Each league creates its own point system, which can include participation, closest-to-the-hole and long-drive contests. Similar to the Fred Meyer league, the EWGA’s Austin chapter provides a mix of competition and fun. We have a little younger base on our board this year and they’re coming in with some youthful ideas, and that’s what we want, to create more awareness among younger women.” “We get a lot of women who are just starting out. “We used to run much higher in the early 2000s, but our participation dropped during the recession it’s gradually been increasing over the last couple of years,” said Wood, who estimated the age range of participants at early 30s to 60s. The chapter operates four nine-hole leagues in different areas of the city – three on weeknights and one on Saturday mornings at the Harvey Penick First Tee campus, which is designed for beginners.Įach league has 10-20 participants, said Sandy Wood, the chapter’s marketing director. The chapter, one of the EWGA’s 120 in the United States – it also has chapters in Canada, Bermuda, Italy and South Africa – has about 120 members in and around Austin. The Austin, Texas chapter of the Executive Women’s Golf Association takes accommodating busy schedules to another level. “It’s really getting together a group of people who want to learn the right way and play once a week and have a reason to go out and play.” It’s a place for people to work on their game in a semi-structured format where you will learn the Rules and have to play by the Rules, but we’re more geared toward fun,” Peterson explained. A portion of the league fee goes towards year-end prizes. There is a playoff at the end of each season to determine a league champion, but teams that don’t qualify have the opportunity to play in matches of their own, often in an alternate format. In any week, four of each team’s players will compete, to allow for those who can’t make it every week.įive points are up for grabs in each weekly team match: Four members of each team square off in individual nine-hole matches, but they complete every hole, because the fifth point goes to the team with the best three-out-of-four net score. Participants are divided into teams at the beginning of each season in 2015, the league is divided into eight six-player teams. The group, which fluctuates between 50 and 75 golfers each year, meets weekly from April through September at Eastmoreland Golf Course, just 3 miles from corporate headquarters. The Fred Meyer league is just one example of how golfers with limited time can engage in true competition on the links. But the shorter round is often considered to be reserved for casual play, with the common misperception that tournaments are contested over a minimum of 18 holes. In addition, following the launch of the USGA’s Play 9 campaign in June 2014, nine-hole scores posted for handicap purposes increased 13 percent from the previous year. The notion of playing nine holes instead of 18 in order to fit golf into a work day or an otherwise busy schedule isn’t a new one the National Golf Foundation reported in 2014 that 24 percent of all rounds played in the United States were of the nine-hole variety. We start at 5:30 and go backward depending on how many players and teams we are anticipating.” “More and more of us are retired now and are getting to the course earlier, but it’s still a company-sponsored league. “Our last tee time needs to be 5:30 because we need to allow people who are coming from work to get there,” said Peterson. That’s why of all the details that go into operating the league, which has been in existence since the mid-1960s, one is paramount. Peterson serves as a co-secretary of the league, and he appreciates the challenges of maintaining a full-time career while keeping golf in one’s life. “Once I started the league, it got me playing a lot more, and it was a structure where I really wanted to learn the game more.” “I loved golf, but before the league you played when you got invited,” said Peterson, who continues to play in the Fred Meyer golf league even though he is retired after a long career with the Portland, Ore.-based supermarket chain. More than 20 years ago, the opportunity to participate in a nine-hole league helped Nels Peterson to discover that. Regardless of the location or the format of the league, there is a common thread that runs through nine-hole golf leagues: a passion for having fun on the golf course.
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