Captain's Message
As we are preparing for another great season of Golf and Social activity in 2026, I would like to address some issues that we have dealt with over the past year as well as some great input we received at our closing Fun Day Social, wrapping up 2025. I am still of the opinion that we have a great community to retire and play golf in and our members are a pleasure to work and golf with every Thursday. I would also like to thank our Executive Team for all their work in making our league what it is and for all returning in 2026 to do it all again..
Having said that I would like to remind everyone that all members, no matter what level of golfer they are, should be able to golf with anyone without feeling intimidated and are welcomed to play each week. It is important when new members join the league that we all make them feel welcome and promote our league and community and encourage them to participate in league events, as they are open to everyone to have fun and meet new people. We are not perfect and are always looking for ideas that will make our league better and all members are encouraged to bring issues forward to the Executive for consideration.
A couple of those issues came up at our 2025 wrap up. One is we will go back to our traditional 3 day Captain/Briar - Ryder Cup style golf event, but will try one new format using a 2 man scramble instead of the Alternate Shot, along with our Better Ball and Singles matches to close out the event and celebrate the winning teams at the social back at the BHCC.
We will also, as we did this year, make our Fun Day part of our Closing Day and social after golf to wrap up the season. It was a good way to get input from all the members after a fun casual day of golf over a beverage and some food and review the season and any issues that came up.
Another issue that has come up is how we do our scoring for our weekly payouts. As our weekly payouts are given to all 3 flights A, B & C levels and are all calculated including handicaps, we continue to feel that ALL members can qualify for the 1st - $25, 2nd - $20 & 3rd $15 payout depending on how they played. We want to emphasize that entering your scores correctly into Golf Canada on Men's Day is very important to make all this work. We would also like to make sure that all members no matter what your score was on any given hole, to enter that score. As we know that scores when entered into Golf Canada may adjust a score on a hole based on your handicap. We want Golf Canada to manage that, not you by not entering the actual score you had. That means that there is no limit i.e. double par for entering a score on a hole. If you scored 10 enter 10 and if the system adjusts it back that is how it is supposed to work.. Let the system work it.
We do not want to get into scoring issues that some people enter one way while another player does it another way. Please enter your actual score as we want to continue the honour system, as you are not becoming a millionaire by winning a payout. The payout is just a little fun competition among our members and winning a payout is a bonus and hopefully is not the main reason you are playing golf every Thursday!
As always we will continue looking for more opportunities to help support local charities such as The Alliston Food Bank, Matthews House, My Sisters Place and The Out of the Cold program as much as we can, as giving back is a large part of the NMGA.
Stay well, stay safe and hit em straight!! Looking forward to the Spring!!