Around The Commonwealth
VSGA MEMBERS FEATURED
ON GLOBAL GOLF POST
ALL-AMATEUR TEAMS
Five VSGA members earned spots on the
Global Golf Post All-Amateur teams in 2019.
Roger Newsom, a finalist at the U.S. Senior
Amateur and semifinalist at the VSGA
Senior Amateur, was a first-team All-Senior
selection. Lauren Greenlief, who won the
VSGA Women’s Stroke Play Champion-
ship and reached the semifinals of the U.S.
Women’s Mid-Amateur, was a first-team
All-Women’s Mid-Amateur pick.
Others who received recognition were
Michael Muehr (Second-Team Men’s
Mid-Amateur); Keith Decker (Honorable
Mention Senior); and Cheryl Grigg (Hon-
orable Mention Senior Women).
Greenlief received more good news
later in November when she was one of
12 invited to participate in the U.S. Curtis
Cup practice session in Florida. Held Dec.
15-17 at Loblolly in Hobe Sound, Fla., the
practice session created the first picture
of who might represent the U.S. in the
2020 Curtis Cup in Wales. Greenlief was
the only mid-amateur invited to the prac-
tice session.
Curtis Cup picks will be officially
announced in April.
vsga.org
GOLF DIGEST HONORS
TOP TEACHERS
Golf Digest announced its list of best
teachers in your state for 2019-20, includ-
ing 16 from Virginia.
Creighton Farms’ Erika Larkin led the
publication’s Virginia list, followed by
Magnolia Green’s Leighann Albaugh and
Kingsmill’s Chris George. Kinloch’s Steve
Slotterback and Bull Run’s Mark Gutten-
berg rounded out the top 5.
Teachers 6-10 were 1757’s Adam Harrell,
CC of Virginia’s Adam Smith, Farmington’s
Rob McNamara, Bayville’s Andrew Brewer
and Eisman Golf Academy’s Jon Eisman.
Visit golfdigest.com to view the full list-
ing of all top teachers around the country.
NEW SYSTEM TO DETERMINE
WAGR IN PLACE
The R&A and USGA announced that the
World Amateur Golf Ranking will be
determined by a new system called the
Power Method beginning with the first
update in January 2020.
The Power Method aims to better
reflect the current performance of golf-
ers by placing greater emphasis on cur-
rent form and results by improving the
algorithms used to determine the WAGR.
Roger Newsom was among five VSGA members
selected for Global Golf Post All-American teams.
In the new structure, every event in the
world will earn a power number based on
the strength of its starting field, which will
then determine the total number of ranking
points on offer to the field. This will extend
to a maximum of 1000 for amateur events
with players also able to gain ranking points
from playing in professional tournaments.
The Power Method can be applied to
all competitive events—amateur, profes-
sional, stroke play, match play—and can
also cater to formats the previous system
would not accommodate, such as Stable-
ford. Ranking points will be allocated to
players based on their overall finishing
position in the tournament rather than
on the previous round-based allocation.
To ensure WAGR is truly representative
of the current competitive environment,
event aging will also be introduced as part
of the Power Method to best reflect and
reward players’ current form. Points from
events within the most recent 52 weeks of a
player’s record will count at full value. From
there, event points will reduce proportion-
ately, approximately two percent per week,
before their removal after 104 weeks.
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