The Met Golfer - August/September 2010

met observations

Membership Has Its Privileges

You’re a loyal reader of The Met Golfer (we thank you for that). You play regularly and post all your scores, and hopefully receive your evised Handicap Index every two weeks through the MGA’s con- venient e-Revision Newsletter. Maybe you even enter a tournament or two. All of these actions add up to one thing: Even if you play all your golf on public courses, you have a membership. To the MGA, that is.

How does this all work? A portion of the dues you pay your club—whether it’s a private club, a club organized and based at a public course, or a club without real estate—goes to support MGA services and programs, which benefit you, the golfer. The MGA is all about service, and we do this in a variety of ways, summarized in this issue on page 12.

You might wonder how this affects you if all you want to do is go out with your friends and try to win a $2 Nassau. The answer is that, if it relates in any way to Met Area golf, we’re involved in it. MGA services range from offering high-level technical support so the network of handicap computer terminals functions properly, to holding dozens of qualifying rounds throughout the summer for both MGA and USGA championships, to providing the more than 400 golf course facilities (public and private) in the Met Area with course rating and measuring. See that 150-yard marker in the fairway or the plate embedded into the ground of the par three that tells you how far it is to that green across the pond? The MGA helps make it happen.

The point of this is not to toot our own horn—at least not entirely. But as we started compiling the stories and news items for this issue, we recognized that many of them celebrate the breadth and depth of activities that make the MGA special.

In the Around the Met section, there is an entire page devoted to recent news from the MGA Foundation, representing just the tip of the iceberg of what this outstanding charitable foundation does to grow the game of golf. On the tournament side, we have seven pages devoted to the players who won recent MGA championships, which are routinely cited as the best-run and most competitive of any regional or state golf association. Our cover story this month focuses on a trio of soon-to-be college freshman, attesting to the wealth of opportunities afforded to junior golfers in the Met Area.

So yes, we’re busy over here at Golf Central. We’re busy making the game better for the hundreds of thousands of Met Area residents who enjoy it. We’re busy keeping our finger on the pulse of issues—be they environmental, economic, or political—facing clubs and courses, making sure that club leadership and course operators have what they need to serve their members or golfers.

We’re aware that you may go days, weeks or even months without giving much thought to all the services the MGA provides to its member clubs and, by extension, to you, the Met Area golfer. But, just so you know, every time you tee it up, you have the MGA’s 113 years of experience and expertise working for you. Because we think of each one of you as a prized member of our club.