Notes and Quotes Summer 2016 | Page 6

PWGA NOTES & QUOTES donated each year to the United Veteran Service (Formerly United Volunteer Service) – Swing Club and those funds along with other club and member donations have kept this program going. The Swing Club was founded in 1941 by Helen Lengfeld – who also founded PWGA in 1947. The Swing Club is a golf rehabilitation program for veterans. The Swing club serves Veterans out of the Menlo Park VA and the program is run at the Moffet Field Golf Course, with 7 events a year it is a vibrant program enjoyed by many veterans. We would like to say THANK YOU to these clubs and to all of the other member clubs whose donations clearly make a difference in the lives of your women in High School and Veterans who have served our country. 6 …Continued from page 1 President’s Message …have been doing. When asked to assess the viability of this approach in May, USGA said it was too early to comment as its partnership model is still “under construction.” At a webinar earlier this month, USGA announced that its worldwide handicapping system has encountered some snags, and that it is not expected to be ready until 2020. Nevertheless, USGA intends to make public its new partnership model sometime during the 3rd quarter of 2016 (in other words, before September 30), and at the same time will release a request for proposals to all state and regional associations who wish to become USGA partners. We don’t know what forms the model or the RFP will take, so we don’t know how we will respond, whether as the umbrella group or on behalf of PWGA individually or both. In the meantime, we are exploring other options on a parallel track. One is a partnership with Northern California Golf Association, the existing “full service” association in this geographic region. Unfortunately, without knowing USGA’s model, NCGA is unable to make a specific proposal concerning how a PWGA/NCGA partnership might work. We are also exploring whether handicap services might be obtained from a third party vendor so that our members could continue to play in club-, area- and associationwide handicapped tournaments, and could pay for an individual NCGA membership if they needed an official USGA handicap. The bottom line is that everything is still up in the air, but we are working very hard to make sure we are ready for whatever comes our way. As I promised last February, I will persevere to keep PWGA alive and vibrant for the next 70 years. If you would like more information on what steps we are taking or have some great ideas about something different we can explore, please contact me at [email protected]. And there will be more information forthcoming at our annual meeting, to be held after Tuesday’s golf at the Helen Lengfeld tournament on October 4, 2016.