, then the entire Handicap Committee will be available after the meeting to answer any additional questions.

Metro Plus-2020

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Metro Plus will not be accepting any more new members this year. We have reached our maximum number of 170. Renewals will start in November of 2017 and new members can register starting January 1st 2021 pending availability. Thanks to everyone who joined or showed an interest.

Cash is “No” Longer King

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Effective immediately, unless otherwise noted, payment for all Metro Seniors Dues, Special Events registration and Metro Plus must be done with a credit/debit card or a check.  We will no longer take cash for payment.  With credit/debit cards or checks automatically a receipt is rendered.  We can track items better especially when refunds are in order. It’s a change we just need to embrace.