October and November Golf Schedule
Wednesday, October 30 – Wednesday Nine & Dine 4 p.m. Front-9 Shotgun
Friday, November 1 – Night Golf Glow Ball Event – 6:30 p.m. & 7:45 p.m. Shotguns on the Par-3 Course
Saturday, November 2 – 18-Hole Women’s Saturday Golf Tournament 8:30 a.m. Tee Times
Saturday, November 2 – Villages Korean Golf Club – 12:30 p.m. Tee Times
Sunday, November 3 – San Jose State Alumni Fundraiser – 1 p.m. tee Times
Saturday, November 9 – Men’s Club Veteran’s Tournament 8:30 a.m. Shotgun – 1 p.m. Open Shotgun
Thursday, November 28 – Thanksgiving Day – 7 a.m. Tee Times – Pro Shop & Driving Range closed 1 p.m.
New & Fun Golf Event – Glow Ball Night Golf! Come out and enjoy the first time ever glow ball night golf event on the Villages Par-3 Course! Friday, November 1 at Sundown. The Par-3 Course will be lighting up the night as we all enjoy a fun evening of nighttime glow ball golf, food, drink & friends…Two 9-Hole Shotguns 6:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. $30 per person plus $13 Par-3 Course green fee. Each player will receive a glow ball, glow necklace, and a glowing drink cup. Included will be 9-holes of glow ball golf plus one hamburger or hot dog + one beer, wine or soda + select bar snacks. Sign up now at the Pro Shop. Don’t miss this first ever night golf event at The Villages!
Daylight Savings ends November 3—The Golf Winter Schedule starts that week. The Pro Shop and golf play hours of operation will be adjusted around the resultant constricted daylight hours.
The Monday shotgun will move to 12 p.m.
The Driving Range close at 2 p.m. on Mondays.
The Swingers Tuesday 9-Hole Women’s shotgun will move to 9 a.m.
The Shonis Par-3 women will move to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesdays.
The Ironmen Par-3 men will move to 1 p.m. on Thursdays.
The Pinseekers Men’s 9-hole Club Friday tee times start at Noon.
Local Rules Update
We have added a new Local Rule for The Villages. It will go into effect immediately: Goose Droppings—If your ball comes to rest on or near a Goose Dropping, and/or that Goose Dropping has adhered on your ball; you are entitled to lift, clean and replace your ball within 6-inches of its original location, with no penalty, and you may move the Goose Dropping to avoid interference.
Fall Maintenance Schedule
Fall Overseeding will continue through November 30.
Fairway Sand Top-Dressing will start October 25 and continue through November 11.
During these processes we will move to 6-inch relief, Pick-Clean-Place, no nearer the hole on the holes that are completed.
Maintenance Projects on the Golf Course—This is the time of year when the golf course experiences some turf uprooting and damage due to grub worms and the resultant grubbing from the small animals. If your golf ball comes to rest in a grubbing area of disturbed turf, you are entitled to free relief from stance and swing defined as one-club-length no nearer the hole. This is regardless of whether or not the area is officially marked as Ground Under Repair. The ball must be dropped from knee height. And again, no penalty is incurred. Let us know if you have any questions.
Let’s All Get Together Now—Be a part of our “Culture of Care” and follow these simple Golf Course Etiquette Guidelines…We can all participate in keeping our golf course beautiful by observing these nine simple acts of care:
1. Follow the 90-degree rule (longer hitters) or the Entrance Gates (shorter hitters) when entering the fairway.
2. Drive the cart from shot to shot keeping the cart in the fairway as you play the hole…please avoid driving in the rough as much as possible to maintain the integrity of the rough.
3. Do not drive within 30-feet of the greens defined by the yellow painted ground lines in front of each green.
4. Exit every hole through the exit gates – please do not drive on the mounding around the greens and proceed from hole to hole using the cart paths.
5. Respect any roping, cart directional signs and Ground Under Repair.
6. Fill all divots with sand mix.
7. Repair pitch marks on the greens.
8. Smooth out the sand in the bunkers with the bunker rake and return the rake at a right angle to bunker edge placing the head of the rake in the sand and the handle of the rake on the bunker edge.
9. Knock the sand off your shoes before walking on the green.
Let’s all make it a goal to leave our golf course in better shape than we found it, every time we play.
Tips from the Pro—Experimentation Leads to Results
A round of golf is very dynamic and will throw many different scenarios at you. Your ball might be stuck behind a tree, on a steep uphill lie, or catch an awkward lie in the greenside rough. This is exactly why you need to make experimentation a part of every practice session. Do you ever practice recovery shots? Well, you should…You see, golf is the only sport in which you do not practice and play on the same field. In baseball, you practice on the same diamond you play games on, in swimming you practice in the same pool that you swim meets in, and in football you practice on the same field on which you play the games. But in golf, we practice at a driving range off fake grass, and we chip and putt on a green with a dozen holes cut into it. And we usually have many, many golf balls when we practice, which we all know is not the reality of golf. Therefore, in order to make golf practice truly useful, we need to experiment a bit. So try different things when you practice to simulate those scenarios you will ultimately have to face on the course. Tap in to that experimental and creative side that you have. And although we do not practice golf on the golf course that we play on, experimenting will go a long way.
Here are some examples of things you can try:
1. Try hitting low punch shots with your 4-iron (like hitting from under a tree), or try hitting hooks or slices with your 6-iron (like hitting around a tree), or try hitting a very high shot with your 9-iron (like hitting over a tree).
2. Throw some balls in the deepest part of the rough around the practice green and try to dig them out and chip them close.
3. Bury a ball in the face of a bunker and climb in and hit it out onto the green.
4. Practice putting with only 1 ball – 1 try per putt.
Figuring out how to alter your technique and adapt to difficult scenarios will prove invaluable during your rounds! And you can accomplish this by practicing and experimenting on them first. Most golf tips don’t discuss what happens when things go wrong on the course, but all great golfers know how to deal with all kinds of adversity. So the next time you practice, experiment a little, think outside the box, and practice things you can actually use on the golf course to help you score better. Let us know if these tips help. To sign up for a lesson with me, email ssteele@the-villages.com
