SMI NewsBrief
by Jack Garrity (aka Mr. Smooth)…Monday, October 12, 2015
The 220th match in the Senior Men’s Interclub series was played today at Marsh Creek Country Club. The field consisted of 119 players representing 15 member clubs. Dave Spring, the club representative for Marsh Creek, was today’s Tournament Director. His club’s Head Professional, Cary Splane PGA, ensured the course was in prime condition and the holes were cut in SMI-friendly locations; that is, visiting teams were as likely as the host team to “hit the flagsticks.” Dave (left) and Dan Branch PGA (right), Marsh Creek’s assistant golf professional, handled the preround announcements and launched 30 carts onto a first-class course. Great job all around!
TODAY’S COURSE
Each month we coordinate the course layout with the host club’s golf professional. As shown below, the layout prescribes hole-by-hole yardages, pars, and handicap stroke allocations. Now and then, our scorecard may differ from the over-the-counter scorecard handed out in the golf shop. Ours is the official scorecard!
Charting today’s scores (see below) against those made last month at St. Johns could make a grown man scratch his head. The spikes in the histograms for St. Johns and Marsh Creek are somewhat dissimilar although their distributions overall are quite similar. Consider these facts: 70.4 percent of the players at St. Johns and 57.1 percent of the players at Marsh Creek beat their handicaps. On the other hand, the average player at St. Johns scored 37.1 points and 2.7 strokes below bogey while the average player at Marsh Creek scored 35.0 points and 1.3 strokes below bogey. What do you make of the performance comparison? Is one course harder than the other or is one set of golfers better than the other?
TEAM STANDINGS
Nine teams climbed the leaderboard today relative to last month, with Jacksonville making the biggest move—finishing eight places higher than at St. Johns. Hidden Hills widened its first-place lead on the season by adding twelve points to its spread over Marsh Landing in second place. World Golf Village looks to be roaring into contention by narrowing its gap out of first place by twelve points. Six teams rose on the season: Deercreek, Jacksonville, Marsh Creek, Orange Park, Queen’s Harbour, and San Jose. 54 percent of our players pulled their generally recognized 36-point quota; note however that it takes 34 points to match 1:1 odds under our handicapping system. Accordingly, 51 percent of our players met their handicap index or better.
In six previous events at their home course, Marsh Creek took second place twice by seven- and twenty-two point margins with respect to the leading team. As for the other four times, they were out of the Top Four: little doubt that being the home team is a sure advantage.
WINNING-TEAM LEADERS
Generally, a “big gun” helps his team into one of the top four places by scoring at least 40 points. Today 22 players scored 40 points or more; 11 of those were on the prize-winning teams including Michael Boyer WG who overcame 67:1 odds with four birdies which may seem astronomical but only qualifies for 40th place on the all-time list.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD
Twelve different odds-breakers filled the twelve slots shown on today’s individual leaderboards (below). In all, 80 players in the 119-man field overcame the odds associated with their handicap indexes. Isn’t that fair or what?
MULTIPLE SUBPAR SHOOTERS
Eagles 1 Ray Baughn EH, Hole 3 (435 yards, Par 5)
Birdies _4 Michael Boyer WG
Birdies _3 Tex Blinn HH
Total __44 Eagles and Birdies Today (2014 average: 71.7)
CLOSEST TO FLAGSTICK
Hole 04 Tom Petrie SG 2′ 3½”
Hole 07 Howard Dale SN 3′ 0″
Hole 15 John Asmuth QH 5′ 11″
Hole 17 Ron Myers EH 2′ 2″
TOUGHEST HOLES
On average, we pick up (that is, score zero) on 96 holes at each event. Today’s course forced 112 pickups which tied for 32nd place among 108 events on the all-time pickup list. Hole 2, a 355-yard par 4, forced fourteen pickups. Two holes, 4 and 17, recorded a single pickup.
NEXT MATCH
What: Third annual Barney Poston Cup
When: 9:00 a.m., Monday, November 16, 2015
Where: Deerwood Country Club
A George Cobb design (1960)
Renovated by Brian Silva (2004)
5,688 yards, 69.0/117/90.7 (course/slope/bogey)
Who: Bruce MacDonald QH, Tournament Director
Jim Lohbauer PGA, Head Professional
Defender: Last year a sudden, drenching rain shortened the round such that 20 players didn’t return a card. Topping that, a nearby lightning strike interrupted the power system and made scoring impossible. This incident inspired us to add a UPS device to the league’s inventory.
FINANCIAL NEWS
Dave Noble DC, our league treasurer, filed his latest report in the table below. Please take note of two entries referring to advertisements posted by league members Tex Blinn HH, who is linked on our Home Page and the latest Results Page, and Jock Ochiltree WG, who is linked on our latest Results Page. Please support our two website sponsors.
You can offset the annual cost of our website by clicking on one or two Google ads! Each click generates income. Our last Google check was worth $105.76.
