Divoteers — 2008

New Membership (Divoteers Membership Application)   

Renewal Membership (Divoteers Membership Application)

This is Divoteers news for 2008. I welcome new and returning members to our golf club and yet another year in the life of the Divoteers. I hope everyone plans to play many events with us.

Our tournament scheduler is Gerald Fantuzzi / Steve Davis. We have a very interesting calendar of events for the year.  Playing many of them may stretch the budget.  However, if we want to play the course, we find a way to come up with the necessary funding!!!  If you have suggestions for courses you would like added for 200, please contact me at steve08@att.net

We do not have any other official officers.  Everything in this club is done via email or snail mail.  If you change addresses, email or home, please let me know as soon as possible.  NCGA needs to be notified when there is an address change so you receive their magazines.  If email doesn’t work for you even though you may have given me an address, please let me know and I will add you to the mailing list.  This works in reverse too — if you’d rather get email, give me your address unless I already have it.

Our membership at this date stands at around 65 with many new members added to our roster.  There is no limit to the membership so if you have more interested friends, please have them get in touch with me or give them our “New Member” application.

A few Items to relate

When you decide to play an event, you send back the bottom portion of the sign up sheet along with your check to cover the stated cost.  Please send in the money.  The club has to pay the golf courses approximately 2 weeks in advance (some exceptions) and these are sizable checks. This mailing includes a credit list. If you win Low Net in your flight, you receive a $20 credit which you can apply to your next sign up.  Low Net always receives this credit but no golf ball prize for that win.  All other prizes are awarded golf balls, and closest-to-the-pin (CTP) on all par 3s at each tournament site wins a sleeve of golf balls.  CTP is marked with a metal marker on which you write your name if your ball winds up closest to the hole.  We do not measure — you are on an honor system to move the marker only when your ball is closer.

You should already be receiving your NCGA magazines and plastic membership cards for the current year.  Any new members who joined in January of this year may not see these items until well into February, as there is usually a 6-week delay.  If you don’t receive these items within a reasonable amount of time, please tell me.

Okay, I think that is it from me for now.  Again, I welcome all the new members and I’m very gratified to see so many returning members.  I’m sure we’ll have an eventful year.  I’ll be at Laguna Seca and I hope all our new members at that event will introduce themselves.

Steve Davis

Contrary to what our by-laws indicate, only two people formally help this club function. Gerald Fantuzzi and I schedule our tournaments and we are currently working on 2009. If you have a favorite golf course you think we should play, let us know

Mail to: steve08@att.net

Recruited help handle our banquet trophies and favors and much of the shopping in the pro shop that is required by most of the golf courses on our schedule.

I (Steve Davis) handle the tournament-to-tournament operation and count on help from volunteers to deal with the flags and the clipboard when I don’t play or stay to the end.

By mail and/or phone. I send out sign up sheets for each tournament (aimed for about 4 weeks before) and you send back the bottom portion with your check. About a week (maybe a few days) before the tournament, you’ll get a starting sheet indicating your tee time. Be at the course at least 30 minutes early. Some courses can start us early (or late) and things get real messy if you’re not there.

Most of the tournaments are booked to include between 40 and 48 players. The early sign ups will win in most cases whether you invite a guest or not, so get those sign ups in to me. Guests are  welcome — they do pay $1 more.

Every tournament except the Scramble is a flighted, stroke play tournament and you need to keep track of your putts too. If you don’t have a handicap and there are enough of you, you’re assigned to the Callaway flight and you’ll get golf ball prizes but not points. Get a handicap as soon as you can — you need 5 posted scores and then your lowest score will be used for an index. We also have some bonus tournaments (best ball, cha-cha-cha, etc.) spread throughout the year, which are in addition to the regular flight tournament.

After your round of golf, find a metal clipboard that will be circulating in the clubhouse (bar) area. You post your adjusted tournament score on the NCGA sheet (one for women and one for men) in the columns beneath your name. Use the Course Rating and Slope Rating that appear on the bottom of your starting sheet. Post your score in pencil, please. A small metal box will be with the clipboard and your current monthly index sticker will be in that. Please claim your sticker. It goes on the plastic card you will receive from NCGA approximately six weeks after you join the club. If you don’t get this card and a copy of the NCGA Blue Book magazine within two months of joining, please let me know and I will check it out.

Put your scorecard in the envelope marked for scorecards.

Now, introduce yourself to someone that looks like they played with the Divoteers. We don’t have any formal gatherings after the round — it’s up to you for the most part to try to meet some other members.

Our payoff per flight is as follows:

Low net = $20 credit and 6 points.
I issue a Credit sheet and mail it out with sign ups to those members who have a credit.
Bonus tournament winners receive a $10 credit.

Low gross = 4 golf balls and 4 points

Low putts and 2^nd Low Net = 3 golf balls and 3 points

2^nd Low gross = 2 golf balls and 2 points

2^nd low putts = 2 golf balls and 1 point (need at least 10 in flight to get golf ball prize)

You accumulate these points towards the Golfer of the Year trophy that will be given out at the banquet. Every member player gets 1 point for participation. The top 20 player totals appear at the bottom of each result sheet. (The by-laws explain.)

Trophies are awarded at the banquet and participation in at least 6 tournaments before the Tournament of Champions is required to be eligible. For the Most Improved trophy, you must be a member with a handicap as of January 1, 2008 and have played 6 tournaments. Trophies are for Golfer of the Year, Most Improved, Putter of the Year, TOC winner and 2^nd place, and Consolation Flight winner and 2^nd place (if enough participate in this flight).

Putts per round are recorded for every tournament and the low average for the player who has participated in at least 6 events gets the Putter of the Year trophy. It pays to putt well and record these putts legibly on your score card. You count all putts that are made on the surface of the green. Once on the green, all strokes from that point count as putts (if your first putt goes off the green, the next stroke counts as a putt even if you’re like Tiger and use a 3 wood).

On the clipboard, there is a Golf Ball Preference Sheet. Next to your name, please indicate your preference for one of the golf balls indicated at the top of the column. You can indicate another preference if you wish but please mark one of the columns too. If you don’t tell me your choice, you’ll get whatever I have in stock. If your preference is an outrageous price, forget it!!!

You get a credit for any sum of money not paid to the golf course. You’ll get this if I know you are not going to play and if the golf course hasn’t been paid in advance or doesn’t charge for no-shows. If you know you can’t play let me know, or someone in your foursome, and make sure the golf course knows, too. Most courses require their money before the first group goes off the 1^st tee so I have to pay for what’s showing unless I know otherwise. Some courses are paid 2 weeks or more in advance and there is no refund in those cases. If you need a substitute, let me know so I can fill the spot with a waiting list person or advise you to find a replacement on your own. Since we have a limited number of spots this year, I would appreciate a call first before you fill your spot with a replacement.

Every par 3 is played for Closest-to-the-Pin and the award is a sleeve of golf balls. There will be a flag on the green (or around it) and if your ball lands closer than the current flag position, mark the spot with the flag and write your name on the sheet on the flag. Be honest and find a way to measure if it looks close. We don’t use measuring tapes. The last group brings in the flags and there will be someone from one of the last groups who is waiting to bring home the flags and the clipboard materials so I can retrieve this stuff and do the results. So that’s about it! Play by the rules —  and, most importantly, HAVE FUN. 

Questions? e-mail to: steve08@att.net

Steve Davis

By-Laws (Bylaws of the Divoteers Golf Club)