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To All CCMGA Members:
At our regular monthly meeting
on Wednesday, March 10th, the Board reviewed the circumstances
surrounding the Modified Stableford event held the previous Sunday. As
many of you know, the tournament was played as scheduled, although persistent
rain eventually saturated the course in the early afternoon, forcing a
suspension of play. A total of 103 players entered the tournament, with
45 completing all 18 holes, 43 completing between nine and 17 holes, and
the remainder completing fewer holes and/or deciding not to start or withdrawing
on their own.
The Board discussed a number
of possibilities, fully understanding that any decision would likely disappoint
a segment of the members involved. After weighing all the options, the
Board voted to convert the tournament from an 18-hole event to a 9-hole
event, calculating winners and skins on the basis of the front nine only.
There were multiple reasons for our decision:
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The day before the tournament,
the Tournament Committee met with the head professional to inquire
about postponing to a later date, but none were available. As you
know, Cave Creek is the city’s busiest facility, and we have
the largest tournament fields of any course. Those two factors make
it virtually impossible to reschedule events for our Men’s Club.
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It is not practical to
cancel an event based solely on a weather forecast. In the first place,
cancelling the tournament would have left every entrant liable to
the City of Phoenix for their golf fees if the weather turned out
to be playable; we can’t arbitrarily decide to not use a large
block of otherwise valuable tee times, especially in these tight budget
times.
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Secondly, weather forecasts
are not always correct (as we all like to point out), so we must deal
with the reality of the weather, not the potential. All through
Sunday morning, the rainfall never reached the level where safety
or course conditions dictated a stoppage, so we had no choice but
to continue. The weather was annoying, but only after the downpour
around 12:45 did the course truly become unplayable.
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As already stated, no
decision would have been acceptable to everyone, so our goal was to
reach the most equitable solution for the greatest number of players.
More than 90% of those who began the round completed the same nine
holes (front nine), competing in good faith in difficult conditions.
To simply cancel the event and dismiss those efforts was not an acceptable
solution.
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Despite some opinions
to the contrary, this is a common practice when events are suspended
without an option to complete or reschedule the round. The PGA Tour
frequently truncates tournaments to 54 holes, and the Phoenix Open
Pro-Am has been shortened similarly on multiple occasions, with entrants
who have paid thousands of dollars in entry fees. In fact, the same
day as our tournament, a major amateur event in Goodyear was suspended
and resolved in exactly the same manner…reverting to a nine-hole
tournament.
In summary, the Board believes
the ‘9-hole tournament’ solution to be the most logical and
equitable of the options available to us. Whether you support the decision
or not, please understand that it was made rationally, objectively, and
with the best interests of the membership in mind. We look forward to
seeing everyone at our next event, the President’s/Vice-President’s
Cup on April 24-25. Thanks.
Jim Denmark, President
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