|
From The President
There are many things the Club does that the membership may not be aware are taking place. This ranges from an in-depth study of capital expenditure needs and how those are financed to employee performance reviews and sexual harassment training for all employees of the Club. This last endeavor was just completed, with three sessions conducted (in English and Spanish). These sessions were organized by our Human Resources experts at the Club (all volunteer members led by Connie Goerich). It takes time and has become a mandatory annual requirement for all the Club’s employees. I attended this last series and can say it was very well done. I want to extend both congratulations and thanks (as this is now a federal and state requirement) to Connie Goerich and Lew Devendorf for organizing and conducting the sessions and keeping the Club in regulatory compliance. It also reassures the employees that they are in a safe work environment.
Another tedious but necessary endeavor is the annual review of the Club's long-range capital requirements. This project is taken on by a select committee that digs deep into the forecasted requirements of the Club out through 2037. The Club's needs and costs are challenged and reviewed, and an agreed-upon forecasted CAPEX is brought forward so financial planning can occur without surprises. This is a group of volunteer members with expertise in financial planning, budgeting, and senior management. They are dedicated to ensuring the long-term success of our club.
The 2024 TVGC Match Play Championships are underway. Congratulations to those who have made it to the championship round. Best of luck!
Don “Doc” Holliday
TVGC President
| |
From The Player Performance Director
Match Play Championship
On Wednesday, January 24th, we will be crowning our Match Play Champions. Championship matches will start at 10:00 am on the Peaks Course and conclude with our Women’s Championship Flight at 11:30 am and Men’s Championship Flight at 11:39 am. We encourage you to follow along to cheer on your fellow members.
Arizona Golf Association: Rules of Golf Seminar
Join us on Thursday, February 1st, at 3:30 PM in the Multi-Purpose room for a Rules of Golf seminar hosted by the Arizona Golf Association. Logan Rasmussen, Senior Director of Championships from the AGA, will deliver a presentation on the rules and answer any questions. Sign up on ForeTees if you would like to attend the seminar.
Couples Club Championship
Registration for the Couples Club Championship is now open! We have 20 team slots available for sign-up before the deadline on Friday, February 2nd, at noon. Please note that this championship is exclusively for couples with dual memberships. Signing up for this event will automatically include the post-golf dinner.
Upcoming Demo Days
- Friday, January 26th - Cobra Demo Day: 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
- Saturday, February 10th - Mizuno Demo Day: 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
- Friday, February 16th - Multi-Vendor Demo Day (Callaway, Taylormade, XXIO & Cleveland): 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Understanding Ball Flights: Why did the ball start there?
Over the course of the next Divot Updates, I want to focus on ball flights and what factors influence them. Let’s start by talking about the launch direction.
TrackMan defines the launch direction as the horizontal direction of movement of the golf ball’s center of gravity immediately after leaving the club face. Simply put, your ball's initial launch direction in relation to the target line (pull, straight, or push). Two major factors influence the launch direction: club face angle and club path. According to data collected by Trackman, face angle has a 75% influence on the initial launch direction for irons and an 85% influence on most drivers.
Next time you practice or play and have difficulty starting the ball on your target line, remember that path only accounts for 25% of the initial launch direction for irons and 15% for drivers. Too often, golfers focus too much on the path and not enough on the face angle.
| | |
|
|
Now, having a better understanding of launch direction and the factors that influence it, can you name the 13 major ball flights? If so, think about the face angle and the path required to produce each flight.
Dr. Bob Rotella said, “Golf is about how well you accept, respond to, and score with your misses much more so than it is a game of your perfect shots.” Having a better understanding of the cause and effect of your ball flight will help expedite your improvement process.
Learn more about the launch direction by booking a lesson with our golf professionals.
Evan Wright
Player Performance Director
| |
| What type of tees do you prefer? | | | |
The Results will be announced in our next communication. | |
|
From The Grounds Committee
Last week’s frost pretty much completed the transformation of our Bermuda grass roughs to dormancy for the rest of the winter season, resulting in the sharp contrast between the brown Bermuda rough and our green overseeded fairways, greens, and green surrounds. Golfers have undoubtedly seen some brown patches in the fairways of both courses as well and may be wondering if the ryegrass is dying. That’s not the case…..the brown patches are just small areas where the Ryegrass overseed didn’t “take” because of slight wash-out or very hardy areas of Bermuda, and where the cold temperatures have finally driven that Bermuda into dormancy.
The good news is that the brown patches shouldn’t affect playability to any great extent, and we’re planning to spray them with green pigment to improve aesthetics as soon as the rain passes.
Just a reminder... as noted above, our roughs are now fully dormant for the rest of the winter season. This means they’ll stay wet longer after rain because the grass is not drawing any moisture and the grass won’t recover from any damage done by cart traffic. Please keep all carts – including medical flag carts – in the fairways!
Tonto Verde Grounds Committee and Agronomy Staff
| |
|
From The Handicap Committee
What’s YOUR Number?????
By that, what is your number for your rounds posted compared to rounds played?
Most people have yet to learn what this means. You can find out YOUR number by looking at your Peer Review Report (Foretees; Handicaps; Peer Review Report; Search your name; Select your name). If you have a perfect report, all rows will be green. If you have some yellow, that means you have a posted score missing from that date.
To participate in TVGC Golf Events, we ask our members to post their scores for every round of golf that they play – Not just the Good Rounds, and not just the BAD rounds – EVERY round. The Handicap Committee checks before each event if all the scores are POSTED. If you happen to have a LOW number for your rounds posted, then our committee will contact you to clean up your Peer Review Report. Ideally, if all members are at 80%. If you have achieved 100%, that is great! You have fulfilled your responsibility to post all your scores. One common problem we encounter is posting scores for the wrong day. To prevent this, we recommend posting your score on the same day of play.
You should have received an email on Tuesday, January 16th from the USGA Handicap. The email outlined changes to the posting of 9-hole scores and incomplete rounds of 10-17 holes. For more information, click this link. WHS 2024 Revision (usga.org)
Keep it in the short grass!
| |
|
The Member 4 Member (M4M) event is full, with a few on the waitlist. If you want to add your name to the waitlist, be sure to do so very soon, as registration closes at noon on Thursday, January 25th. There will be a dinner/meeting following golf on Wednesday, January 31st, and all participants are automatically registered for the dinner unless you opt-out by contacting Cindi Reuvers at least 72 hours prior to the dinner. Anyone wishing to attend the dinner must sign up under Lifestyle/Event Registration/Food Only M4M.
Our 2024 Tonto Verde Desert Classic Invitational is on March 20th – 23rd. The event is full with 72 teams and a waitlist. If interested, check the details on our website.
Spring Best Ball sign-up is open and full, with a couple on the waitlist. There are a couple of individuals registered looking for a partner, so consider contacting them and signing up with one of them. The 2-man better ball matches will be on Wednesday, February 7th, 14th and 21st. This year's new format is "Greensomes - Round Robin," a variation of foursomes where both partners play from the teeing area, and one of the two tee shots is selected. The partner whose tee shot was not selected then plays the next stroke, and each subsequent stroke is made in alternating order until the ball is holed. This new format will expand the field, and we anticipate it will improve the pace of play. Please take a look at the member website under Golf Event Registration/MGA for more details.
The sign-up for the MGA Member-Member opens on Thursday, January 26th, and will be played on February 26th and February 28th. Both days are 12:30 shotguns on both courses. See the Golf Event Registration on our website for details.
If you are not an MGA member and want to join and participate in our events, please get in touch with me at jjlynch4@cox.net.
Jon Jay Lynch
Membership/Communication Liaison
| |
|
The January 9 General Meeting and Game Day got off to a chilly start as a frost pushed our breakfast and tee time back and changed the round from 18 to 9 holes. Following the meeting, members hit the links to play a round of “Cha-Cha-Cha” during which Laddie Lindahl danced her way to a hole-in-one on Ranch #15! It was Laddie’s second hole-in-one; she’s had one each on both the Peaks and Ranch.
As a reminder, you can access minutes of the General Meetings on ForeTees by clicking on “Golf Leagues,” then “WGA,” and looking under “Meetings and Budgets.” You can also find Game Day results on the site by clicking on “Results” inside “Golf Leagues.”
| |
|
|
Our WGA roster has grown to 215 members, which means even more chances to make new golf friends. When you meet these ladies who’ve joined us this season, give them a big welcome: Monica Condomitti, Laurie DeCook, Tina Harris, Michele Naumes, Beverly Sargent, Saundra Shapiro, and Melanie Smith. In addition, please welcome Hunter McAloon, who is now assisting Matt McKovich as the Golf Shop’s liaison to the WGA.
Terri Kennedy, Committee Chair, (pictured below) ordered up a beautiful, sunny day to golf with our neighbors in the Rio/Tonto Mixer. She worked with a representative from Rio to coordinate the annual golf and dinner event. WGA members Karen Wilhelm and Nancy Nielsen, playing with Rio members Elaine McCardel and Diane Aves, finished first in the event.
| |
|
Sign-up is open for these upcoming events:
- 4 Member - February 13 and 15
Make your own team, or let the Golf Shop know you’d like to play. Tee time is scheduled for 12:30 pm and the format is a progressive best ball. The cost for dinner on the 15th is $36. Contact Cindi Reuvers at creuvers@tontoverde.com if you want to opt out of dinner.
- Hohokam Classic - March 5 - 7
Invite a guest and sign up for the upcoming Motown Showdown Event.
- WGA General Meeting and Game Day - February 6
12:00 pm shotgun start; dinner/meeting after golf
On January 30, Sign-up opens for the LNGA-WGA Mixer scheduled for February 27. Two golfers from each league will be paired to play together in this scramble, with dinner to follow.
Glenda O’Neal, WGA Secretary
| |
|
We had perfect weather this week for our annual Guest Event! We had 88 participants including 32 guests. The royals were out on the green wearing their pink colors and tiaras. Congratulations to Jackie Singler, Lynn Cabrera, Janice Bachrach, and Michelle Rife on their birdies this week! Michelle Rife was definitely the “Queen of the Green” as she lit up the course with 3 pars, 1 birdie, and 1 eagle…congratulations, Michelle!
We’d like to welcome our newest member to the Niners: Pam Williams! We’re looking forward to golfing with you, Pam!
Our next game will be held on January 23 at 9:30 AM. Don’t forget to stay after golf to eat lunch with your teammates!
| |
|
We had perfect weather this week for our annual Guest Event! We had 88 participants including 32 guests. The royals were out on the green wearing their pink colors and tiaras. Congratulations to Jackie Singler, Lynn Cabrera, Janice Bachrach, and Michelle Rife on their birdies this week! Michelle Rife was definitely the “Queen of the Green” as she lit up the course with 3 pars, 1 birdie, and 1 eagle…congratulations, Michelle!
We’d like to welcome our newest member to the Niners: Pam Williams! We’re looking forward to golfing with you, Pam!
Our next game will be held on January 23 at 9:30 AM. Don’t forget to stay after golf to eat lunch with your teammates!
| |
|
OouOur next two Interclubs at Anthem and Troon are filled, but there are still a few openings for Rio Verde on February 15.
Debbie Barth, Diane Link, Tracy Drown, Barb Whittaker, Diane Blaha, Pam Bowen, and Kris Hanousek braved the cold weather at DC Ranch Interclub on January 8. Diane Link’s team placed 1st!
| |
|
|
Our very popular Couples Event on January 30 is filling up quickly, so be sure to register today. Remember that singles can sign up, and we’ll pair up 8-person teams for the scramble. We’re having a Luau theme, so pull out your Hawaiian shirts, dresses, grass skirts—whatever you want to wear! Be sure to arrive by 1:30 pm as we will have several games available prior to the scramble.
Our January 10 Academies featuring Evan on stretching and flexibility were a huge success, and the January 31 Academies at 2 and 3 pm will open for registration on January 23.
| |
|
Please be sure to take a minute to fix the ball marks on the green and fill the divots. We’re very blessed to be able to play on two beautiful courses in our community!
The USGA changes have now taken effect, so remember that if you play 10-17 holes, you MUST enter your score hole-by-hole to determine your 18-hole Score Differential. The easiest way to enter hole-by-hole scores is through the USGA GHIN app. Also, as previously mentioned, 9-hole scores are combined with an expected Score Differential so they can count toward your Handicap Index the very next day--instead of waiting to play your next 9-hole game.
Diane Link, LNGA President
| |
|
Men’s Putting occurs every Thursday at 3:00 pm at the beautiful Tonto Verde Putting Course.
Come out and join your fellow Tonto Verde community members in an enjoyable round of putting. Bring $5, your putter, and a golf ball to try your skill on the course. Weekly prizes and hole-in-one awards.
Recent winners:
First place - Bob Thompson & Troy Krumenacker
Second place - Dave Curto & Berry Kiminski
Third place - Ron McMillan & Randy Irving
Looking forward to seeing you on the course. For any questions, please contact Jim Crego
| | | | |
