Greendale Women's Golf Association, Alexandria, Va

Hydration  – In excessive heat, remember to start hydrating the night before golf and drink more than usual before you arrive at the course.  Start your round with a hydrated body and drink between golf shots to maintain hydration.  Don’t wait until you get out on the course to begin hydrating.

Hole 17 – Reminder, the washed out area on the left hill about 150 yards from the tee box is Ground Under Repair.  If your ball lands in that area, take a drop in the rough (not the fairway) at the bottom of the hill adjacent to where the players think the ball ended up. The GUR extends all the way to the top edge of the woods.

New members recently -In the past thirty days we have added 5 new members, bringing our total membership to 61.  Please welcome: Kathy Chandler, Tania Richards, Jackie Fleming, Dinny Jenson and Linda Burton.  New members, please familiarize yourself with the member only section of our website.

Please repair divots!  Every week GWGA is leaving fresh divots on the greens.  PLEASE carry a tee or a divot tool in your pocket and repair a divot or two, even if your ball made no divot.  If you hit the green from the fairway, likely you made a divot.  Look for it.  If you don’t know how to repair it, ask someone in your foursome.  Also, those of you riding, please use the sand mixture on your carts to fix any divots in the fairways, even if you did not make a divot.  Let’s try to keep our course in better shape.

Cancellations/changed line-ups – Recently we have experienced an unusual number of last minute cancellations due to hot temperatures.  If you are canceling due to temperatures, please do so the night before versus the morning of play.  The tournament chair needs time to adjust the line-ups.

When you arrive at the clubhouse, please check the tee sheet to see if you have been moved.  Only one person (tournament chair/member in charge) has authority to move people around.  Members must be flexible and respect those changes made by the tournament chair/member in charge.

Arrive early – First 3 foursomes arrive no later than 7; everyone else is suppose to be at the clubhouse by 7:30 a.m.  If you don’t arrive early, you may find that your foursome has already to moved to the tee box and you may miss your tee time.  When we have cancellations people are moved up, we cannot leave gaps.

See you on Thursday!

💻 Sign Ups –

• 📩 Reminder –  We cannot guarantee a specific delivery time to your inbox.  The sign up for tee times usually comes out on Sundays around 7 p.m. Our sign up coordinators, Michelle and Anne, do a great job of being right on time most weeks.  Like us all, they are busy people with lives outside of golf and sometimes may send it out up to a couple of hours early if necessary to ensure it gets out in plenty of time.  They cannot set a send-time electronically, a human has to push the send button.
• ⏰ Early tee times –  Your GWGA board meets 1-2 times during the golf season and 2 times off-season.  We have difficulty finding meeting times convenient for all of us, so we are meeting this season on 2 Thursdays following golf.  One was this past Thursday and the other date will be August 25.  We will play together in the first 3 foursomes so that we can finish together, have our meeting and close-out the day’s tournament.  We will take most of the early slots (versus later slots) because the meeting adds 1-2 hours to our day and we need to get home by 3.  It will be an all day thing for us,  gone from home about 8 hours.  We appreciate your understanding about our taking these early times once or twice during the season.  With this exception, early times have always been and will continue to be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
• 🏌 Thursday, Sep 1, Forest Greens Golf Course – Sep 1 will not be a league day.  Greendale management is hosting Arlington Seniors that day.  As a result, Peter Kim arranged for us to play at Forest Greens for $35, cart included.  We will also be able to play Greendale on Friday Sep 2, at the weekday rate.  Sign ups for both of these dates will come out 3 weeks early so that both Forest Greens and Greendale can know how many slots to reserve for us.

👏 Pace of play and ready golf improved – Our pace has improved the last few weeks and we appreciate the efforts everyone has made in this regard!  Let’s keep it up and we should have no further issues in this regard.  Good report from the starter the last few weeks!

⛳️ Lift, clean and place – Reminder that when it is cart path only, or when Greendale posts a sign near the #1 tee box that says “winter rules”, you may lift, clean and place in the fairway.

📝 Scorekeeping – Reminder that members may not refuse to keep score.  Two cards must be kept by two different people; preferably only one card per cart.   A foursome turning in only one card, or two cards kept by one person may result in disqualification.

 🤔 Who to ask, who to tell, what to do?  – You have finished golfing, something occurred during the round and you have questions 🙄 or concerns 😳but don’t know who to tell/ask?  Never lose any sleep over anything on the golf course!!  We exist to have FUN!  You may always contact our President, Sally Reams, our Vice President, Lucinda Audey or our Tournament Chair, Eileen Ruzicka.  Together we have over 15 years of GWGA experience and love our league!   BUT – Rules question?  🤓 contact our Rules Chair, Sue Spatcher.  You can find their contact information here.

GWGA Facebook news – If you’re not one of our 34 members on the closed GWGA Facebook page, below is a sampling of what people have posted.  All members are invited and encouraged to join and post.  If you would like to share photos, open/read the articles, watch the videos, participate in the conversations,  you can go here and follow instructions to sign up.  Need help doing it?  Ask!

• Watch/share video golf instruction to improve your game;
• View and share your golf/GWGA photos;
• Watch and laugh at a video of a innovative cart at Kathy Rath’s Hawaii condo;
• Read/share info about golf at the August 2016 Olympics;
• Review the new women’s golf movie coming out: “The Founders”
• Post or receive golf tournament invitations.

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June Lessons – If you have not signed up, there are still some openings. Contact Jeanie Tulipane to reserve a spot.  Contact Jeanie Tulipane to reserve a spot.

• Thursday June 9, Full-swing Clinic
• Thursday June 16, Course Management

June 14 – Greendale women’s tournament.  Sign up deadline is MONDAY, June 6.

June 21 – Golf Swap 10-12pm at Jefferson District golf course.  Get rid of all that unused golf stuff; sell it or swap it for something you want!  Watch for the evite coming soon.

Updated handicaps/flights and ringer scores have been posted.  Q. “What’s a ringer score?”  A. Your best score on each hole since the beginning of the season.

Results – Check the weekly game results  to see everyone’s scores, birdies, chip-ins and game winners.

Tee-off at correct time, not early!   We don’t have a tee starter, so please look at your watch and be sensitive to those playing behind you.  When foursome after foursome tee off earlier and earlier, by 8:20 havoc begins in the clubhouse because time accumulates as each group pushes themselves out a little earlier and a little earlier, etc.  There should be 9 minutes between tee times.   Last week the 8:24 group arrived to find they were expected to tee off more than 10-14 minutes early, cutting into their time needed to pay, use the ladies room, get coffee or look at the league table.   At the #1 tee box, please check the clock and don’t tee off until it is time.  Thanks!

GHIN Mobile App – Download the free GHIN app onto your smartphone.  It makes posting a score simple and the recent update has added features – you can see all the scores you have entered. To get the app on your Apple device (iPhone/iPad) go here: App Store; for other smartphones: search Google Play.

Are you a Turtle or a Cheetah?

Last Thursday we had two foursomes with large gaps in front of them.  So much so that a group skipped from Hole 10 to Hole 13, filled the gap, then went back to 11 and 12 after they played 18 and still finished before the group they had been following.

If you don’t see the group in front you,  you are golfing like a Turtle! 

Secrets of Cheetah golfers…..

• TRY to be first on the tee box, don’t hold back, please.  Don’t ask if it is your turn or discuss who is to go first, get up there and hit.
• Whoever arrives first on the tee box, tee off instead of talking/waiting. Hit first then record your score for the prior hole afterwards.
• Try to putt-out rather than marking a shot and waiting for others to finish.  Don’t ask whose turn it is.  Simply announce that you would like to finish so the other golfers know your intention.
• If your ball is not in anyone’s line on the green, pick up your marker and replace your ball while someone else prepares to putt.
• Whoever putts out first, leave the green and go tee off at the next hole. 
• If you can take a putt or two while waiting for other golfers to reach the green, DO SO!  Ask someone to tend the flag and take your putt(s) instead of waiting for all 4 to arrive on the green before you begin putting.    This is not rude, it is playing ready golf.
• Only one player should help search for a lost ball, while the other 2 move ahead and hit.  By doing so you are being considerate to those behind your group.  If the ball hasn’t been found by the time 2 other players have hit, a new ball should be dropped and play continued.
• Riders – after your shot, get into the cart  holding your clubs, do not put clubs away until the NEXT stopping point.
• Keep 2 balls in your pocket, marked differently at all times as well as 2 tees and a ball marker
• Minimize talking and waiting – do something while you wait to prepare for your next shot.  While waiting for someone else to shoot, move to your ball (especially if your ball lies left of the one being hit) please move up to your ball, get out of the cart and select a club for your next shot. Please don’t wait until it is your turn to hit to move! Be there before it is your turn to hit. If it is cart path only and you are unsure which club you need, take several clubs with you.