AGC Annual Meeting Agenda

Saturday, October 19, 2019, 10:00 AM

President’s Message – Jack Jemsek

2019 has been relatively kind, as our membership has held steady despite an unfortunate loss of members due to folks passing, moving out of the area, or seeking greener pastures so to speak. However, we have gained almost 50 members, many of whom were introduced last year at this time.  We’ll have our Treasurer Gordy Palley acknowledge our new members this year later in the program, along with his Treasurer’s Report.

The bad news is that we have not fully recovered from the disastrous 2018 shortfall that resulted from the combination of the historic rainfall and heat we had that decimated all turf-related industries in the area.  The conditions in 2018 led to untimely course closures and turf damage that affected play and revenue.  In the end we found ourselves $30k hole, which we’ve been trying to refill during our 2019 season. In the last few years, our revenue and expenses have always been a few percent within each other.  To further elaborate, our revenue has been handcuffed by a national and regional golf industry that has declined significantly since 2008, as evidenced by numerous course closures in the area . . . in the meanwhile, we have Hickory Ridge hanging on, but in the meanwhile giving away greens fees for the cost of cart rentals . . . it’s insanity really.

But we can balance some bad news with good news . . . we have received encouraging words from Amherst College regarding their interest in committing to some level of long-term support of AGC, i.e., it appears that AGC may be a line item in their FY 2021 annual budget moving forward . . . this will be the first time ever in the club’s history that Amherst College would recognize AGC as a partner in this respect, as they do consider us an asset to their operations.  This development is a result of numerous meetings over the last 5 years or so with our board representatives, and I thank our past Presidents, John Hunter our VP, Gordy Palley and Jack Arena for making this happen.

Our success would not be possible without Carl Teschke and David Twhohig’s successfully run in their roles as Superintendent and Club Pro/Manager. Carl, who has ~23 years as Course Superintendent with the club, has kept the course quality at a high level despite the limitations of being able to hire a full staff and without being able to purchase all the equipment that he would ideally have. The quality of our course provided by Carl with the limited budget he has at his disposal has been amazing. Our Pro Dave Twohig, 41 years in as our Pro and club manager, continues to work his 70 to 80 hours a week during the season, and I don’t know how he does it. We have so many members, myself included, that are here because of the welcome mat he provides and the care that he provides to members and guests alike on a day in day out basis.  Thank you Carl and Dave!

I also wanted to note that we are so thankful for two of our standout board members who will be standing down this next term.  Thank you Jack Arena, after 30 years as the Amherst College representative, and John Hunter, who has been my main support as VP during our various efforts to promote and retain membership at the club these last few years. You both are class acts . . . What is awesome is that they have both offered their ongoing assistance to the club on as-needed special projects.  More good news is that Sue Everden has accepted an invite to assume the Amherst College representative role, and Mark McCandlish has accepted taking on the VP position on the board.  Thank you Sue and Mark – we are elated to have you and thank you in advance for your past and future contributions to the club.

AGC also thanks our continuing Board members that have also given their best to the club.  Gordy Palley as Treasurer, has been in the trenches for us every day in his role.  I’d also like to recognize Dave Dougan as Secretary, Jean Gowdey as member-at-large, Edith Hunsberger as AGCWA rep, and Jay Morgan as member-at-large and member liaison for their service on the board.  Jean does so much behind the scenes work that we really need to acknowledge her for her numerous efforts on behalf of the Women’s Association and the club in general. Jay Morgan has been our secret sauce, also behind the scenes . . . the insight and experience that Jay brings has been awesome for us.  So thank you Dave, Jean, Edith and Jay!

• Committee Reports:
  • Secretary – Vote to approve minutes from 2018 Annual Meeting
  • Treasurer’s Report – Gordy Palley
  • Women’s Association – Edith Hunsberger
• Presentation of 2019’s Awards and Prizes: Dave Twohig
• Election of the Board of Directors for the coming year: Jack Jemsek
  • President: Jack Jemsek (1 yr left of 2-year term)
  • Past-President:
  • Vice President: Mark McCandlish
  • Treasurer: Gordon Palley
  • Secretary/Clerk: Dave Dougan
  • Women’s Representative: Edith Hunsberger
  • Green’s Committee Chair: Carl Vigeland
  • Amherst College Rep: Susan Everden
  • At Large Jean Gowdey, Jay Morgan

Vote to accept

• New Business:

We’d like to hear from our membership at this time.  What can we do to increase our membership and further improve our golf experience at Amherst Golf Club?

• Adjournment

A big thank you to Dr. Bob for making this event grow each year!

Congratulations to Laura Shannon on winning the Women’s President’s Cup, and Karen French in her sudden death victory for the net, and to Kate Hersey for winning the 9-hole President’s Cup. The trio of Jeff Gold, Bryan Pelchat and Chris Kamansky tied for the Men’s President’s Cup, and playoff is pending. Bryan Pelchat took home the the Vice-President’s Cup for his net score.

Forget the pros, here’s how long it should take YOU to play a round of golf

By Josh Sens

AUGUST 12, 2019

Rules Corner | Out of Bounds vs. Provisional Ball

Hitting a provisional ball helps speed up the pace of play if you think your original shot may be out of bounds.

These are fractious times. The nation is divided.

But at least there are two things on which we all can agree: presidential campaigns drag on far too long, and so does Bryson DeChambeau when he’s lining up some shots.

As DeChambeau made clear is in his testy, press conference self-defense at this past week’s Northern Trust, where he was more than once mistaken for a lawn statue, slow play is a multi-headed monster. No single player — or factor — bears all the blame.

But as individual golfers, each of us has control of our own conduct; we can be part of the problem, or aid in the solution.

Which leads us to an age-old question: How long should it take the average golfer to play 18 holes?

We’re not scientists. But neither is DeChambeau (he only plays one on TV), so for the good of the game we’ve reserved the right to hash out some rough numbers and come up with an answer.

For starters, let’s assume an empty golf course. It’s just you in your foursome, playing in the first group out. Let’s forget about the slope and rating of the course, which have been shown to have a negligible impact on how quickly players get around.

When we say that you’re an average golfer, we mean “average” according to the numbers: a 15-handicap, destined to take around 90 shots over 18 holes.

How to fix slow play? Brooks Koepka recommends his anger issue strategy

As an average golfer, you drive it an average of 208 yards (that’s according to a 2017 USGA study). Given the distance you hit the ball, you should be playing a 5,400-yard course (that’s according to PGA of America recommendations).

But knowing your ego, we recognize that you’re probably not going to tee it that far forward. So, let’s assume you’re playing from 6,000 yards instead. Still with us? Off we go.

Six-thousand yards = 18,000 feet = 3.4 miles. That’s how long your golf course measures, assuming that you walk it in a straight line. But since we can’t assume that (you’re going to miss some shots), let’s increase that number by 50 percent to account for all the zigzagging you’re going to do.

With that adjustment, we expect you to walk about 5 miles over 18 holes. Assuming a gentle walking pace of 3 miles per hour, that’s a distance you should cover in 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Along the way, you’ll be taking 90 shots. Once you’ve gauged the distance and chosen a club (which is something you should be doing while your playing partners are assessing and hitting their shots), you’re going to need some time to play your shot. But not too much time. Dallying over your ball isn’t just bad etiquette. It’s bad strategy. The longer you take, the more you scrutinize a shot, the worse you’re going to hit it. Don’t believe us? Play a round of speed golf and see how dramatically your ball-striking improves.

Anyway, 15 seconds is plenty of time to waggle and swing. That’s how long Brooks Koepka says he takes over his shots, and it seems to be working pretty well for him.

So, 90 shots at 15 seconds per shot. Over the course of your round, that amounts to 1,350 seconds, or 22 minutes and 30 seconds. But since we’re feeling generous, we’ll give you extra time and round that number up to 25 minutes.

That’s nearly half an hour! You can watch a sit-com in that span. It’s plenty of time to hit 90 shots.

So, 25 minutes per player, and four players in your group. That’s 1 hour and 40 minutes in shot-preparation.

Add that to the 1 hour and 40 minutes it takes to walk the course, and we’re now at 3 hours and 20 minutes.

We understand that you’re not robots. You’ll be doing other things aside from walking and swinging. You’ll be taking bathroom breaks (we’ll allow 1 minute per player per round for that); lighting cigars (15 seconds per player per round); and telling bad jokes (30 seconds per player per round; if it takes you longer than that to tell your jokes, you should not be telling them).

Which gives us:

—4 additional minutes for bathroom breaks;
—1 additional minute for cigar-lighting;
—2 additional minutes for joke-telling.

Add that to our total, and we’re at 3 hours and 27 minutes.

You’re also going to lose some balls. Studies have shown, in fact, that the average golfer loses 1.3 balls per round. So, we’ll give you time to ball-hawk: 5 minutes per player per round should do it. Tack on another 20 minutes.

Which brings us to our grand total. It should take your foursome 3 hours and 47 minutes to play 18 holes.

Without rushing.

And if we’re playing behind you, we’re probably going to ask you to pick it up.

https://www.golf.com/golf_person/josh-sens-8/