Celebrating a Warm December, Two USGA Moves

Craig Sterrett casts a shadow on a golf season that had the longest sunset in memory in northeast Wisconsin. Photo by Craig Sterrett.

It may seem like a distant memory now, but El Niño helped to extend 2023’s outdoor golf season at a few locations in northeast Wisconsin that didn’t close in November.

At 27 Pines, Tom Schmelzer saw some people using his golf-ball vending machine and testing drivers they secretly bought themselves for Christmas. (And yes, the course, range and equipment still are for sale if somebody wants an interesting business or a group wants to go in together.)

On days with very little mud and temperatures in the upper 40s, a few walk-ins and members-only were able to walk a few holes at a couple of county courses in late December.

For example, this writer had friends golfing on the day after Christmas on a course where they are members, and Mark Merrill was sighted at Stone Hedge in Egg Harbor, taking advantage of opportunities to do some extra work on the greens.

A rainy October in the upper Midwest couldn’t derail year-over-year increases in rounds played. According to the National Golf Foundation, a 183% increase in precipitation in October 2023 compared to October 2022 caused a downturn in rounds played in a region including Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. Still, rounds played were up 3.3% from a busy 2022 that saw just slightly fewer rounds than the record-setting 2021 season.

Wisconsin courses saw 14% more golfers in a November that was warmer and drier than in 2022, and Wisconsin’s rounds-played total for 2023 was 6.9% greater than in 2022. 

USGA Makes Good on ‘Just Play Nine’ Slogan

Executive courses and nine-hole rounds just became more legitimate. 

After a years-long campaign to encourage people to “Just Play Nine” after work, before work or during that lunch “hour” away from the office, the United States Golf Association updated its handicap system to match its nine-hole slogan.

Instead of posting your nine-hole score and the USGA not counting it until you post another nine, they’ll go into the system right away. 

Also, the new system allows a tedious golfer to record scores from partial rounds. Before, if a golfer was late for dinner or got tired of waiting for slow groups and headed to the clubhouse after No. 15 at Peninsula, he or she might only post the nine-hole portion of the round. It also was possible to get a phony score through the equitable-stroke-control formula that would take triple-bogey at No. 17 off the table. Which is nice.

The USGA is also making it possible for par-three and executive courses to obtain a slope and rating so golfers can post a score at a course as short as 750-yard, nine-hole tracks, and 1,800-yard, 18-hole facilities.

The amazingly well-groomed Short Course at Peninsula comes in at less than 750 yards and wasn’t designed for a handicapped skins game anyway.

Schmelzer still is working on ranking the holes at his par-three course from toughest to easiest, and at Stone Hedge, Kevin Wehrenberg already has his slope and rating. Course ratings usually are less than par, as they’re based on what professionals usually would shoot. The rating tends to come down by one stroke for each short hole, like Nos. 2 and 3 at Maxwelton Braes; the cliffside finishing hole at Alpine; No. 8 at Peninsula; and Stone Hedge’s two extremely short par-4s that aren’t all that easy due to tiny greens.

Kudos to the USGA on these two changes. Here’s hoping the golf gods don’t follow through on golf ball-distance-rollback proposals that could adversely affect everyday-golfers.