March 10th General Membership Meeting

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To ensure safety for all, the General membership meeting will be held on Wednesday March 10th, at Kirkwood Rec Center, 111 S Geyer Rd. Kirkwood Mo. 63122. Division meetings will be separated to ensure safety. The room can accommodate up to 450 but we will be set up for 150 for each meeting.

Here is the Schedule:

Division 2 and 3 – 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM

Division 1 and 4 – 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM

Division 5 and 9 – 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM

Please do not arrive more than 30 minutes before your divisions scheduled meeting time and please do no congregate in any area.  You must wear a mask while in the meeting. 

Item to be discussed at the meeting:

  • 2021 Preview of all courses
  • Membership Report/Treasurer
  • Championship Tournament
  • Pins, bunkers, drops
  • Special Events (spots still available/wait list)
  • Demonstration on how to get a tee time and view tee time schedules using new program Golf League
  • Vote of New Bylaw Change-ratification from membership
  • New Division 9 rules to join for Div 1-5 members
  • Discount Cards for 2021 season and where list may be found
  • Order Apparel for 2021 Metro Seniors season (table with items and information on how to order)
  • Golf lessons for all Metro Senior members from the Legends Country Club (Chris Scott PGA Teaching Professional)
  • Signup as a Starter/Scorer
  • Metro Plus Information
  • Meet “New” Vice President of Metro Seniors (Dennis Black)

Handicap Committee Reviews

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The Handicap Committee has completed the course data review for 2021. The data will be posted shortly.

Our goal in Metro Seniors is to organize golf tournaments that are fun and as fair as possible. This includes:

  • A wide variety of courses
  • 2 or more selected tees for all players
  • Uniform, standardized handicap calculations for all players
  • 4 flights organized by small ranges of player handicaps

Handicap Committee and Annual Reviews

The Handicap Committee is tasked with overview of the handicap system as key to fairness. Each year we make sure that the data used in handicap calculations is the best available. Why? Because things change. We add or drop courses. Courses may change their layout or tee locations that affect playing difficulty. The United States Golf Association (USGA) requires all listed courses to be re-rated at least once per 10 years or if a major course revision is implemented.

Last year we changed our handicap calculations to better conform to the new World Handicap methods. This required reviewing all courses and adding hole handicaps, yardages and pars for all courses, by selected tees and gender. CLICK HERE for a great example of how handicaps are calculated for Metro Seniors.

This year we added a special 3rd tee for men wishing to play from the most forward tees (usually Red). We also dropped a couple of courses and added one.

Technically the Course Rating and Slope (by tee and gender) are the critical course data. For 2021 with 25 courses, male and female, and 2 or 3 selected tees we have almost 125 different ratings and slopes to review. Fortunately only about 10% change each year.

What Exactly Are Rating and Slope?

CLICK HERE for a good review of Rating and Slope.

USGA as a service develops course ratings by tee and gender for enrolled clubs based on very technical measurements and calculations. These ratings are not cheap. Many courses will officially rate “most” of their tees. Red tees for men frequently will NOT have a rating. CLICK HERE for a description of how USGA rates courses.

CLICK HERE for a searchable listing of all USGA Rated Courses

Where Do Rating And Slope Come From?

USGA ratings are our primary data source for Metro Seniors. It is standardized and most courses have “invested” in them.

Course Scorecards are secondary source but less reliable than USGA. Most courses will include Ratings and Slope on their scorecards. “Most” of these will match with their USGA listings. However, we have seen examples where the ratings do not match with USGA. Why? Many reasons – the course changed, tees changed significantly, course was USGA re-rated but scorecards were “old”. Some course scorecards had obvious errors.

How do we get a rating and slope on “un-rated” tees? We use a USGA procedure based on course yardage from the nearest rated tee (by gender). USGA has developed this procedure from their huge data set. So the “estimate” is pretty good. More important, it is standardized and uniformly applied and fair for all. CLICK HERE for more.

Handicap Committee reviews all this data to make sure the “best available” information is compiled. It is then loaded into the handicap calculation system before the start of the season. We also publish these in OurGolfStats in the course schedule and on this website.

We may also look at scores for Metro Seniors to see if a specific tee has unusually low or high scores. This could lead to a change in the ratings we use but only after close inspection.

How Are Rating and Slope Used?

Your Handicap Guide is used to calculate your Course Handicap by selected tee for each scheduled outing based on the Rating, Slope and Par. Each week your new scores are added in and a new Handicap Guide is calculated along with new Course Handicaps.

2021 Special Events Confirm & Wait Lists

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The Confirm & Wait Lists have been posted to the Metro Seniors web site. The lists are through 31 January 2021. There have been a few signups today on 1 February 2021. These will be reflected in the next update.

You can find the list by going to the Metro Seniors Home/About Us page. Click on the Schedule and Results link in the top tool bar. Click on Special Events in the drop down menu. Click on the Confirm-Wait-Pairings-Instructions link. Then click on the event you want to look at. Or, go to the side bar on the Home/About Us page and click on Special Event Tournaments. Or click here.

There are some teams that have partners listed that have not signed up yet. Take a look at the Confirm & Wait Lists to see if your partners are listed. You can contact me, Joe Lerch jlwc@sbcglobal.net, if you think a partner is not listed. I can check the sign up software.

The first event, Find Your Swing, has plenty of room to signup. This is a great course to start off the new season. It will be held at a very nice Country Club, Sunset Hill, in Edwardsville, IL. It is a 4-person scramble and is loads of fun. Give it a try.

Several of the events are full and have a Wait List. Don’t let this stop you from signing up. We typically have around 20 cancellations for each event. We like a wait list to help fill the event. We can’t guarantee that you will make it in if you are on the wait list. But we have a pretty good record of everyone getting in. If we do have players still on the wait list after the event, refunds will be processed (less the $2 credit card fee).

Division 2 (Only) Schedule Revision

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Schedule for Division 2 has a date adjustment. With agreement between Metro Seniors, Far Oaks and Florissant, we swapped dates.

The revisions for the schedule are now posted on the Metro Seniors website. This includes changes to the All Division Schedule, The Div 2 Schedule, our Wallet Schedule, and our Events Calendar. The revisions are dated today 1-22-21.

Division 2 members, please adjust your calendars as needed.

We are willing to work with our partner courses for the benefit of all. Even a “simple” change like swapping 2 dates requires cooperation between Metro Seniors and at least 2 courses, sometimes several more.

Our close working relationships are critical in our ability to give all our members a full and fun schedule during the year.

You as members are important to maintaining these relationships. Please respect the courses’ rules, their personnel and their property. The continuing pandemic simply makes this even more important.