"Touring Amateurs" for 2007: Some Changes

1. Event Sign-ups: The sign-up mail box will be located on a chair or small table outside the front door of the Demarests at 6051 Dassia Way, tele: 758-8417. Please use it in the same way you did when the mail box was located at the home of Doris Reid. All phone inquiries regarding pairings, tee times, illness cancellations, entry fees, prize distribution, etc. should be directed to the Demarests or, in the event they are away, to John Sargent.

2. Sign-up Schedule: There will be a deadline date for sign-ups. It will be noted on the event fliers available in the Clubhouse and at the Casa. Any sign-ups received after the deadline period will be placed on a "standby" list. And please, your checks (payable to OHGC) should only cover one event. Those checks will cover the contracted course rate plus cart (if any) plus the customary $4 to $5 per person for prize distribution.

3. Event Handicaps: For many years now, our individual T/A handicaps have been based upon a mixture of OHGC handicaps (for those who have no outside SCGA index) combined with handicaps based upon that SCGA index. This has resulted in much extra work for your T/A chairs and considerable grousing from those with an index, a group generally comprising about 40% of the total number of players. The reason for the grousing was that the indexed handicaps usually turned out to be lower (in some cases significantly lower) than the handicap they would have had based strictly upon the OHGC figure. All 2007 T/A events will be based upon the participant's OHGC handicap. For events played at the Lake San Marcos and Lomas Santa Fe executive courses with a level of difficulty similar to our own, the handicap will be the same as your OHGC handicap. For stretched executive courses such as Lawrence Welk and Oaks North, your OHGC handicap will have a variable multiplier. For all full length courses, your handicap will be double your OHGC handicap with a further additive depending upon tees being used, course length, course rating, and overall course difficulty. These multipliers and additives are not arrived at arbitrarily; rather, they are the result of a considerable amount of research covering every single individual handicap and team score at every single 2006 T/A event.

4. Maximum Handicap: Your maximum handicap for events held at OHGC is 21 for men and 25 for ladies. Those same figures will apply for 2007 T/A events at the Lake San Marcos and Lomas Santa Fe executive courses. For stretched executives, the maximum handicaps will be 30 for men and 36 for the ladies. For full length courses, the maximum handicaps will be 36 for men and 44 for ladies.

5. Tie-Breaking: For low gross awards in each flight, the USGA tie-breaker rules will be applied in order to determine the winning team. For all net prizes, ties will share in the award amounts set aside for their several places of finish. Example: If two teams tie for low net at 39.5, they will evenly share in the award amounts set aside for first and second place.

6. Computerization: All T/A pairing sheets, scorecards and prize summary sheets will be computer-generated beginning in 2007. We hope you find the aesthetics attractive and the contents even easier to follow than before.

7. Prize Distribution: Names of all winners will be posted at the Golf Casa within a few days following the event. Your award envelopes will be available from the Demarests between the hours of 9:00-11:00am during the days immediately following the posting. Just be sure to call first (to determine that we are at home). Award envelopes may also be made available at the Casa on specified Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and/or Saturdays. All prize listings will be coded to accommodate the peculiarities of the computer program. The first letter will designate the flight, then a number to designate order of finish within that flight, and the last letter (either G or N) will designate gross or net score. A1G, for example, would mean A Flight, first place, low gross. B3N would mean B Flight, third place, low net.

8. Blatant Cheating: For events held at OHGC, new rules have been recently adopted by the OHGC Board of Directors regarding this subject. Those same rules of disqualification and suspension will be applied in the event that there is documented and substantiated evidence of blatant cheating at any T/A event.

Barbara and David Demarest
"Touring Amateurs" Directors
January, 2007