I made a couple rookie mistakes at Jackson Park. I didn’t have candy at attesting, at least not until I was saved by one of our great volunteers later in the day. I also may have given out some District instead of Sub-District medals. If you received a medal can you check and see that it wasn’t a District medal. Again, one or our great volunteers pointed this out to me. Thanks goodness for our volunteers.

With regards to Carnation. We will be playing Winter Rules and the following tees.

·         Black Tees:  Boys 14-17

·         White Tees:  Boys 12-13 and Girls 14-17

·         Gold Tees: Girls 8-13 and Boys 8-11

If you haven’t heard we want and need to play in 5 hours or less.  Playing in 6 hours will make it very difficult for us to get courses in the future to play and there is no way we will get courses like Inglewood and possibly Sahalee in the future to host a sub district if we play in 6 hours.  Thank you to the WJGA parents that helped us schedule a Sub District at Inglewood this year.

Everything is set up for us at Carnation to play in 5 hours or less, and I mean everything. First of all the course is in surprisingly good shape. I was out there on Friday and I could not believe how good it looked. If the weather stays the way it is forecasted you will see the ball bounce in almost every fairway. With the exception of 1 maybe 2 fairways we could play the ball down. We will however be playing winter rules, as there are still areas mostly off the fairway that are wet. The forecast looks great, and I think by Tuesday some of the trouble areas will be dried up. This is a very short and tight course. You keep it in the fairway most of the day and I’m pretty sure you will be very happy with your result.

The staff at Carnation is great, and they can’t wait to have us. I love the setting at all of the courses out in the valley (Carnation, Mt Si, Snoqualmie Fall, Twin Rivers), and if you don’t live out this way I think it’s pretty cool that this is right in Seattle/Bellevue’s back yard.

Carnation the setting, and consider this your warning. What isn’t nice are the MOSQUITOS, and they are out. I’ll have bug spray at registration, but you might want to also bring some. You might want to wear long pants instead of shorts.  Supposedly, putting a bounce dryer sheet under your hat and in a pocket or two helps keep the MOSQUITOS away. I’m going to try it and will have a couple boxes of bounce at registration.

So we will have good weather, the course is in surprisingly good shape, we’re playing winter rules, and you have been warned about the mosquitos. Did I tell you it is a short course with a lot of hazards and close OB’s?

What else have we done to make less than 5 hour rounds happen. We don’t have anyone playing in front of us. We have 10 minute intervals. I’m pretty sure at least half the field is threesomes, and I have 2-3 starter times. If we can’t play in less than 5 hours with all of this…….we will have some really really small fields moving forward…..and I’m really serious about this.

For our volunteers, walking scorers, and spectators. First, thank you thank you. Second, and probably more on this later, but you can also really help with our pace of play. If you already know how…say it and do it…if you have some ideas, please let me know.

See you at Carnation, and here is to playing in less than 5 hour