I have added Costa Mesa Course Handicap Charts to the website. They are located in the navigation menu on right panel under Handicaps, and a link to them is below:
Jeff
CMSGA is an SCGA affiliate club, with membership consisting of local seniors. Tournaments are held on the first and third Thursday of each month, on either Mesa Linda or Los Lagos - the two 18 hole courses at the Costa Mesa Country Club.
2022 Closest to Pin / FINAL RESULTS
FINAL - Updated Through 12/15/22
Peter Cary finished the year with a CTP on hole #17, and is our CTP Champ with a total of (7) CTP's.
Gary Bennet and Don Spreeman tied for 2nd place with (5) each.
Complete results for the year can be found at the link above.
Other CTP winners from our last event:
- Pete de Boer won his 3rd CTP
- Jim Alhandy and Dean Skinner each won their 2nd CTP
- Steve Gibbs got on the board with his first CTP
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| Photo Credit Ned Whittemore. ML#12 1/11/23 |
Sign-Up Sheet Entry Issues
My apologies for the issues encountered with the sign-up sheet this morning. The issues I heard about were:
The locked cell issue was my mistake, and I have now corrected it. The following times are available as of this writing (5PM 12/16/22), and should be (fingers crossed) accessible:
- Some time slots were locked and prevented name entry. This included at least (2) times where no names could be entered, along with some individual slots.
- No drop down lists appeared for selecting names
The locked cell issue was my mistake, and I have now corrected it. The following times are available as of this writing (5PM 12/16/22), and should be (fingers crossed) accessible:
8:06 2 Spots
9:23 4 Spots
9:48 4 Spots
The drop down list removal was something I did intentionally at the last minute. I found that these lists were confusing to use on a device with an on-screen keyboard (such as a phone or tablet), but they worked great on a PC computer. I am going to see if I can make them more user friendly, or provide helpful instructions as to their use on these other devices. Until I get this figured out, the sheet will remain where you type in your complete name with no drop-down.
Sincerely,
Jeff MacCarter
January 5th Sign Up
January 5th First Thursday Tournament Sign Up Sheet *HERE*
Our January 5th, First Thursday Tournament will be another team event on Los Lagos. The format will a four person team shamble. All players tee off, then one drive is chosen as the spot where each player then plays their own ball to the hole. Each player must contribute a minimum to two tee shots out of 18. We had originally planned this format for January 19th, but moved it to resolve a course conflict. Ron Plummer is the tournament director. We will also include individual net skins by flight.
This is our first opening with a newly designed sign up sheet by Jeff MacCarter. We are hopeful to include additional features in later versions. The operation for this particular sheet is essentially identical to the old sheets.
This sheet is expected to fill up with the usual vigor. If you find no suitable opening, please make use of the waitlist and plan to play. Despite our limitations on tee times, we have always (up to now, at least) been able to find a spot to play for everyone on the list.
After the email announcing the opening of the sheet is sent to all members, please reply to the email if you encounter any problems. Be aware that there may be a delay in a response from us, as the monitoring of email replies will be intermittent for the next few days, including this Friday morning.
December 15th
December 15th Third Thursday Summary Results *Here*
We had a wonderful day of golf. Only a couple of members did not show up. Please let us know if you need to withdraw. An email is fine, even after the fact, so that we can credit your balance. With enough notice, we may be able to consolidate teams.
For this team event we had to use some blinds to fill in the team. I used a playing member who had an almost identical handicap index as the player that was missing. By only paying out to 20% we only had 2 teams in each flight in the money. Dean Skinner was used as a blind for a team and helped them come in 1st in the B Flight.
Low gross today
goes out to Gary Bennett with a 75. By splitting the skins into 4
flights we had many of our members getting something today, I was not
one of them. We had a total of 32 players winning
something out of 76 playing today, so 40%.
Ron Plummer, Tournament Director
Complete Hole by Hole Details *Here*
The teams of Drennen / Supple/ McCrea/ Ebert & Mohney / Hudgins / Bennett / Jurczak tied for first in team flight 1 with 12 under par (using 85% handicaps). Flight 2 was won by Rossman / Lejnieks / Simpson / [blind:Skinner] with 11 under par.
With reduced handicaps, low nets were rare. Jim Rossman was our only player under net par, with a 69.
The most difficult hole for our group was #14 par 5, with the average gross score running 1.7 strokes over par. The easiest was #11 par 3, at 0.8 strokes over par.
Thanks to Ron for directing and scoring this tournament.
Revised Event Sign-Up Sheet for 2023
The event sign-up sheet is going to have a new format for the new year. As a preview, I have updated the Dec 15th 2022, to the new format.
There are quite a few changes happening behind the scenes on this new sheet, but the main changes that affect you when you go to sign up for an event are as follows:
- Tee times now go from left to right, instead of top to bottom in each column.
- You will select your name from a list, instead of typing your name into an empty cell.
Regarding name entry, you can begin typing either a first or last name to start filtering the list. In the below example, I have typed "tom", and you can see how the list has been filtered:
Simply choose your name from the list, and you are done!
Note:
The Dec 15th sheet with the new format is 'live', so please do not play around with changing data there, but do take a look to see a peek of what is coming.
Of course, there will probably be some tweaks I will make, and glitches I will need to resolve. But I think it is working good enough at this time to share.
Please do provide your feedback.
Jeff
UPDATE:
The drop down lists do not work on phones and tablets as cleanly as I want/need them to, so I have removed these for now. This test sheet below has the drop downs. Please test this on your iPhone, Android, computer, potato - whatever you might use.
Thank you!
December 1st
The December 1st First Thursday Tournament Results *Here*
These are preliminary results of our December 1st tournament.
December 1st Full Hole by Hole Data Results *Here*
The day was cool, the wind was present, the greens were speedy. Only four players out of 74 shot below net par. At one point we had 84 players signed up, but a number had to withdraw before tee time.
We split the field into four flights on Thursday. The two lower handicap flights played from the blue tees on Mesa Linda, while the other two flights played from the white or silver tees. Thanks to Peter Cary for directing and scoring this tournament.
Our lowest gross scores were posted by Alez Cruz (74) from the blue tees. King Ling Wong, Bob Colclough and Ryan Leach (85) shared the lowest gross from the white tees. Julie Chien (98) was lowest from the silver tees.
Net flight winners were Mike Meissenburg (66 - Flt 1), Bill Cloud & Bret Bauer (70 - Flt 2), King Lin Wong, Kevin Curcio & Bob Colclough (70 - Flt 3) and Shirley Skirvin (66- Flt 4). Winners of multiple skins were Jerry Vinland, Bill Walker, and Eric Brady.
2022 Hall of Champions
2022 Hall of Champions
2022 Presidents Cup
Mike Supple, Bob Colclough
2022 Club Champion
Don Spreeman
2022 Flight Champions
A Flight: Steve Stranak
B Flight: Bill Cloud
C Flight: Rick Swingle *Club Champion (Net)*
2022 Member - Guest
Mike Meissenburg & Leon Tomasyan
Conrad Wilson & Doug Peterson
2022 Skee Memorial Member - Member
Bret Bauer & Winthorp Logemann (Nelson Flight)
Tom Kennedy & Doug Rustrum (Hogan Flight)
November concluded our 2022 season of major tournaments. The Hall of Champions has a permanent berth on our website, showing former champions as far back as 1991. We used to call it the CMSGA Hall of Fame, but some questioned whether any were truly famous. That they are champions leaves no argument.
Although that is not entirely true. A number of our champions earned their spot, not by a clear victory but a scorecard playoff. This happened in both of our November tournaments, the Member Guest and Member Member. In the event of a tie for first, because a sudden death playoff is not practical, we use the USGA system. First we count back nine holes, where the lowest score wins. If that ties, then we use either the last six holes, the last three holes or the last hole, until the tie is broken. If things are still tied, there are more options, but the choices are not official by USGA rules.
The hole by hole data is still posted on our website, if there is an interest. Congratulations to this year's champs.
November 17th Member Member
November 17th Skee Memorial Member Member Results Here
Skee Gutmacher was a beloved member, who knew every worker at the course. He had been our CMSGA treasurer for about 20 years, until 2017, when he passed a few days shy of his 94th birthday. Skee is not pictured here. I think it more of my prediction of Jeff MacCarter and Jim Meyer in 20 years.
We again plan to reduce the playing handicaps for team play to 85% of your course handicap. There was a brief article on this subject in the Fall 2022 edition of SCGA's Fore magazine. Here is a link to "Handicap Allowances"
Nov 3rd Event
These are the preliminary results for the tournament. Above is the link to the "simple" results, which shows the player purse summary, the team purse summary, the members without guest net results, the members with guests using Callaways best ball results and skins results, the members with guests with established handicaps best ball and skins results, the members without guests skins results, and the closest to the pin results. The link below shows all the scores, including gross scores.
We did have a large turnout (89 players out of 92 registered). There were the usual last minute changes. I think the final count is one flight of 15 Member Guest teams with GHIN's, one flight of 16 Member Guest teams usually Callaway handicaps and one flight of 27 members playing without guests.
Member Guest with GHIN Tournament: The teams of Mike Meissenburg/Leon Tomasyan, Robert Simpson/George Gonzalez and Russ Barrrett/Mark Thomas all had net 63's. They all receive the same share in team prize money, but for the listing on our CMSGA website's Hall of Champions the winning team was decided by a card off. They all tied again on the back nine score. With the lowest last six hole score our winner is Mike and Leon. The lowest individual gross in this flight was Kevin Shimada (74). The lowest individual net was Dave Demerest (70).
Member Guest with Callaways Tournament: The teams of Conrad Wilson/Doug Peterson and Joe Willis/Kyle Willis both had nets of 62. The winning team using the lowest back nine score is Conrad and Doug. Kyle Willis also won two skins. Andy Crinella won two CTP's. The lowest gross in this flight was 74, scored by Andy Crinella and Mike Harwood. Andy and Mike also had the lowest nets (71) shared with Doug Peterson.
Individual Low Net Tournament: Dean Skinner won with a net 69. Steve Keith had two skins. The lowest gross was Alex Cruz with a below par 69 (net 71).
Thanks to Dan Hudgins and Ron Plummer for working on this complex event. In effect, this project was like six tournaments in one. On top of that, once a Callaway is calculated for players without Handicap Indexes after the round to determine the Course Handicap, it needed to be manually adjusted to a Handicap Index which could produce that Course Handicap.
Some scorecards did not show the Playing Handicap correctly, which was 85% of the Course Handicap and was used for the team score. Players trying to calculate their team score may be off by a stroke or two. The scorecard printing program was unable to resolve the different handicap rules among players on the same card.
For skins calculations, the off low adjustment increased the handicap applied to most players. For skins, 100% of the course handicap was used, but as each flight had players with + handicaps, the skins handicaps ended up a bit higher than the Course Handicap by playing "off low". Fascinating stuff for math nerds.
Bill Cloud
Results for October 20th
Noteworthy scores were our lowest gross of the day posted by Alex Cruz (73) and the lowest net of the day by Hoyt Etter (67). The two winning teams tied for first at 14 under par were Jim Meyer/Pete deBoer/Gene Ramirez/Bill Brown and Dreilling/Collins/Green/blind[Hoyt Etter]. Gene Ramirez and Paul Hennessy each had two skins.
Reminder to Take Photos on Thursday!
Most of you all surely got those smart phones with them built in cameras. So don't forget on Thursday, if the opportunity presents itself - snap a Costa Mesa course or CMSGA member pic and send it to us!
Below is a picture we received from Ned Whittemore.
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| Mesa Linda #6 - Photo by Ned Whittemore |
Jeff
2023 CMSGA Event Calendar
The initial 2023 CMSGA Event Calendar has been posted. There is a link to the calendar from any web-page header; in the right panel navigation column; and heck, here is a link to it too.
This may be the earliest we have published the calendar for an upcoming year, and as such there could be some modifications made to format and information.
Currently the calendar is a spreadsheet version. If I can remember how to embed that same information into an actual website page I will do that. There is also a link on the sheet where you can download and/or print a single-page pdf version of the calendar.
If you predicted that our events were once again going to be held on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month, you would be correct. 😄
There have been a couple minor tweaks in the information on the calendar, and those have been captured in the notes on the calendar.
As always, comments are welcomed so let us know what you think.
Jeff
Funny Story - Website Statistics & Home Page Link
I thought this was kind of funny (and also shows I am rookie at creating websites).
Whenever I check statistics for which pages or posts at the site are getting the most "views", the winner by far is always the "Welcome to CMSGA!" page - a page created to introduce new members to the club.
For example, in the past 7 days, this "Welcome" page has received 91 views. We did receive two new members during this period, so those members might account for a few of those views. But did the other 80+ views result in potential new members reading the page, and going "Nah, this is not for me"? Or maybe existing members are wanting to re-read the Welcome message?
Today it dawned on me what could be the source of the many views.
Near the top of all pages are the Blue Tabs for quickly jumping to some specific pages. The one on the far left has been the "Welcome to CMSGA" page. My theory is that many members are clicking that tab, thinking it will take them to the website Home page (logical assumption) and possibly getting frustrated that it did not 😦.
If this was the situation for you, please let me know with a comment.
In any case, I just revised those Blue tabs, and the one on the far left is now called "Home", and will indeed take you to the home page.👍
Jeff
PS: You can also click on the large CMSGA logo on any page, and that will also take you to the site home page.
2023 Presidents Cup and Scotch Cup / Gauging Member Interest
The Presidents Cup and Scotch Cup are two limited field special events the club puts on annually.
The Presidents Cup will be here before we know it, commencing in February and continuing through March. Briefly it is match play in a bracketed format, where winners move on. A 32 player field would be nice.
The Scotch Cup is a competition against Laguna Woods Mens Club. It is held in July, and often includes a Wednesday round at Laguna Woods. This competition is limited to 18 players.
I will be posting more on these events, but for now we would just like to hear from members if they think they might be interested in participating in one or both of these. If there is enough interest that exceeds the positions, we may include some qualifying rounds during our normal Thursday events.
Please use the "Contact CMSGA" form in the right column of any webpage to send us a note. Mention the cups you are interested in, and make sure to include your name.
This is not a commitment on your part, just an indication of interest.
Thank you,
Jeff
Here are links to last years events:
Members who have expressed interest as of 10/18/22:
Scotch Cup
Scott Pickard
Presidents Cup
Ned Whittemore
Scott Pickard
New Format for Event Results
Club:
I know we kind of sprung this new event reporting on you all, using the 10/6/22 results as our initial attempt. (Link to Results Post here). As Bill mentioned in that post, we really want to get your feedback.
The main goal we are hoping to achieve with this change is transparency, in that all the data that goes into determining the results is available to our members.
We may do some tweaking (with your input!) as to how the information is presented. I will gladly create a page at the website that can help walk members through how to navigate the information.
This is a big change - maybe the biggest change since I have been a part of the club - and your board recognizes that. Our goal, with your help, is to make this a successful and beneficial change for all members.
Jeff
*** Update 10/8/22
I started the help page I mentioned above. It is located here.
'Moderating' has Been Turned Off (Commenting still On)
Club:
When I permitted commenting on the site back in January (Post located here) I added a requirement for 'moderating'. This meant that when someone makes a comment, it does not immediately appear. The comment required approval from Bill or myself before it would show up on the site.
Since that time, there have only been a handful of comments that we did not approve - all because they were better addressed directly with commenter, or were duplicates.
The downside to this was that when someone posts a comment, they are (understandably) expecting the comment to immediately appear, and confused when it did not.
Anyway, I have eliminated moderation. This means when you make a comment, it will now immediately appear. This should make commenting more user friendly, and as long as we don't have to start removing comments (inappropriate comments or spam comments), I will leave this in effect.
Jeff
PS: Just as a reminder (since I have made many posts today), don't forget to look at the archive if you fear you have missed one of our very important posts. 😊
Tree Root Relief Part Deux
A couple weeks ago I made a post regarding our local rule about tree root relief.
In that spiel I was presenting a position that 'maybe' we should modify the rule to provide for a larger drop area.
The primary reason why I started the discussion was because I had heard, without specifics, that some members were possibly 'exploiting' the rule to their advantage, in that they were either a) taking relief from non-existent roots or b) taking a drop that was not per the rule.
The first part (non-existent roots) is so subjective, because if there are roots in close proximity, I think we have to give that decision to the player. Could you imagine telling a competitor "no relief for you", and so they play it as it lies and..ooops..hit a root and hurt themselves?
I was focused on the second part - the drop area. My thinking was if we make the drop area a bit more 'normal' (a 180 degree club length), the player may indeed be able to extract an advantage (i.e. take a tree out of play), but at least we might eliminate one area of contention.
Well, speaking of 180 turns, I now think we should eliminate the local rule completely. If a player's ball is clearly unplayable embedded in tree roots, or if a player believes there may be some hidden roots near their ball, the rules of golf provide for this situation - declare your ball unplayable, and take the relief (with penalty) as provided under that rule.
Your thoughts?
Please comment.
Jeff
PS: If your ball was here, what would you do? Take free root relief, and drop where? Take an unplayable? Play it?
Candid Photo from 10/6/22
A slight backup yesterday on Hole #2 was the perfect opportunity for Gene and Jim to hold an impromptu clinic on the pros and cons of wearing a golf glove.
😉
Jeff
PS: The Club is Looking for Photos! (Link)
October 20th Event
Sign up for our October 20th Tournament Here
Our Third Thursday Tournament will be on Los Lagos. The format is four person teams, alternating one best ball and two best ball. A tribute to Lawrence Welk ("Ah one and ah two"). There will also be individual net skins by flight. Jim Meyer is the tournament director.
October 6th Results
This link shows all of the tournament data, including hole by hole scores, in spreadsheet form as reported by our Golf Genius tournament app. There are multiple sheets in the document. Look to the bottom to see them all.
This version might be easier to view. I am curious if most can read both formats. Please comment if you if you would like to see both versions available to access or if one version doesn't work.
Thanks to Ken Otsubo for directing and scoring this tournament.
Briefly, Flight 1 was won by George Fitzgibbons with a net 67. George is one of our newest members. Flight 2 was won by Bret Bauer with a net 68. Flight 3 was won by Paul Hennessy with a net 66, the lowest net of the day. Pete de Boer has the lowest gross (74).
The list of players with two skins has six members. Mike McClanahan, Brad Collins, Jim Rossman, Conrad Wilson, Russ Barrett and Sherry Howard managed that feat.
***Winner - Scott Pickard*** Website Giveaway #3 - Sleeve of Snell MTB-X
***Updated 9/22/22 6:30PM with Clue #1. Scroll down for Clue***
Up for grabs in this giveaway is a sleeve of Snell MTB-X golf balls.
To win this sleeve of balls, you...
- Must be a CMSGA member
- Cannot be a board member
- Have not won a previous website giveaway
- Must be the first to comment on this post, including your name, and...
- Your comment must include the correct name of the golf course in the picture below
(Click on picture above to see full size image)
I will deliver the sleeve the next time we meet at Costa Mesa.
Good Luck!
Jeff
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Clue #1 - The 10th Hole
Below is a picture of the 10th hole green, which is a 509 yd Par 5 from the White Tees.
Below is a screen grab from a 1993 movie, which included a golf scene at the same 10th hole.
(I didn't say the clues would make it easy). 😉
Jeff
Minor Website Changes / PayPal Links Moved, New Widgets Added
Just wanted to point out a couple minor changes to the site.
First, I moved the PayPal links to the bottom of the website (they were previously at the top of the right navigation panel).
Second, I added an Archive of the posts. This can make it easier to find an older post instead of scrolling through pages. This widget is in the right navigation panel. You can expand or condense the view.
Lastly, I added a widget where you can easily send a message to CMSGA, right from the site. I believe these messages currently go to Bill Cloud and myself, but this may change.
Jeff
"Handicap Off Low" - What does it mean?
Some members have asked for clarification as to what "Handicap Off Low" means. This post is my attempt to explain it.
Handicap off Low (HoL) is used exclusively for our Skins competitions. What we do is look at the handicap strokes each competitor is receiving within a given flight. We find the player who is receiving the fewest number of strokes. This player is the Low Handicapper for the flight. (There could be more than one player as Low for the flight).
The low handicapper does not receive any strokes for the skins competitions, and the balance of players in the flight have their skins-handicap changed to the difference between themselves and the low handicapper.
As an example, lets look at the 9/15/22 results, Link Here
If you scroll down the players in the "C" Flight (the names/scores in far right column) you will see that Neil Slater is the low handicapper for the flight, receiving 15 strokes. As the Low, Neil does not receive any strokes on any holes for the skins competition, and the rest of the competitors in the flight have their strokes reduced based on his handicap.
In the Skins Result box you will see "Skins Handicap = Course Handicap minus 15". This indicates that all players' skins handicap has been reduced by 15, based on Neil being the low handicapper.
Right above Neil in the flight list is Mike Bekins (20). In the results box you see that Mike is only getting 5 strokes for the skins competition (the difference between his 20 course handicap and the "low' handicapper who is a 15).
Why Do This?
By reducing the number of handicap strokes in the skins competition (while maintaining equity among the players), the handicap strokes are moved to the tougher rated holes.
This is easier to see if we look at the "B" flight.
The low handicappers in the net competition are two players with 9 handicaps. The high handicappers are at 15. The difference is 6, which means that only on the 6 hardest rated holes will any competitor receive a stroke for skins. The skill difference (based on handicaps) between the players is maintained - we have just reduced the number of holes where strokes will be used.
I hope this helps. Comment if you have any questions.
Jeff
EDIT:
What all this means:
If we perform really well on a hole, we have a much better chance of getting a skin, because fewer of our competitors are getting strokes, and they are getting fewer strokes on more holes. And yet equity between skill levels is being maintained.
If we perform really well on a hole, we have a much better chance of getting a skin, because fewer of our competitors are getting strokes, and they are getting fewer strokes on more holes. And yet equity between skill levels is being maintained.
The Club is Looking for Photos!
The club is looking to accumulate photos from our membership.
There are a few types of pictures we are thinking about.
Member Profile
It would be convenient to have a database of member profile pictures, so when you do something of note we have a picture to display. Currently we have the Hall of Fame page with profile shots, but with more member profile pics, maybe we could start incorporating photos in our weekly results.
Member Candids
It would have been nice at the recent banquet to have a slideshow on the large screen of member candid photos. Pictures of foursomes, actual golf shots of members, after-the-round pics, basically pics that bring smiles to viewers.
Course Photos
These could include glamour pics of both Costa Mesa courses. Also pictures of wildlife seen on the course. And then more objectively, it would be nice to have pics taken from (or behind) the tee box of each hole, the green of each hole, or obstructions and relief situations on the course. These pics could be useful for reference in discussions about certain course situations.
If you would like to participate in the above, please email your pics to cmseniorsgolf@gmail.com
Comment if you have any questions or ideas on this.
Thank you,
Jeff
Respecting the Course
Recently a member posted the following comment, and I believe it deserves additional exposure:
"I would like to remind everyone in our club that the area between 9 green and 10 tee is not a cart path or access to the tenth tee. There is a cement path that leads to the other side of the tenth tee. The grounds crew has done their best to repair that area so it is playable. Please show respect for course and lead by good example."
Can you think of some other areas of our home courses, where we sometimes tend to take a shortcut with our carts, when we really should take a slightly longer route and stay on the designated cart path?
The area between ML #3 green and #4 tee box is one that comes to my mind.
Please add your thoughts and suggestions, as to how we can do our part, and lead by good example.
Jeff
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