Rocky Bayou Country Club

Flights:

Tee Times & Pairings:

34th Annual “Deep Freeze”
Men’s Golf Tournament
Rocky Bayou Country Club
Saturday & Sunday March 19-20, 2011

ENTRY FEES:

$135 per person (public)
$110 (member using club’s cart)
$85 (member riding in a private cart or Gold Card member)

Entry Fee includes cart fee and range balls both days, lunch, tee gifts and prizes.

One practice round for non-members available for $25 the week of March 12^th-18^th.

Non-members may make tee times two days in advance of practice round.

Friday Night Stag Party!  6:00 PM  Steak Sandwich & Drink Specials!

FIELD: The field consists of 96 two-person teams comprised of men 18 years of age or older.

Field is limited to the first 18 PAID teams entering the Open Championship Scratch Division, the first 18 PAID teams entering the Senior Championship Scratch Division (both entrants must be 50 years of age or older) and the first 60 PAID teams entering the Handicap Divisions.

You must indicate which division you are entering on the entry form.  The tournament committee reserves the right to reject any application.  Handicaps must be valid and verifiable or you must play scratch, with no handicap.  Inflated handicaps will not be tolerated and may result in disqualification.

FORMAT: Best ball of two for 36 holes (weather permitting).

Open Championship teams will play from the Gold Tees with No Handicap.

Senior Championship teams (50+) will play from the Blue Tees with No Handicap.
Open Handicap flights will play from the Blue Tees using Full Verified Handicap.
Senior Handicap Flights (65+) will play from the White Tees using Full Verified Handicap.

Partners’ handicaps may not have a difference of more than eight (8) strokes

Handicap teams will be flighted prior to the first day’s play based on total handicap.

PLAY: Shotgun starts at 8:00 AM and 12:30 PM both days, if needed.

Open Championship and Senior Championship Divisions will play at 8:00 AM on Saturday and12:30 PM on Sunday.

Handicap flights will play in either AM or PM shotguns as assigned by the committee.  NO EXCEPTIONS.   Please arrive one hour prior to starting time for registration.

ESTIMATED TEAM PRIZES (Based on a Full Field and minimum 12 Teams per Flight)

1^st Place – $600      2^nd Place – $360     3^rd Place – $240      4^th Place – ?

*PRIZES WILL BE PAID IN CASH UNLESS OTHERWISE REQUESTED*.

Optional individual skins game ($10) for day one and a team buy-in for day two ($40).

For more information please contact Andy Potter (PGA Club Professional & Manager) at 850-678-3270 ext 4 or apotter@rockybayoucc.com.  Also, all tournament information including entry forms will be available on our website at www.rockybayoucc.com.

Congratulations to Jeanne Shaw on her Eagle on number 9 Saturday, January 8, 2011.

Yes, I said Eagle and yes it was on number 9, you know, over the water.

Great playing, Jeanne!!

Copied from the January newletter

Every seven to ten years our course is re-rated by the Florida State Golf Association (FSGA), to determine its playing difficulty.

The USGA Course Rating System takes into account the factors that affect the playing difficulty of a golf course.  The overall length and the effective playing length are two of the main factors.  The effective playing length takes into consideration things such as roll, elevation, dogleg/forced lay-up, prevailing wind, and altitude.  They also factor in the difficulty of the landing areas for all tees.  Other factors they consider include obstacles that affect playing difficulty, such as water hazards, bunkers, out of bounds, trees, and even psychological factors, in accordance with established standards.  Green speed and undulation are also factored in.

A team of course raters from the FSGA came out in November, gathered all of this data, and played the course.  The team sends their data and recommendations to the USGA and the FSGA for certification and they issue a course rating and slope rating for each set of tees.  The Course Rating measures the playing difficulty for a scratch golfer, and the Slope Rating measures the playing difficulty for the non-scratch or bogey golfer.  Both of these numbers are used to calculate your handicap index.

For men, our Course Rating came back slightly lower than our previous rating, meaning the course plays slightly easier for the scratch golfer than the previous rating.  Our Slope Rating came back slightly higher than before, meaning the course plays slightly harder for the bogey golfer than the previous rating.  Since both of these numbers are used to calculate your handicap, you shouldn’t see much difference in your handicap with the new ratings.

For women, both the Course Rating and the Slope went down slightly, meaning the course plays a bit easier than the previous rating.  You may see your handicaps go up very slightly.

The new ratings will be posted in the golf shop and on our website for you to look at.  Visit the handicapping and course rating section of www.usga.org for more information.

Assigning handicap holes:  It is common to re-assign handicap stroke holes when courses are re-rated.  Contrary to what many people believe, the assigning of handicap stroke holes is not a ranking of the holes from hardest to easiest.  It looks at which holes have the largest spread between what a scratch golfer (or low handicapper) scores and what a bogey golfer (or higher handicapper) scores.  We have been collecting hundreds of scorecards over the past few months, and inputting the scores to see which holes have the greatest difference.  The committees then take this data, apply the USGA’s recommended adjustments, consider actual playing conditions, and assign handicap holes #1-18.

Our committees made two significant changes: #1 We made a change to have the odd hdcp holes on the front nine, and even on the back.  This is the more common practice and is recommended by the USGA.  #2 We used one set of handicaps for all men’s tees, rather than two, except for when the hole #10 Blue Tee is either on the hill or across the water.

We realize that not everyone will agree with the way every hole ranks, but the committees did a good job of taking the data, applying some common sense to it and coming up with a logical set of rankings. Not surprisingly, holes #9 & #14 ranked very low.  In general, the longer holes ranked lower and the par 3’s ranked higher.

Many thanks to the handicap hole committees for their help:
Men: Darrell Elliott, Bob Keller, Gene Bures, Morrie Beitch
Women: Jo Burger, Marianne Wendel, Carol Elliott, Marilyn Reisenwitz

Congratulations to John Fortenberry for shooting 2 strokes better than his age. On Wednesday, Nov 24th John shot a 76. He is 78. Great golfing!

We also had a trio of Holes-in-One in November:

• Nov 16: Pat Halprin aced hole #15 during the LGA Match Play Tournament
• Nov 21: Bob Weideman aced hole #12.
• Nov 23: Jeanne Shaw aced hole #12.

Entry Form

Attention Beginning & Novice Lady Golfers:

***NEW TIME:  5:00 PM***

Bunker Rakes Survey – Results

The Golf Committee has conducted a survey of the membership to help determine whether the bunker rakes should be kept in the bunkers or out of them.   The results were as follows:
A total of 56 surveys were completed.

A.  In the Bunker – 21

B.  Outside the Bunker – 33

C.  Other – 2

The Golf Committee has revisited the issue by taking the survey results, as well as the USGA  and other organizations’ recommendations into consideration and has decided that the bunker rakes will return to being placed outside of the bunkers as they had previously.  Please try to place them to the sides of the bunkers or in an area where they are least likely to be struck by a ball.

We found out some interesting things by going through this process.  The first is that our survey closely resembles other surveys done of course superintendents, golf professionals and golf industry professionals.  In other words, there is no clear consensus,  but about 55%-60%  prefer the rakes outside the bunkers.
The second is that most everyone agrees that from a visual standpoint the course looks prettier with the rakes in the bunkers, but from a golfing standpoint the rakes come into play more often when they are in the bunker.
The debate will no doubt continue, but for now the rakes at Rocky Bayou will be left outside the bunkers.

Congratulations go to Roger Bloor on his Double-Eagle (a 2 on a par 5!) on hole #3 on Friday, March 29th.  He nailed a hybrid from 225 yards.  Roger is home on a break from his tour in the Middle East.