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 The unpredictable weather continues to be unpredictable. We finally had a stretch of no rain and the Superintendent was back to running the irrigation system and the level of water in the pond was noticeably lower. After the earliest frost delay in memory on September 2nd the Superintendent was looking forward to starting the fall aeration when, you guessed it, the rain returned. This week’s weather has helped Steve to get back on schedule. Thanks to all the volunteers who augmented our grounds crew.
BSCC Annual Stockholders’ Meeting
Please attend this important meeting, or send us your proxies
The date of the Annual Stockholders Meeting has been established as October 2nd 2017 commencing at 6:00 PM in the clubhouse. Please note that this is a Monday evening.
The purpose of the Annual Meeting is to elect four (4) members for the Board of Directors who will be responsible to carry out the important work of operating your golf course. One vacancy is for a one-year term and three vacancies are for three-year terms.
Within the next couple of days all stockholders should receive the official notice with a proxy enclosed. If you do not receive your notice please contact Julia in the office.
TECHNOLOGY
The test of our ability to send your monthly statement via email went very well. The only glitch was with nonmembers who have made tee time reservations thru our website. Based on this they were listed on the customer list and therefore received an email. We are going to test this once again with the end of September statement. You will still receive your monthly statement via USPS mail.
Feedback received has been positive. Your comments and feedback are important to us and appreciated. You can email Julia at office@ballstonspacc.com, or Rick at tucats@nycap.rr.com.
See you on the course
Paul
My name is Cindy Walkanowski and I am seeking a second term on the Board of Directors for the Ballston Spa Country Club. I currently serve on the Board as the membership chair. Over the past three years I have worked with the BOD and the membership committee to meet the needs of the membership and improve the membership experience at Ballston Spa Country Club.
When I first joined the Board, the main focus of the membership chair was to increase and retain membership. I believe I have had a positive influence in both these areas; however there is still work to be done. While new membership has increased, I believe there is also a need to focus on addressing the concerns of our current long time members.
I am involved in several other areas of the club. I have been the women’s league coordinator for the past ten years, and I have served on the tournament committee for the past seven years. You may also know me in my Purple and Gold as the Ballston Spa High School Varsity Golf coach for the past 14 years.
Additionally, I am involved in the Ballston Spa community. I have been a math teacher at the Ballston Spa High school since 1998. My husband, Stan, and I have been members of the club since 2006. I believe my teaching experiences as well as my involvement in activities in the club make me an excellent candidate for the Board..
If elected, my goals for the Board are to continue to increase new membership, retain current members, and improve the overall membership experience. I believe this can be done with transparency and communication. As many members stated, this club has a sense of community and my goal is to develop and enrich that experience. I would like to thank you for your consideration, and would appreciate your vote.
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Fall. For some this is the best golf yet, cool days, outstanding colors and no crowds.
Get out and enjoy it. Don’t forget, we are now offering the fall special, so please share the rates with your friends and family.
Ballston Spa Country Club
2017-Fall New Member Special Rates
75% off - Beginning 9/15/17
SINGLE- 34 Years of Age and over
Year 1 $1760. ($300 towards stock prepay)
9/15 $440 - (No $ towards stock prepay)
Year 2 25% off-2018 published rate ($300 towards stock prepay)
Year 3 15% off-2019 published rate ($300 towards stock prepay)
Year 4 2020 published rate
COUPLE
Year 1 $2795. ($300 towards stock prepay)
9/15 $700 -(No $ towards stock prepay)
Children + Free.
Year 2 20% off-2018 published rate ($300 towards stock prepay)
Children + $100.
Year 3 15% off-2019 published rate ($300 towards stock prepay)
Children + $200.
Year 4 2020 published rate
Children + $300
Jr. Executives Reg, Rate 75% Off
(no $ towards stock prepay)
(25-26) $930 $235
(27-29) $1240 $310
(30-31) $1655 $415
(32-33) $1965 $492
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Well the weather changed this past week and has delayed our aerification. We had planned on aerifying the front 9 greens, tees, and approaches the day after Labor Day and the back 9 the day after that. But I guess Mother Nature had different plans. As I have stated before we need dry sunny weather in order to do this process. Plugs turn to mud when you try to pick them up and the sand does not work in well when the surface of the green is damp. We will now try aerifying the front on the 11th and the back on the 12th. We will have to close again for the fairways later at some point. You will be notified by email when these dates are determined. Again we need good weather for drying fairway plugs as well.
I am anxious to get the aerification of the golf course complete. It is a huge project to undertake every year. The condition of the golf course is a result of all this hard work. Once this important process is done we will turn our attention to the continuation of our bunker/greens surround renovation project. This year the board has selected the 8th and 7th green surrounds. We completed the 8th in the spring so we will work on the 7th green surround as soon as we complete ALL of the aerification. Here is an outline of the work to be done on 7 green surround: replacing the trees behind the green with an arborvitae hedge; replacing the old bunker with new sod around the bunker, drainage, liner, and new sand; bringing in a large amount of fill in front of the green and to the right side of green. The idea is to have a soft gentle slope up to the green instead of a steep hill. I’m hoping to get started on this project soon. This is a little more in depth project than we have done so far on green surrounds. The other three (1,8,9) we have done have been just replacing sand and sod. Because this project is larger it will take longer to complete.
I want to thank all the volunteers that have helped so far and that will be helping me with aerification and the next greens surround renovation. I cannot do it by myself and we do not employ enough people to mow the golf course and take on projects of this size in house. We are one of the only clubs in the area that aerify the entire golf course themselves. Most might do their greens and tees but the large acreage of fairways gets done by an outside contractor or does not get done at all. As far as doing large scale construction like redoing a green surround, very few superintendents tackle something this big because it takes away from maintaining the golf course. If the crew is building a bunker then the grass on the golf course is not getting mowed. We are fortunate that we have so many people that come out to help me that we can do both. Your course will continue to improve with your help and dedication.
Thank you.
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A Short History of BSCC forward Tee Handicapping
The forward tees have undergone some serious changes over the past twenty-five years in terms of their handicap ratings.
Traditionally, holes on opposing nines are either all even numbered or odd numbered in their handicap status. This is done so that nine hole matches won’t favor one player over another. For example, if we were to handicap each hole based solely on its individual degree of difficulty, we could conceivably have most of the difficult holes on one nine versus the other.
If a 5 handicapper were playing a 15 handicapper on a nine that had 8 of the toughest holes, the higher handicap would get 8 strokes, whereas under the even/odd system she only gets 5. One could argue that because of the degree of difficulty, the higher handicapped player should indeed get these strokes - let the chips fall where they may.
This sounds fine until you consider that it has been statistically proven that it really doesn’t matter where a player gets his/her strokes, it will make no difference to the outcome of the match. Indeed, back in the late 20th century, one of the first handicapping systems involved “bisques” - strokes that a higher handicapper could use anywhere, anytime. Applying the stroke to a just completed hole was quite common.
Despite this, in the mid 1990’s the BSCC Women’s Association undertook an ambitious project to re-assign red tee handicaps based solely on the relative degree of difficulty of each hole. They accumulated thousands of scores from women’s scorecards over an extensive period and applied the resulting information to the red tee handicap, and ignore the odd/even tradition for front and back.
Since then, they have reverted back to the traditional system of even/odd hole handicapping for each nine. I have no idea why this occurred, but I suspect there may have been some USGA input that affected the decision. At any rate, the handicaps were changed to a “Let the Chips Fall” method in 1997 and then back again at a few years later. Below are the pre-1997, revised, and re-revised handicaps of each hole.
The “Total” column is included to show how the two nines varied in perceived difficulty over the years. A higher number represents an easier nine, with both nines adding up to 171. The big difference is in the last revision, where the front nine got 12 points (7%) easier, and vice versa for the back. Holes 1,2,8,10,11,12 and 17 hardly changed at all, however the rest made fairly serious adjustments, with 3,9,13,14,and 15 making 7 point swings during the period two revisions.
Another interesting observation is the ratio of difficulty between the nines, with the most dramatic being during the ‘97 revision, where there’s a 15 point differential between them (93 - 78.) This demonstrates the point I made above. In this case, in a 9 hole match between our 15 and 5 handicappers, the higher handicapped player would get 3 strokes on the back nine, but only 2 on the front, assuming (s)he got half her/his handicap in both instances. In addition, the pre ‘97 and re-revised versions decided to switch nines, with the odd numbered holes being on the back in one case, the front in the other.
I would be interested in hearing any theories as to why the large changes in a hole’s perceived difficulty occurred over the years. Some things, such as physical changes to the hole may be a factor, however in one instance, the change to the front of #16 (we went from a shaved false front to a fairly heavy fairway at one point) didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
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