Finally we get to play Saxon Woods - the way it was meant to play. Fairways cut and greens rolled. For the first time this summer we had three consecutive dry days leading up to the weekend (I looked it up). Mike was able to get the equipment out and had the course in prime shape.  Even the fireworks debris was out of the way by the time we teed off.  Yet more amazing as the course had almost 800 rounds of play on Wed (287), Thurs (295) and Fri (200 with early close) - still it felt like prime conditions.   We really are playing at Westchester's best course this year.

The first round of the President's Cup is over and we are down to eight.   Ron Sanossian slipped past Hank (in spite of his new clubs) and our PBB Champion, Pete Ennis, got by Andy. Fred Appel beat Tony Bucceri and now gets to face his regular partner, Rich Hastings.

I hope everyone took the opportunity to play from the variety of tees offered in "Red White and Blue."  It really is more fun up front.  For those looking to post their scores - use the Add A Course option at GHIN and create one with a rating of 68.8; slope 122.  Simpler is to post from the White tees, but that gives a differential 1.3 strokes too low - good for the vanity handicap, but hard on the bettor's pocketbook.

 This Week At A Glance

From the First Tee	Saturday, July 9th	Matches This Week
	First Tee Time: 5:40 (last week) Forecast: Sunny, Hot                  but rain on Thurs & Fri	President's Cup Round Two

Reminders - everyone's handicap is on the Tee Times/Handicaps page; Comment Box is on the "About Us" page; All members' contact info in the Members Only section (ask webmaster for password if you can't find it.)

As we head into the second half of the 2011 season I thought it would be a good time to look at our handicaps and see how we're doing in our quest for a better game.  On the one hand we have better equipment and more experience.  On the other, the course is definitely tougher (see previous notes on holes #6 & 7) and some of us had birthdays.

They say the average score for 18 holes is around 100 and hasn't changed much in the last 20 years.  But that includes all those duffers - the ones who tee off on Friday afternoons with coolers of beer, leave big divots and just don't have our skills - right?  True.  Many of them don't keep handicaps - less than 20% of golfers do.  The average USGA handicap index for active golfers is 16.1 - average for The Saxony Club is 16.6.  So not bad.  If it make you feel any better fully 10% of single digit handicaps belong to golfers under 18 years old.  Discounting those kids makes our group better than average.  Congrats - But are we getting better?

I started with our  indices at July  7, 2010 and followed them through to the latest update.  In our group of  57 golfers, 51 have had handicaps for the full year and of those, 39 have posted more than 8 rounds in 2011.  I focussed on those 39.

We have posted 587 rounds posted this year; an average of 15 games each.  One of us has 40 rounds in already and three others have posted 30+ scores.  Our indices range from 4.7 to 26.8 - averaging 15.6.  Square in the middle (our median) is Joe Valenti at 15.7.  And, try as we might, we're a little worse than we were when Saxon Woods opened last year.

Our average index has increased from 14.9 to 15.6.  While that's less than a stroke overall the average individual index has increased by more than 10%.  Ouch.  Does that mean Hudson Hills in 2010 was easier than Saxon today?  Feel free to discuss.

By the way that change carries across all levels - low, mid and high handicappers have all suffered. For the visual thinkers I've put up a couple graphs showing trend by person over time.  Click here to view  Low Index  Medium Index  High Index.

 The better players have slipped the farthest - those between 4 and 13 have gone up 20% (sorry Andy and Hammer), while the rest of us are up 5%.  It's hard to stay good at this game.

Some have gone against the trend and improved:  12 have lower indices than last year.  Most improved (in number of strokes) is our PBB Champion Peter Ennis who has shed 2.1 strokes.  (I'm sure a quiet word from Bob Price will fix that quick enough.)  At the other end of the scale, there is great suffering - 5 have gained 3 strokes or more.  May your swing return soon.  

How can we fix this disturbing slide?  A survey of 425,000 golfers published in the American Journal of Statistics looked for the biggest influence on  a person's handicap - age?  lessons? club membership? athleticism?  Answer: none of the above.  They determined that the biggest statistical correlation between a low handicap and a personal variable was.... the age at which you started to play.   The sooner you picked up the game -the higher the liklihood that you are good.  Nothing we can do about that now.  Second highest correlation:  frequency of play.  That we can deal with.  Third was general athleticism - not fitness, but as measured by sports participation throughout life.  Hence our advice to improve:

Start young, be active AND PLAY MORE GOLF.  That I can handle.