President's Letter
December 31, 2023
As another year draws to a close, let me offer you and yours the best wishes for a new year of good health and prosperity.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Congratulations to Del Ira our 2023 Player of the Year (POY). As we approached the end of the year, Del had established a pretty comfortable lead and coasted in for the win.
A listing of the top 2023 POY finishers can be viewed on our MBSGA website.
2024 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Our MBSGA 2024 schedule of events has been uploaded to the “TOURNAMENT’S” tab on our MBSGA website and is provided below for your convenience. This is essentially the same schedule that was provided to you in October as part of the annual membership renewal package. We have added the Black Horse course at Fort Ord to the list this year with a June date and I would encourage you to plan on joining us for some great golf there.
| Date | Course | Day | EVENT |
| 4-Jan | Los Lagos | Th | |
| 11-Jan | Eagle Ridge | Th | |
| 18-Jan | Spring Hills | Th | |
| 25-Jan | Salinas Fairways | Th | |
| 1-Feb | Pajaro Valley | Th | |
| 8-Feb | Aptos Seascape | Th | |
| 15-Feb | DeLaveaga | Th | |
| 22-Feb | Coyote Creek (Valley) | Th | |
| 29-Feb | Pacific Grove | Th | |
| 7-Mar | Ridgemark | Th | |
| 14-Mar | Los Lagos | Th | |
| 21-Mar | Salinas Fairways | Th | |
| 28-Mar | Laguna Seca | Th | |
| 1-Apr | Boulder Ridge | M | |
| 11-Apr | The Villages | Th | |
| 18-Apr | Ridgemark | Th | |
| 25-Apr | Spring Hills | Th | |
| 2-May | Eagle Ridge | Th | |
| 9-May | Monterey Pines | Th | |
| 16-May | Del Monte | Th | |
| 23-May | Pacific Grove | Th | |
| 30-May | Aptos Seascape | Th | |
| 6-Jun | Black Horse | Th | |
| 13-Jun | DeLaveaga | Th | |
| 20-Jun | Pajaro Valley | Th | Bullwinkle Tournament |
| 27-Jun | Los Lagos | Th | |
| 11-Jul | Spring Hills | Th | Ken Peterson Inv. AND Burgers |
| 18-Jul | Ridgemark | Th | |
| 25-Jul | Coyote Creek (Tournament Course) | Th | |
| 1-Aug | The Villages | Th | |
| 8-Aug | Aptos Seascape | Th | Eclectic 1 |
| 15-Aug | Monterey Pines | Th | |
| 22-Aug | Aptos Seascape | Th | Eclectic 2 |
| 29-Aug | Pacific Grove | Th | |
| 5-Sep | Pajaro Valley | Th | |
| 12-Sep | Laguna Seca | Th | Club Championship Round 1 |
| 19-Sep | Laguna Seca | Th | Club Champ Championship Round 2 |
| 26-Sep | Salinas Fairways | Th | |
| 3-Oct | Spring Hills | Th | Club Meeting and Luncheon |
| 7-Oct | Boulder Ridge | M | |
| 17-Oct | Los Lagos | Th | |
| 24-Oct | Monterey Pines | Th | |
| 31-Oct | Del Monte | Th | |
| 7-Nov | Pajaro Valley | Th | |
| 14-Nov | Ridgemark | Th | |
| 21-Nov | Pacific Grove | Th | |
| 5-Dec | Coyote Creek (Valley) | Th | |
| 12-Dec | Laguna Seca | Th | |
| 19-Dec | Salinas Fairways | Th |
PACE OF PLAY
I would like to thank everyone for their continued focus on maintaining a proper Pace of Play and staying up with the foursome ahead of them.
Just as a reminder, we recognize that everyone can occasionally have a really bad hole and have made accommodations that allow you to move past that bad hole without necessarily putting your ball in the cup. Specifically, Article 1 of our MBSGA Rules of Play, which can be found on the MBSGA website, states in part:
“Article 3-2 of the USGA Rules requires that all holes scored in stroke play be “holed out”. For those few MBSGA competitions where the winners are determined solely on the Individual Low Net or Individual Low Gross (e.g., the Club Championship and the Eclectic Tournament), this means that the ball must be holed out on each and every hole and all strokes taken (including penalty strokes) are to be recorded into the scorecard. However, most MBSGA competitions are structured to be either 2 or 4 person better ball team events or Individual Point Par (a.k.a Stableford) events. In all such non-Individual Low Net/non-Individual Low Gross events, if a player has not holed out but has already accumulated enough strokes that makes their individual score on that particular hole irrelevant to the resultant Team or Point Par score for that hole, the player may lift the ball without penalty and record the Most Likely Score as prescribed in Article 3.3 of the USGA Rules of Handicapping.”
Therefore, the next time you find yourself flogging away at the ball, getting increasingly more frustrated and slowing down the progress of your foursome, please consider taking advantage of picking up your ball when your individual hole score has become irrelevant in the event’s competition and then post your Most Likely Score per the USGA handicapping rules. Taking such action to pick up your ball under such conditions will undoubtedly lead to faster play and a more enjoyable round for both you and the other members of your foursome.
That’s all I have to share for now.
Regards,
Monty Ross
Monterey Bay Seniors Golf Association
P.O. Box 2250
Boulder Creek, CA 95006