2012 Howell Park Thursday Flight
the nastiest hole at howell... good thing we hardly ever play it...

Welcome to the 2012 Howell Park Thursday flight! This package contains most of the information that you'll need to get started, including the schedule and the first week's pairings. Here are some other important details:

• Schedule: The first night of play will be May 3rd, at Howell, unless the course is closed. The first match parings are here. You can click on the value in your handicap column to see your handicap sheet. I have not yet decided whether or not to schedule an off-week July 5th - unless we get a few weeks of rain-outs we will probably skip.
• Web-Site: The League's official web-site is http://www.hogolf.net - feel free to drop by and look around. Weekly match results, and statistics, will get posted at the flight's web-site. I've patched up most of the previous years' pages so that results, stats, etc, are accessible, but do report dead links if you encounter them. The webmaster is enforcing more new style guidelines, so get used to the new look and feel.... Note: The Holmdel Golf League website has moved from a privately hosted web server to a professional hosting service (FutureQuest). If you see anything broken, let me know.
• League Fees/Prizes: No Fees. No Prizes. Less work for me. This option is so attractive to me that I'll pay the webserver fee all by myself!

  We'll also continue the $2 weekly low-net pool. This pool is optional - but once you're in you can't leave and rejoin later. If you want to be in the low-net pool for the first match, announce it loud and clear to partner and opponents on the first tee. All funds are collected and distributed at the bar on the night of play. New folks with estimated handicaps aren't eligible until their 3rd match. Substitutes (with established handicaps) can participate if they want. The pool is only open for regularly scheduled matches over the nine holes the majority of us are assigned to play. Any additional wagering is up to you.

• 2011 Flight Championship: The 2011 Flight Championship was won by Randy Thomas and Calvin Ying, who beat Russ Brodfuhrer and Dave Ramsden (Randy carried Calvin's sorry ass, and that's a big load to carry!) Dave Ramsden said that he won the Most Improved award. I trust him. There's no money involved. A small flight history is available. This includes links to previous years' pages.
• Release Forms: Release forms are still downloadable, but I just throw them out, so why bother???
• League Rules: The rules package is available at the League's web-site. Golf within the flight is governed by the USGA Rules of Golf, except as amended by our local rules. We observe 4 additional local rules:
  • we will not enforce the 2-stroke doubling penalty - but get subs if you can.
  • we play all the wooded perimeter areas as lateral hazards.
  • we give putts! (within reason... don't make a mockery of the handicap system!!!)
  • we don't take handicaps down to decimal points to determine A & B players - the team with identical (rounded) handicaps gets to choose, or flip a tee!

  Remember, decisions on who the A & B players are, as determined on the 1st tee, are final - even if a subsequent review of handicaps suggests otherwise! How many arguments has this started in the past? Too many to count....

  Please Note: The rules regarding attendance and it's impact on flight selection are being strictly enforced this year!!!

• Handicaps: The maximum 9-hole handicap this year is still 19. Some of you may notice that your start-of-year handicap isn't the same as last year's end-of-year handicap. We made a computational adjustment regarding the expiration of scores, which brings us back in line with the USGA formula.
• Match Results: All I need from you is the score card after your match. You can give me the card at the course, at the bar (see below), or give me the hole-by-hole scores via e-mail (in plain text, not a spreadsheet, white-space delimited, not dashes or commas or whatever) the morning following play. If there's any doubt, make sure you indicate who played against whom!!!
• Match Rescheduling: We all lead complicated lives, and occaisionally need to miss a match. Here are your options, roughly in the order you should consider them:
  • Get a substitute.
  • Partner doubles.
  • Reschedule. For all practical purposes, the window for this is 6 days before the original match date to 6 days after. Plan to play early, so you've still got options if the first date doesn't work out.
  • Available team plays as scheduled, unavailable team plays on a different night.
  • Available team plays as scheduled, unavailable team matches cards with next scheduled match.
  • Both teams match cards with next scheduled match.
  • Remember - you cannot match cards for matches 7 and 15.
• Soft Spikes: The county courses still have a mandatory soft spikes policy. Replace your worn out plastic spikes with more useless plastic spikes now!
• Tee Times: The county courses are using an internal park system Tee-Time Reservation System to reserve tee-times. The number is (732) 758-8383. You will need to be in possession of a vaild (unexpired) county golf I.D. card (or equivalent non-resident golf I.D. card) to use the service. Cards good for two years are available this year. It is my understanding that reservation service rules infractions (failure to show up, show up with fewer golfers than reserved, etc) will be strictly enforced this year, and will result in fines and/or loss of reservation privileges. Use the service responsibly! Fines for a no-show group are $48 ($12/person), payment required in order to play again - been there, done that!
• Watering Holes: For the time being, Mulligans is the unofficial watering hole for the HP-Thursday flight, at least until we get tired of it, or they throw us out. See you there after the matches! And be nice to Jimmy, so that he, in turn, will be nice to us! There are now two competing pre-match traditions for those of us who can't wait until after the match. Woody's is the more formal one, the boot of Mike Patrick's car seems to be the other....

Well, that's about it for now. Let me know if there's anything else you need to get started. See you all at Howell.