SMI NewsBrief Monday, February 5, 2018 — Game-day facts compiled by Jack Garrity

109 senior golfers from the greater Jacksonville area teed it up today at Deercreek Country Club for the 246th match in the Senior Men's Interclub series. Happily, travel expenses across the league were minimized since the SMI geocenter is only four miles NNE of Deercreek's clubhouse and about 2.25 miles east of Deerwood CC's 16th green. Mercury is the nearest planet to the center of the solar system; just so, Deercreek CC is the nearest club to the center of the Interclub system.

Three huzzahs go to Deercreek's representative, Tony Hubbard, and head golf professional, KW Godwin, PGA, for coordinating today's event. KW (below) delivered pre-round instructions with exceptional verve from the lectern in the bag-drop area before launching 56 carts to their starting tees from 8:56-9:00 am. Given the length of the cart queue, there must have been 18 minutes difference between the shotguns for the 1st tee and the furthest tee from the clubhouse.

Rookies and Veterans

Nine golfers earned a round of applause for playing in their first Interclub event. Leigh Livesay from Jacksonville; Gene Kepple from Long Point; Rich Bredemeyer from Marsh Creek; Ralph Cunliffe and Wayne McAllister from Osprey Cove; George Kent from Palencia; Murray Goff from Sawgrass; and Len Davis from World Golf.

Today's field also included two gentlemen celebrating Interclub milestones:

• Jan Jensen of Osprey Cove in his 25th Interclub round • Jay Shah of World Golf in his 50th Interclub round.

Game-day Setting

All in all, it was a glorious midwinter day for cruising at 27-29 feet above sea level and moving a golf ball across a landscape maintained to perfection by the course superintendent, Dan Hemmerle, CGCS, and his grounds crew. Kudos to them for keeping the fairways, rough, hazards, and greens in pristine condition.

As the carts were launched, the thermometer stood at 55F, the anemometer registered a gust-free seven mph under mostly cloudy skies. When the first scorecard was returned at 2:07 pm,

the temperature had risen to 65F and the wind speed was still a gust-free seven mph under mostly cloudy skies.

Thanks to Deercreek's clubhouse staff for giving us top-notch service under the direction of its General Manager, Nicola Fulford; Assistant Professional, Jody Clark; Catering Director, Julie Bennett; Food & Beverage Manager, Megan Georgeo; Service Captain, Chris Welsh; and Executive Chef, Shawn Meeks.

Our very special thanks and a tip of 109 hats go to Kennedy (below) for hustling around the course—how many passes along the preservation area?—with a well stocked supply of snacks and beverages for hungry, thirsty senior golfers.

Today's Competition

In the monthly event, we compete to determine the top four teams on the day; each of the winning teams' players receives a golf-shop merchandise certificate. In addition, for each par-3 hole, the player who lands closest to the flagstick receives a sleeve of golf balls.

Charting today's scores against those made in January at Jacksonville G&CC (below) suggests today's course, 464 yards shorter, was an easier test. While 15 percent of the players at Jacksonville beat their handicaps, 31 percent of the players at Deercreek measured up. Said another way, the average player at Jacksonville scored 30 points and four strokes over bogey while the average player at Deercreek scored 34 points and one stroke over bogey. More to the point, the average player took one stroke more today than in the previous match here in 2016, both rounds from the same tees with the same ratings.

Note that the smooth curve in each chart comprises five separate distributions from flights A-E and is known as a Normal Mixture-5 Distribution. [Kurtosis details are available on request].

Today's Leaderboard

The following table compares the order of finish in our previous event to the order of finish today. In first place, Eagle Harbor repeated its winning finish at the last event by squeaking out a one-point lead over Queen's Harbour.

In summary, five teams rose and eight teams fell with Palencia tumbling five places from last month's ranking.

At Jacksonville last month, two teams exceeded the odds of scoring their team points. It was a brighter story this month as seven teams exceeded the odds. That's nearly ideal: we'd like to see seven teams beating the odds and seven teams losing to the odds. As it is, three teams matched the odds and four teams were losers.

The full scoreboard is here.

32 individual merchandise certificates were distributed to the top four teams as follows:

1st place Eagle Harbor $43 per man 2nd place Queen's Harbour $31 3rd place Orange Park $22 4th place Marsh Landing $13 (five-point tie breaker over Deercreek on holes 10-18)

Season's Leaderboard

Each year, we compete to identify the SMI Champion, which is the team with the most Stableford points for the season. The winning team takes custody of the Barney Poston Cup and retains it for a year. In addition, the top six teams earn a share of the year-end prize pool which totalled $1,850 last year.

The following table shows how team standings on the season changed over the month. In summary, five teams rose and eight teams fell this month. 20 players lowered their indexes by shooting good scores while 33 players padded their indexes for the coming events by shooting relatively poor scores.

Team Leaders

Generally, we say a big gun is someone who helps his team into one of the top four places by scoring at least 36 points. Why 36 points? That marks the line where a player overcomes 2:1 odds. Today 46 players crossed that threshold; nineteen of those were on the prize-winning teams. When the course is easier than most on the SMI rotation, you can expect a bevy of players will lie above the 36-point cutline. For example, on average each team's seventh player scores 29 points which corresponds to 1:4 odds. Today, 19 players scored 29 points or less.

Individual Leaderboard

Eleven odds-breakers filled the twelve slots shown on today's individual leaderboard (below). In all, 32 players beat the odds associated with their handicap indexes while 12 players failed to match even odds.

Outstanding Shooters

Birdies 4 John Milton QH 3 Jan Jensen OC 59 Today's total (2017 average=56.5 birdies)

Closest to the Flagstick

Hole 03 Larry Warren OP Hole 06 Paul Thorpe QH Hole 11 Al Watson LP Hole 15 John Hannon OC

Toughest Holes

On average we record 94 pickups at each event. Today's course drew 65 pickups, meaning Deercreek forced 41 less pickups today than our last time here in October 2016. The all-time high, 225 pickups, was set at Ponte Vedra Inn on December 10, 2010. Today, there were single pickups on holes 6 and 7, our two easiest; hole 9, the toughest hole, forced the most pickups, 19.

Next Match

What: Fourth match in the 2018 season When: 9:00 am, Monday, March 12, 2018 Where: San Jose Country Club A Donald Ross design (1925) 5,621 yards, 68.2/116/89.6 (course/slope/bogey) Who: Bill Basney, Tournament Director Todd Bork, PGA, Head Professional Defending: Last time here, in January 2017, San Jose capitalized on its home advantage by a two-point edge over Long Point. San Jose has taken first place at home two times in eight tries.

Financial News

Bruce MacDonald QH, our league treasurer, filed his latest end-of-month report as shown in the table below. The current balance increases each month in order to fund the team prizes and door prizes that will be distributed at the next Barney Poston Cup event.

Website News

Support a fellow-competitor who has sponsored for many years an advertisement on our web pages. His latest ad is tagged as Tex Blinn, Contractor on our Home Page. Tex plays out of Hidden Hills Golf Club. He's a very good contractor and is ready to serve your remodeling needs. Give him a try.

Clicking on Google ads pays off. Doing so from our webpages puts cash in our bank account. Each click generates income that helps to offset the annual cost of our web site. Google last sent us a check for $101.78. We have earned $59.66 (up $2.39 from last report) towards our next payment. Google will pay us when the amount due is $100 or more.

Please keep me informed when there is a change in your club's information that is shown on the webpage "Member Clubs".