PRESIDENTS CORNER


We’re So Lucky

We all have a love of golf in common, which is why we joined ASGC. 

We’re so lucky that 42 years ago like-minded golfers joined together to establish our Club.  ASGC is perhaps the oldest, largest, and undoubtedly best Seniors Golf Club in the Washington Metro Area.

We’re so lucky to live in the Washington DC Metro area surrounded by an abundance of high quality, well maintained public and private golf courses.  ASGC continues to have access to many of these courses each year.  We played at 21 different courses this season, several of them multiple times. 

We’re so lucky to be associated with the Arlington 55+ Program with the resources and talents of Sidney Reid and Bob Odmark.   They work tirelessly to ensure we have a consistent, high-quality program of weekly golf outings and tournaments.  Bob Odmark, our Golf Coordinator, continues to schedule great courses, arrange tee times, and get us off the 1st tee at each venue.  He’s busy right now scheduling courses for our 2025 Season.

We’re so lucky to have a great cast of volunteers serving as Elected Officials and Committee Chairs.  Our Club continues to evolve.  In recent years we’ve transitioned from paper tee reservation to on-line spreadsheets, to a most sophisticated and equitable on-line Tee Time Reservation System – iGolf.  Our website has grown and now includes information on just about everything our members need to know or how to find it.  Brad James provides a fantastic photographic library of our events. 

We’re so lucky that things are working well with the monthly Tee Times Lottery, Scores Reporting, Monthly Player Recognitions, and Tournaments.  We’re planning a season ending banquet in November and hoping for a great turnout for a mid-day event. 

We’re so lucky that our season to this point has been a great success with few rainouts and limited CPO events to mention.  As we approach the end of the season, we need to focus on 2025 with expectations of another successful season of fun for all.   Start thinking of what you’d like for next year so we can put talents to bringing them to fruition.  We welcome your ideas/feedback and still need volunteers for committees and our website.  Many hands make lighter work.

I’m so lucky to have a great Board of Directors and your continuing support.  I hope you’re having FUN.

Bernie Dennis

ASGC President

September 2024


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Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

It’s hard to believe we’re in our 3rd month of play in the 7-month season – guess we’re having fun.  Your Board is working hard to keep things rolling. 

Thanks for the response to our May Member Survey.  At the time of this writing, we had 107 responses in less than a week.  Your feedback will help us move forward on three efforts: an Email Directory (77% liked the idea), the Getaway (20% definitely interested with another 35% considering, pending more details), and a year-end banquet (20% definitely interested with another 60% considering, pending more details). More fun things on the horizon.    

Pace of Play is a perennial problem; however, we seem to be making progress.  Bob Odmark reports continued improvement with many finishing their rounds in 4.5 hours or less.  We have experienced several 5-hour round incidents, but with continued efforts we can minimize, maybe even eliminate these frustrating occurrences.  Your Member Survey responses on your tee box and 7-iron distance will help us encourage moving forward to improve pace of play and promote more fun – more to come on this.  Bob has discussed marshaling with our courses and most courses have agreed to work with us on this.  Ultimately, the best way to improve Pace of Play is for all of us to be more cognizant of our pace.  Several courses (Brambleton, Greendale, Heritage Hunt, PB Dye, Piedmont, Pohick Bay, Westfields) actually have a Pace of Play/Target Time listed for each hole on their scorecard.  Our goal should be 4.5 hours; that’s 15 minutes average per hole – some less, some more.  It’s doable.  Limit time searching for balls and make a concerted effort to keep sight of the group in front of you.  Here’s a suggestion: start your round by jotting down on your scorecard your time off the first tee, then write down the target time of 2 hours to the turn and 4 hours to finish.  As you make the turn, record the time below the 2-hour target time to see where you stand.  If you are within 2 to 2.25 hours, you have a good chance to finish in 4.5 hours or less.  If you’re around 2.5 hours, you’re headed for the dreaded 5-hour round and need to pick up your pace.  When you finish, record that time as well so you know if you met your target.  Hopefully a Marshal will inform groups of their pace with respect to the holes ahead.  If your group is a full hole behind, please consider moving forward to fill the gap – OK to pick up and record a par rather than risk delaying play for all others behind you.            

Do you know that ASGC started over 40 years ago?  Sixteen golfers, twelve women and four men, took part in that first outing in 1982. Now with 268 members, we’ve come a long way – proof we’re having fun. Through the considerable efforts of Tom Farley in organizing our historic Club records, I was able to scan and deliver electronic files on thumb drives to our new Historian, Chris O’Donnell and our 55+ Program Specialist, Sidney Reid.  Sidney has agreed to store these records on the County’s file server as a backup, and we continue our search for an online repository for our Club records. Future records storage as well as easier access to these historic records will help inform the Board when discussing our By-Laws and Operations.     

Kudos to our Tournament Committee: Sharon Monde, Maurice Spraggins, and Bob Odmark, who treated us to a marvelous Spring Scramble at Raspberry Falls.  They managed to squeeze us in between a devastating tornado and subsequent rains.  The lunch and awards ceremony afterwards in the clubhouse were terrific.  Also, thanks to Raspberry Falls for hosting us and contributing generous prizes, including vouchers for complimentary foursome rounds at Raspberry Falls.  The course was fantastic.

OK – that’s a wrap for the Spring Newsletter.  We’re having fun – right?  How many times did I use “fun” in this article?  Get the picture – Golf is supposed to be FUN!

Bernie Dennis

ASGC President

July 2024



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Bernie Dennis

President’s Message

General Membership Meeting #2

March 13, 2024 

Lubber Run Community Center


Welcome to our 2024 Season!

As you know, we elected ASGC Officers at our General Membership Meeting on January 18th.  I want to thank you, the membership, for electing me to serve as your President for the coming year.  I fully intend to serve the Club well and look forward to working with my fellow elected officers and committee chairpersons, who assumed their positions at the January meeting.  It will be a pleasure to serve with:

Let’s not forget our County representatives:

My Goals for the 2024 year are to continue:

o   This includes a new website platform with firewall capabilities, and  

o   Appropriate document storage capacity for Club Records

I want to:

o   Review/Revise our Pace of Play Policy

o   Publish Club Rules for Regular Play

Thank you for your continuing support.  Now let’s get on with the 2024 Season.


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State of the Club ASGC 2023

Art Hauptman

ASGC President

18 January 2023


I want to begin by thanking the membership for re-electing me to a second term as President of ASGC. I appreciate your vote of confidence and hope I will live up to your expectations this coming year. In my comments today, I would like to address what I think we have accomplished this past year and what I hope we will accomplish this current year.

But first I want to acknowledge the efforts of my fellow officers this past year, noting that we have almost an entirely new slate from what it was as we began 2022. Rob Fairweather and Ralph Orlik have been faced with the daunting task of filling the vary large shoes of Rick Townshend and Harvey Doerkson in their roles of Treasurer and Secretary, respectively. And they have done very well. Rob has used his forty years of experience at OMB to give our budget a bit of a face lift. And while Ralph does not pretend to have Harvey’s storytelling magic, his minutes are well written and complete which he gets back to us quickly and accurately.

And Bernie Dennis and Frank Sauer have moved seamlessly into the roles of First and Second VP and along with Bob Odmark, have successfully led us through the transition to iGolf. All in all, the elected officers have been great to work with and I appreciate that all are willing to serve for the next year.

I also want to share an insight based on my experiences this year. I’ve come to realize that the 325 members of ASGC are a diverse group in their age, experience, whether they are still working or retired, golf proficiency and many other characteristics. What I now understand is that for ASGC to be a successful organization it is important to serve all our members in a fair and reasonable way. We just can’t cater to the best players or the more frequent players. We need to be a club that serves the needs of all our members.

With that said, we have made progress on a number of the ideas that I expressed upon taking the reins at last year’s meeting. These include:

-      Successful implementation of the iGolf system thanks principally to the efforts of Bob, Bernie, and Frank.

-      Continuation of the player of the month awards that were initiated under Don Collier’s leadership in 2021.

-      A great Scramble in May and Tournament in October thanks to the leadership of Sharon Monde and Maurice Spraggins

-      We also had a successful Getaway with 40 members participating in Sept

-      And we had an End of Year Dinner in early November which I think those who were able to attend enjoyed.

But there is more to do as there always is. Several of the objectives that I laid at the beginning of last year are still works in progress. These include:

-      Reduction in slow play. Maurice Spraggins has put together a package of ways we could promote ready golf which we will discuss at the February board meeting and then present at the March general meeting.

-      Setting up a system by which members could pay by credit card, Venmo, or other methods. Rob Fairweather and Frank Sauer are spearheading looking into the possible payment options.

-      Reintroduction of an ASGC newsletter. Bob Odmark started doing some weekly newsletters this past year, but I think we have found an editor in Mark Robinson to renew monthly newsletter.

-      Orientation for new members. Bob Odmark has the lead in putting together an orientation for new members this year in addition to helping set up some get togethers during the year.

In addition to what we discussed last year, there are other initiatives for the coming year including:

-      The Board voted earlier this month to go with an equitable draw/lottery approach for iGolf this year based on our experience last year. Frank Sauer will discuss this later in this meeting.

-      I think we need to consider whether to redo the website or develop a new website that provides members with a firewall that allows them to make payments and communicate with other members without worrying about internet security. Bernie Dennis has the lead on this.

-      Dennis Macdonald who I rely on a lot has put together an operations manual which will help guide the Club going forward. This will include some changes in how we do things to clarify responsibilities.

Enough for now. I’ve set aside time at the end of this meeting to allow for Member discussion. I hope you’ll let us know what you think.



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ASGC State of the Club

Art Hauptman

ASGC President

7 March 2022

Ten Ideas for Enhancing the ASGC Experience

• Successful Implementation of the new iGolf System

• Reduction of Slow Play

• Continuation of Player of the Month Awards

• Club Tournament and Scramble This Year

• Club Getaway in Lancaster PA – Sept 13-15

• Allow VENMO, Pay Pal and Credit Card Payments for Fees

• Reintroduction of the Divoteer Newsletter

• Orientation for New Members

• Greater Opportunities for ASGC Members to Socialize

• End of Year Banquet


State of the Club 2022 – Art Hauptman

I wanted to use this opportunity today to examine how we can better carry out the primary mission of ASGC -namely, enhancing opportunities to play golf and to socialize for Club members this year and into the future. I also think we need to take steps improve the operation of the club. That topic will be covered in part by the discussion later this morning regarding the proposed revision of the by-laws and the need to adopt an operations manual later this year.

With regard to improving ASGC golf and socializing opportunities, here are ten ideas that I think will help move us forward:

Successful implementation of the new iGolf system. This is priority one. One of the things that COVID revealed is that the system we have relied upon for the past decade needs a new look and iGolf gives a chance to do that. Frank Sauer and Bernie Dennis will be reporting on iGolf later in this meeting and they along with Bob Odmark will be coordinating throughout the year. 

Reduction of slow play. For many of us, slow play is the bane of our ASGC existence and a chief impediment to a better golf experience. To try to come up with a plan to reduce slow play, I’ve asked Dale Strawser to head up a committee to make some recommendations. David Tate and Dan Olson have also agreed to help in this effort as will Bob Odmark as he ultimately will bear the burden of achieving a speed up in play.

Continuation of player of the month awards. Last year Don Collier initiated Player of the Month awards. I think that was a very positive step and I hope we will continue with those this year.

Club Tournament and Scramble this year — Another consequence of COCID we have not had a Club Tournament for the past two years. We were able to initiate the Art Gosling Scramble last year thanks to Susan Ciochetto’s good efforts but it was in the fall again mostly because of COVID restrictions. I hope we can back to having a spring Scramble and a tournament in the fall. To that end, Bob has identified Raspberry Falls for the club tournament this year on October 6th and I’ve asked him to see if we can arrange for a Scramble this spring. We also will have a scramble as part of the Getaway in September.

Club Getaway. Speaking of the Getaway, as you all know, Bill Dawson has done a great job as our Getaway leader for many years but had decided to hand over the reins. Before I knew that I would be president this year I volunteered to coordinate the Getaway. I am doing my best to fill Bill’s big shoes. I’ll have more to report later this morning but we are aiming for a Getaway in Lancaster this year on Sept 13–15.

Allow VENMO or credit card payments of Club fees and greens fees. As you know, for many years we have depended on members mailing checks for the ASGC fees and for greens fees for scrambles and tournaments. I’d like to explore us offering more convenience for members to pay by VENMO, Paypal, or credit cards for both the annual Club fees and greens fees. To make this more user friendly, I’d like to suggest that the Club absorb the transaction fees.

Reintroduction of the Divoteer newsletter. Bill Lawson late last year suggested that it would be good to re-introduce the Divoteer newsletter after many years in hibernation as a way to improve communication between the Club and the membership. I think that is a good idea and I’ve started to explore with a couple of members what would be the possibility here. 

Orientation for New Members. One of our members with institutional memory suggested the other day that we should get back to having an orientation for new members so that they become aware of the Club’s rules and opportunities as quickly as possible. I think that is a great idea and with this speech I’m asking Bob to see what might be possible on this score. 

Greater opportunities for ASGC members to socialize with each other. When I played in the scramble with Joe Kiehl last year, he mentioned that for years he has been hoping to organize a poker night among interested members but there didn’t seem to be an effective way for members to communicate among themselves. I’ve asked Bernie and Frank to explore whether that are more advanced ways for us to communicate among ourselves behind firewalls. 

End of Year Banquet. Some years ago, the Club sponsored an end of year banquet which provided an opportunity to make awards and for members to mingle among themselves and with spouses in a more social environment. I would like to explore the possibility of doing this.

On organizational issues:

 While I know all of you are here to play golf, there is also the reality that we need to have an organizational structure to make that happen and it is the judgment of many that how we operate ASGC needs to be refurbished. 

By Laws Revision and Operations Manual. To that end, Don Collier in October authorized a review of the by-laws and appointed a distinguished committee that included Bernie Dennis, Chuck Haddon, Dick Irwin and John Mashaw. That group has worked very hard over the past several months and against all odds produced a revision of the by-laws which will be discussed later this morning and hopefully approved by the membership.

During the by-laws review, it also became obvious that it would be desirable to have an operations manual to help better define how we operate as a Club. With this in mind, I have asked Bernie Dennis and Dennis Macdonald to put together a draft operations manual over the next 6 months and I have asked two past ASGC presidents, Bruce Needham and Mike Marron, to review the draft manual. I have also asked Bernie and Dennis to keep track of the changes in th by-laws to determine whether amendments are needed in time for review by the membership in January 2023.

Sorry to have taken so long but I thought it important to provide a State of the Club at this time. To conclude, I want to say that I and other members of the Board as well as Bob Odmark are always available to hear from you. Look for us on the course or afterwards and please feel free to email me or others with your views. Thank you very much for your attention.

And now let’s have a great year for golf.

 

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Letter from President Don Collier

 

Well, folks, it has been quite a year, given the problems with vaccines, sign-ups, frost delays and all the other vagaries of CY 2021. We started March 16 with a clinic at Virginia Golf and golfed every week until November 4 at Heritage Hunt. All of our Executive Committee members (see said page on the ASGC web site) have volunteered their time and efforts to make this a fun activity for all golfers. I am compelled to mention a few who were involved on a daily basis with the administration of the Club - Bob Odmark and Bill Dawson (ret'd) as Golf Coordinators, Rick Townshend as treasurer and provider of sign-up sheets, and Bernie Dennis who tracked members and those aspiring to join. All your volunteer officers and committee chairpersons are worthy of thanks for their efforts, and again I refer to the list of them on the website.

 

In addition to the weekly golf, we enjoyed a retreat in Williamsburg at three of their fine golf courses, and the scramble there yielded a slew of winners of golf balls arranged by Tournament Chairperson Susan Ciochetto, who, by the way, put together a second successful and fun scramble locally in October with a handy lunch bag for all, and cash awards for other winners. Regrettably, the annual competition for a Club champion had to be cancelled at the last minute due to poor conditions at the selected site. This tournament will be resumed next year at an appropriate course.

 

Your golf coordinator reported that members played 4,200 rounds of golf at local courses through the year, spending in excess of $220,000 in the process. Bob expects to send to you a questionnaire to determine which courses you prefer to play, and ones you prefer to miss. By the way, the Executive Committee voted to limit play to April through October, thereby shortening the season and reducing the exposure to bad weather at both ends.

 

A major change is unfolding regarding sign-ups: the Executive Committee voted to engage iGolf to manage our monthly sign-ups in a time-tested, automated sign-up system that is widely used by country clubs, and has been vetted by the Internet and Communications Committee. The system exacts a start-up and monthly fees, but our Treasurer assures us that CY 2022 can be paid from existing balances, due mainly to the cancellation of the individual-play tournament. Assuming the system satisfies members, there may be an assessment of around $6 per person for CY 2023 and subsequent years. Detailed instructions on how to use the system will be presented to you prior to the 2022 season.

 

Other major changes are taking place: for one, Harvey Doerksen, who has been the Club Secretary for too many years to count, is retiring as Secretary effective after this round with the Executive Committee (it will be on the ASGC web site). A new Secretary is being sought. Also, a new coordinator, Sydney Reed, has been hired by the County and she will be able to meet you in person at the January meeting. And if you know anybody who wants to edit an ASGC newsletter, please contact me and/or John Mashaw.

 

Look for an announcement for an annual membership meeting on January 19, 2022 at the Lubber Run Community Center, where we will see projected golf courses for CY 2022; conduct elections for Club officers; and receive detailed instructions for use of the iGolf system.

 

In the meantime, please enjoy your time off as well as hearty Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons."


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Letter from President Don Collier


Well here it is the month of May and I haven’t communicated to you since February, and the reason is mainly that the sign-up process was troubled and is being refined as we speak. I wanted to see that problem abated before I issued another set of comments. Golf is one of the physical activities not completely encumbered by the virus in most areas, and participation has been at an all-time high.


A lot of credit for progress goes to Bill Dawson and the IT and Communication Committee, staffed by Rick Townshend, Dennis Macdonald, Bernie Dennis, Bob Odmark and Frank Sauer. They have put in numerous hours to sort out glitches in the system, and devising affordable options for smooth operation. The June sign-ups went with minimal hiccups, and hopefully future ones will be glitch-free.


We are rapidly approaching 100 percent vaccination against the corona-virus, and demand for single-use carts along with it. So golfing in the future will be back to the routine we became accustomed to before the pandemic. Yay!


A special thanks to Brad James for his photography. I hope you have visited the website to look for your picture as well as all the other active golfers. That will help us get better acquainted with each other, and make for more camaraderie. Good work, Brad.


Aside from my formal duties, let me remind you that Bill Dawson has put together another great Getaway in September at Williamsburg. Please see his details of the retreat on the website if you have not already signed up.


That’s all for now. Have a great golfing experience with ASGC!


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From the AGSC President


Fellow golfers, Dale Strawser as past president, has not only done a splendid job on your behalf in 2019-2020, but he has now handed me the baton for 2021-2022. I bid you welcome, and I pledge to do my best to make golf as fun and efficient as is possible through the organization known as as the as the Arlington Seniors Golf Club, ASGC.


Here are some words to you from Rick Townshend, our Treasurer, whose views match my own: 


“Welcome to the 2021 season of the Arlington Seniors Golf Club. We wish to extend special greetings to our new members. The purpose of this message is to inform and educate all members and especially the new members on how the league works and the resources that are available to make it easier to sign-up and play the varied courses that are available this season. This message is designed to help all get acquainted with the websites and tee sheets that are used to play. It is not a complete encyclopedia on all things golf but is a good start.”

    “The club, ASGC, has a long proud history of serving senior golfers in Arlington and Northern Virginia for over 30 years. We are one of the largest senior leagues in Virginia and regularly get inquiries from other league about advising them on their leagues. We are sponsored by The Arlington County Parks Seniors Services Department. At least half of our members must be Arlington County residents. That is why it took some people longer to be invited. But you made the cut and now are part of the finest Senior Golf League in the State.”

You will not only get further information from Rick about the website, you will soon see instructions from Bob Odmark, our coordinator, regarding the schedule of play for 2021; plus, you will get instructions for how to sign up for play each week. As a reminder, AGSC has limited - at least until we get a handle on the distribution and effectiveness of vaccines - the play for each member to once per week. We may be able to relax this limitation after we see how well the vaccine is distributed and is working. For other rules regarding play in this club, I refer you to the portion of the website that deals with rules of play.

Thank you for being a member of AGSC. I look forward to seeing you and golfing with you this season. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jdonaldcollier@verison.net.


Don Collier

President, AGSC

February 20, 2021


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From the President Feb. 2021

Our general meeting will be virtual on Thursday Feb. 11 at 10:00 am. Just log into your computer. A reminder will be sent out on Wednesday. The pizza will be virtual too!!

We have a great line-up of courses this year. They will be announced at the meeting and uploaded onto the ASGC website. Thank you to Rick Townsend for setting up our new site and keeping it operational.

Golf courses have had a booming business for the last two years. Some courses have more players than they can handle and this put us in a bad bargaining position regarding single rider carts. Bob Odmark has negotiated with all of the courses we played in the past. Most of the courses gave us the discounts we received in the past, but some have had an issue with single rider carts. Our goal is to keep everyone as safe as possible so we had to eliminate some of our favorites this year and add some new ones. Bob will explain this on Thursday.

Bob Odmark is taking over the full-time coordinator position with Bill Dawson helping as needed. Thank you, Bob for all of your hard work in this Off Season and Thank You Bill for doing all of this for many years prior.

The seven-play minimum is waived again this year. We do not want someone to feel like they have to play a course that feels unsafe.

Bill Dawson is planning “The Getaway” again this year. Details will be out soon.

We are in interesting times: the virus, vaccines, masks, single carts and trying to navigate through it all. But know this, the board members have your best interests at heart and Don Collier will do a fine a job as your next President. He will take over at the meeting on Thursday.

I get to serve as immediate Past President for the next two years which means, I don’t really have a job, but I get to vote. Kinda sounds like retirement doesn’t it?

Our bylaws state that a President can only serve two consecutive years. Wow, it went fast.

I would like to close with “KUDOS To YOU”. We, as a board, have battled slow play for years. The last two years you have stepped up and completed most rounds in 4 hours or less. “Thank You” to all of you. Remember, golf is like a one lane road; you can go as fast or slow as the car (or foursome) in front of you. Please keep up the nice pace of play.

Please get the vaccine, wear your mask and take precautions. Hopefully this will end soon and we can shake hands again buy Hole-In-One drinks in the clubhouse.

I look forward to seeing, and playing, golf with you this year.

Dale Strawser


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From the President, May 2020


Dear fellow ASGC members,

Are you tired of hearing about the Virus? I think all of us are.

Our area is slowly working its way back to what was normal as the Governor maps out the

state’s plan for re-opening and Arlington County works out its plan for the 55+ programs.

You may have seen the latest update from Arlington County that all 55+ activities are canceled

until September.

ASGC is working with Arlington County to come up with a safe way to start play again.

The golf courses are also implementing steps like pay ahead tee times and check-in outside, one

person per cart and many other ways to keep contact to a minimum.

We will update you as the County makes decisions for outdoor activities to resume play and

hopefully with a date to start.

The seven-play minimum rule is eliminated for 2020. When we do open, we want each member

to use their own judgement, if they want to play or not, without any pressure. Some will play

right away and others may not play at all. Most will fall somewhere in between. That’s OK.

We want you to enjoy your ASGC experience and feel safe doing so.

When we have a start date we will send you a list of ways to stay safe while having fun.

Our generation is made up of thinkers and doers. Many of us have been in or seen the effects of

WW2, The Cuban missile crises, Vietnam and other recent wars. We have been through SARS,

MERS, Legionnaires disease, plagues, flus and many other things. Our generation was taught

that hard work and determination would pull us through anything, and we would come out the

other side stronger and wiser for it.

We will get through this too. Our physical strength may not be what it was in our 20s and 30s

but our wisdom and tenacity will pull us through. This is the time to strengthen your

relationships, forgive freely, help a neighbor, call your old friends and laugh as much as you can.

I saw a card that said; “Friends make us laugh; Great friends make us laugh till we almost pee.”

May all of us have, and be, that great friend. We will get through this together.

Until then; practice your putting, chipping and patience.

I hope to see you on the course soon.

Dale Strawser

President

Arlington Seniors Golf Club


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From the President, June 2020


Hopefully all of you have seen the email form Bill Dawson that ASGC will resume play starting

June 22. You will find the list of courses on the Arlington County Seniors Golf Club website.

We are contacting all of the courses to confirm that they are ready for us and what their course

policy is for safe play, paying, bunkers, pins etc.

Note that some courses may change in the coming weeks due to ASGC being closed. We will

keep you posted when/if changes occur. Some courses are charging an additional fee for

individual carts.

Here are the minimum guidelines to follow per Golf Digest sent to us from Chuck Hadden.

1. It’s important to take the safety of others into consideration. “We have a civic

responsibility,” says Dr. J. Trees Ritter, DO and a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of

America. “If you’re not feeling well you should not be going to the golf course, period.

People are sometimes in denial or are selfish.”

2. Since indoor environments invite more opportunity for close person-to-person contact,

make your tee times and payments online (or over the phone) and change your shoes in

the parking lot. As for bathroom visits, we recommend wiping down as much as you can

and washing your hands thoroughly if you absolutely can’t avoid using one.

3. Tees, scorecards and pencils are touchpoints you want to avoid. Bring your own tees,

pencil and scorecard with you. No scorecard? You can easily print one out at home. If

you’re really inventive, tape it to a cardboard backing to add some sturdiness to it. Better

yet, download a golf app that, among other things, allows you to keep score on your

phone.

4. Unlike the vast expanse of a golf course, practice areas are often more concentrated.

Consider having hitting areas spread 15 feet apart and try to limit the number of people at

one time. Also, you want to avoid touching balls others have touched.

5. Moving forward you need to give everyone some space. That means not heading to the first

tee until the group in front of you has teed off. Courses can play a role in this by spacing out

the tee times to 12- and 15-minutes. If your course is still using tee times at 10 minutes or

less, consider playing at times that tend to be less crowded.

6. Given the importance of hand hygiene, handshakes should be a non-starter and words of

encouragement or a greeting need to be said from a distance. Similarly, players should only

handle their own clubs


7. It is safer to walk with a carry bag or pushcart (always maintain sufficient distance from

others). Carts, if needed, should be one person to a cart for a while (a possible exception

might be for family members or friends that you trust). Even having two bags on one cart

risks people interacting too closely.

8. The objective is to minimize touching anything others might like flagsticks, rakes, ball

washers, water coolers.

9. With no rakes, bunkers are an issue. Move the ball to a smooth area if it is in a footprint. Try

to smooth the area with your foot when you are finished. On the green, remember our “In

The Leather rule”; Within the leather, it is good.

10. After the round, make sure you wash your hands, use sanitizer and wipe down your

equipment.

11. Common sense. There is no replacement for it. If you feel unsafe or are in an uncomfortable

position regarding carts, players, course; say something. See if an adjustment can be made.

All of us have choices.

12. Follow CDC guidelines, use the above suggestions and add your own safety guidelines.

ASGC and the golf courses cannot keep you safe. Only you can do that.

Most courses have a limited number of golf carts so scheduling and tracking have become huge

challenges. Be patient as we work through this.

We are adjusting to a new way of playing and scheduling and we will continue to adjust as

needed.

Feel free to reach out to me with comments and suggestions at DaleStrawser@Gmail.com

See you on the course.

Dale


While safer to walk with a carry bag or pushcart— always while maintaining


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From the President March 2020

Arlington Senior Golf Club,

Hello fellow ASGC members,

The Corona-Virus is on everyone’s mind. It is in the news, on social media, it has closed schools,

added more tele-work…. You get the point. There is a lot of information coming at us from

every direction. What we choose to with that information is our own decision. Are we going to

let this instill fear in us, pull the covers over our heads and hoard toilet paper or are we going to

be smart and choose healthy habits and activities that we enjoy? Each one of us has a choice. I

am not going to tell you what to do or judge your decisions. There may be underlying

conditions that only you know about and you should not be at additional risk.

You probably heard that Arlington County has canceled all activities. This means that ASGC is in

a holding pattern until the County says we can resume normal activities.

BUT, There is some good news. The golf courses are open. We contacted the courses and they

are willing to supply a starter and have us play on the dates and times that are on the sign up

sheets. They will also honor the previously negotiated ASGC discount with each course. Each

course will handle this on their own. This starts with the spring tune up next week and normal

play in the weeks following. Please remove your name now if you choose not to play so the

courses can book other golfers.

If you did not sign up and want to, add your name to the sign-up sheets for the weeks you plan

on playing. Remember, these are not ASGC activities. We are trying to help you and the courses

with the schedule that was previously sent.

Depending on the length of the closure we may need to re-visit the seven play minimum for this

year.

You will see me on the course since I believe it is safer to be there than in the store hoarding

toilet paper and bottled water or anywhere there is a large crowd.

Once Arlington County resumes its normal activities, and ASGC is able to operate again, we will

notify you and it will be business as usual.

This is a crazy time for all of us. Use your best judgement, wash your hands, “Air Bump” your

partner, enjoy the fresh air and hit em straight.

I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Dale Strawser