All,

Welcome to the 7th VISAA Championship Golf Season! I am excited to be returning as VISAA Golf Committee Chairman for my fourth year. I am happy to announce that we have agreed to host our championship tournament atMeadowbrook Country Club in Richmond, VA on Monday, May 23rd.

I wanted to first thank all of the members of last year’s VISAA Golf Committee. As a group we collected over 300 golf scores from member schools. As we do not have a website like MaxPreps to help compile and index the scores each has to be entered by hand, by one person. This year the results will be entered by me. I will not have the luxury of time to spend a full work day entering the scores that are sent in an incomplete manner. Please make sure to follow the table below; and have each piece filled out completely or the score will not be included and will affect your ranking as a team.

Division / Team / Date / Course / #Holes / Par / Slope / Rating / Golfer1 / Golfer2 / Golfer3 / Golfer4

Score reporting will be conducted exactly as it was done last year. Scores will be calculated using the USGA scoring system we used last year which takes into consideration score, course difficulty and handicap index of the course. Also, polling will be used to take into consideration scores first but also head to head results where appropriate. There is no perfect poling system; however, since other sports manage to take things outside of sheer scoring into effect, we will also consider head to head match ups as part of the creation of our championship field. There will be 8 teams invited from each Division as well as 8 individuals whose teams do not qualify included in the championship tournament field. Division 1 and 2 will both play up to 6 players taking top 4 scores. These will be based on the weekly reports sent in from each participating school. The ranking system will use USGA handicap system for the season.

Since match results are considered as well as scores, please be thorough in your reports. The committee will not consider incomplete reports. We will also not consider irregularly reporting schools. You must share this with your coach and team. You could ostensibly go undefeated and not be considered if you fail to report your scores regularly. Your match scores are due beginning Thursday, April 2nd and the subsequent Mondays thereafter. All matches played up to April 1, should be included in your schools initial report. In the event your school has the week off and no matches were played, simply send an email stating this to my email address on the reporting Monday. Results should be emailed throughout the course of the season. The final poll and individual qualifiers list will be made Tuesday, May 17th.

Your regional reps are:

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Paul Feakins-EAST / Norfolk Academy / TCIS
Dan Moore- EAST / Greenbrier Christian / TCIS
Paul Sipes, Chairman, NORTH / Wakefield School / DAC
Bill Curl- NORTH / Randolph-Macon Academy / DAC
Marc Hogan-CENTRAL / Woodberry Forest / VPL
David Bennett-CENTRAL / Fuqua / VCC
PC Wells- WEST / Carlisle School / BRC
Trip Darrin–WEST / Blue Ridge / BRC

For regular season matches, conference rules apply with regard to double par scores and other pace of play accommodations (eg: shuttles between holes). Boys and girls tees should be assigned based on general distance requirements (Boys- 6500-6700; Girls 5800-6000 yards). Rule 33-1 says a single person can be designated to give advice. In the event a ruling is required during the regular season, please defer to conference rules. During our VISAA Championship officials will be on site to help with this aspect of the match. This year range finding equipment is allowed in competition, provided it ONLY provides distance readings. Push carts are not allowed VISAA competition unless used as a requirement under ADA for those with permanent disabilities which make it impossible to carry a golf bag.

We will send out tournament updates as we get closer to the end of April. The weekly poll will be posted on visaa.org throughout the season. If you have any questions feel free to contact me at 540-253-7520.

Paul Sipes, VISAA Golf Committee Chair

Wakefield School,