Saturday Snow Throwers 2014

This was the inaugural season of Saturday Snow Throwers. I had previously run Sunday Snow Throwers which consisted of rounds at multiple courses around the city. Because the attendance was hit and mis ... show more ›

This was the inaugural season of Saturday Snow Throwers. I had previously run Sunday Snow Throwers which consisted of rounds at multiple courses around the city. Because the attendance was hit and miss at certain courses and I wouldn't get many people committing to coming to all of the courses I decided to split that league up and have one league on the north side of town and one on the south side of town and I would say by the attendance . . . they were both successful. I maintained my average # of players for both leagues and while there was some cross-over between leagues . . . it was a different group of people all-together at each league. SHOULD WE DO IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR???? ANY OTHER IDEAS ON HOW TO MAKE THIS LEAGUE BETTER??? PLEASE TELL ME!!!

We saw battles in all three of the top normally attended divisions and they all had serious points on the line this week with the high ace pool bringing in lots of people that don't normally play the league. Some people had to choose between being aggressive and throwing for aces or just continuing to plug away at their normal approach to try and gain some points on the day.

You can see the results to the right but here are some comments on todays round and how it impacted the standings

Open:
Unfortunately Dan Gerick couldn't attend today because he was playing in the tournament at Riverside in West Bend which allowed Brad Weber (taking second on the day) to pass him up in points. I was able to hold onto the lead in the division today by getting hot after parring the first 6 holes of the day I hit birdies on 11 of the next 12 to have the top score on the day (-11).

Advanced:
David Whiteside came in with the hot round on his card which he knew he pretty much had to do to have a chance . . . but little did he know he had the hot round on the day in Advanced (-7) to vault himself (due to the 22 points available for the top spot today) into first place passing up Nick Williams (who still played very solid today with his (-5). Nick 1 throw advantage over Jason Barnier helped him maintain his spot in second place pushing Jason down to 3rd place overall on the season. All three of you guys were battling every week you played and it shows you what part of your game you may need to work on if you were better at Root River or if Valley View more suits your game. I will post some scoring averages below to highlight some of what I mean.

Intermediate:
The standings remained the same today that they were coming in but Tim Boville continued his hot shooting at valley View coming out of winter with a (-9) to take the top score of the day. He needed a couple people to get in between he and Tyler Boone but that didn't happen despite Tim shooting three better than Tyler today who had a (-6). Tim knew he needed to beat Tyler but also that he needed some help . . . that just wasn't there today as many people were probably running for aces. Stan Mindiola maintained his third place spot only a few points behind Tim and

Unfortunately we couldn't put much competition together for Matt Lemke in Recreational, Dominick Bocek in Juniors, or any kind of a Woman's division this winter. Help me get the word out that we welcome all skill levels and that we would love to see some more people competing in those divisions next year.

Here are some interesting scoring averages for some of the top players. You can see if they are stronger at Root River versus Valley View. RR being more open and longer and VV being more tight and technical and shorter in distance. In order to remain competitive you need to focus on both aspect of your game so take this information to help you work on some different things.

SCORING AVERAGES BY COURSE BY DIVISION

OPEN
Mike H Root River -2.80 Valley View -9.50 (6.70 difference)
Brad W Root River -2.20 Valley View -7.66 (5.46 difference)
Dan G Root River -1.60 Valley View -6.16 (5.56 difference)

ADVANCED
David W. Root River -1.00 Valley View -4.25 (3.25 difference)
Nick W Root River +1.80 Valley View -7.50 (9.30 difference)

BEST RR AVG
Jason B Root River -3.50 Valley View -6.33 (2.83 difference)

2nd BEST VV AVG
Kevin C Root River - .50 Valley View -7.75 (7.25 difference)

Chase B Root River +3.00 Valley View -6.40 (9.40 difference)

INTERMEDIATE:
Tyler B Root River +3.20 Valley View -3.875 (7.075 difference)
Tim B Root River +4.50 Valley View - 2.50 (7.00 difference)
Stan M Root River +4.50 Valley view -3.14 (7.64 difference)
Brian W Root River +5.40 Valley View -3.33 (8.73 difference)

RECREATIONAL:
Matt L Root River +8.50 Valley View +5.75 (2.75 difference)

These scores show that Valley View plays an average of 6 throws easier than Root River across all four divisions. Some of this data may be skewed by really good or bad weeks which could have very much been influenced by weather and whether or not you attended but it does point to the people who have smaller differentials. Either you are a better wide open, longer distance, and wind player . . . and struggle with the tight technical aspect of the game at Valley View. If your differential is larger . . . that means you are probably a much better technical short player and struggle with the longer more open and windy holes at Root River.

THANK YOUS:
Thank you to Nick Williams and Tyler Kollias for helping run the league while I was out of town on my roadtrip . . . it's nice to know I have such helpful support from you guys and many others would step in if they were given the chance also.

Thank you to Matt Lemke for donating his $8 CTP ACE POOL winnings today to the new course development fund. Thank you to everyone who contributed by buying mulligans and the rest of the ace pool that wasn't hit we raised $384 to be put towards a new course project this year hopefully (I am working out the kinks with a city right now!!!! We also raised $330 to be split amongst Root River and Valley View for Course improvements and maintenance. I am working on a Master Plan for Valley View (and we know Root River is seeing huge efforts by Todd Farnham and others) so that we can hopefully get our baskets replaced sometime soon, and get some landscape and drainage work done in a few spots on the course. I am hopeful that we will be able to continue to provide this course through the winter with Pay to Play kicking in but if the course gets over-run and abused by people unwilling to pay for their county permits . . . it might suffer in the coming years. I have already warned New Berlin about the possibility of this, but have also said . . . WE . . .that means all of you along with my coordination . . . will be diligent to keep the riff raff out and continue to maintain the course the best we can moving forward.


Thank you to everyone for being so dedicated and showing up every week . . . with 330 rounds played in this league this winter that is over a 20 person average . . . a number that is always a goal of mine with any league I run. I say that's reason enough to do it again next winter!!!