Happy New Year!
 
Your entire golf shop staff wishes you a most healthy, happy and prosperous New Year! We have many new and exciting projects planned for you this year both on the course and off. Watch the upcoming newsletters for further details. And, let’s hope this Covid thing goes away and pronto!
 
We’d also like to thank all those who brought us various goodies, cards, and gifts at Christmas time. It is really nice to be remembered by such a great membership! Most of the edible gifts didn’t see sundown!
 
Our January Clearance Sale starts this month at both courses so be sure and come by and pick up some bargains, particularly in the ladies departments!
 
For those who wish to keep up with such things, we’ve had some very minor moisture since I wrote the December article. A few minor rain/snow events causing some inconvenience but nothing to really brag about from a moisture gauge standpoint. As I write this on December 19, we’re still hoping for winter moisture which is a great help to the courses. I will tell you we have had several pretty nasty wind events sometimes lasting several days at a time…which does no one any good.
 
We need to let you know of some news from the USGA/GHIN/WHS, WHS has sent out info (which many of you have already received) about having your own dedicated email attached to you GHIN number. Many of you have your own email attached already but effective mid-January, those who may have been sharing an email address must have your own to maintain a handicap index. Best we can tell, this has to do with security in some fashion where there has been confusion as to more than one person with the same name and the wrong index being applied and effecting the outcome of a competition.
 
Also, on a more local level, our Sun Country Amateur Vice-President and Alto member, Bill Doyle, is setting up a re-rate for our golf courses tentatively set for March 13-14-15 with a Rules of Golf and Rating Seminar following on the 16^th, and then a SCAGA Play Day on the 18^th. For those unfamiliar with the course rating process, these are actually done by humans using a fairly sophisticated formula and parameters taking in to account different skill levels and obvious things like distance, as well as many not so obvious like prevailing winds both direction and velocities, forced carries, water-bunker-tree proximities and a number of other factors…it’s a way to rate courses against each other. There is always a need for rating team members and is a great way to see and play other courses in Sun Country and play our game for a purpose in addition to just enjoying the experience. This Seminar on the 16-17 will cover such things and I’d think with our membership, we should be able to supply a good number of players to join rating teams which are desperately needed. Men and Women of all skill levels are needed so might check it out at least, and there’s certainly no obligation to become a rater but I’d think it would be most interesting to any golfer to see how this process actually happens.
 
 
The 2021 Tournament Schedule is in process of being finalized. No major date changes other than adjusting for the one day “calendar creep” year normally brings. A couple of our Major events which I believe to be pretty firm are the ALGA Kachina Doll June 14-17 and the AMGA Snowcapper draft dates are August 2-5, with registration on Monday the 2nd , and actual competition days for 3-5 which is Tuesday-Thursday. Also, the AMGA Lonesome Pine stays in its traditional post Labor Day slot September 7-9 (Tuesday-Thursday) with registration contemplated for Labor Day Monday late afternoon from 4-5PM. We should have the final copy of the schedule by the next Avalanche.
 
Related to the Tournament Schedule for 2021, there will be some more AMGA Play Days on tap as the BOD has approved the AMGA also having weekly events similar to the ALGA. New this year is both groups regular weekly events will both occur on Wednesday. So, if the ALGA is playing Alto, the AMGA will be playing Outlaw and vice-versa. While this will hinder regular play to some extent on Wednesday mornings, it was felt by the groups and the BOD this would 1) Encourage play in the associations, 2) Make for a more equal number of events, and 3) free Fridays up completely for those who go back and forth on weekends allowing them an unobstructed 3 day weekend. We’ll see how it works out this year and of course these events (as always) are subject to the major events like Club Championships, Member-Members, Kachina Doll, and Snowcapper taking precedence when they involve a Wednesday.
 
Lucia and I will not be headed to Orlando for the PGA Merchandise Show in January as we would normally do (Show was cancelled this year due to Covid)...most of our vendors are going to be doing virtual showrooms online so we’ll see how that works out. If there is anything in particular which you’ve seen which we do not normally carry, a quick heads up to me can try and take a look at these “showrooms” …if it has anything to do with golf in any way, it will be displayed there.