WOGSA 2017

     “So much for good old fashioned winters !! The winter of 2016 will be remembered as the winter that never was in most parts of Ontario. Warm conditions right through the Fall and above average temperatures and little snow most of the winter have gotten a lot of courses open early with very little signs of any winter damage.” Those were my opening remarks last season coming out of the winter and guess what, I think they are very true if not an even warmer winter than 2015 was recorded in 2016, many courses opening for a period in February and now open in early April, I think overall we are off to a strong start for the 2107 golf season.

     The Association has done a bit of scrambling this Spring to find some host courses for the coming year, every year the process seems to get a little tougher as courses continue to struggle financially, change hands, or go through significant staffing changes. That being said, we think we have come up with a great line-up of courses for the 2017 season. Before I get ahead of myself, let me take a moment to thank our generous event hosts in 2016 which included Brandon Nadeau at Thundering Waters GC, Ray Dlugokecki at Springfield GC, Tim Muys at Pipers Heath GC, and Paul Evenden at Brantford GC, your commitment and support of the WOGSA is greatly appreciated.

     This past December the WOGSA Board of Directors met for our annual meeting to discuss the state and direction of our Association. The hard working Board of Directors consists of Trevor Hunter, Angelo Capannelli, Gavin Kellogg, Dennis Piccolo, James Raynor and Dan Sliasas. The WOGSA continues to enjoy a healthy financial situation, it was felt the changes implemented a few years ago were very well received by our Members and Guests, the 4 golf events we ran were fairly well attended, as always there were a few areas that the Board felt could be managed better and that is where we will continue to focus our efforts.

    Areas we will continue to focus on moving forward include:

• The annual WOGSA membership fee will be $ 25.00 if paid by the second golf meeting, after that date the membership fee will go to $ 35.00.
• Anyone attending a meeting who has not paid a membership fee or is a golf industry guest will be charged an extra $ 10.00 on top of the day’s fee as a non-member.
• The number of golf events will be 4 which we will try to schedule in early June, mid-July, mid-August and late September.
• We may try a new prize system at our 3 summer events this year, we ask suppliers to please donate prizes for the Taylor Barnes event.
• We will be offering free membership to all our retired members, we are always happy to see our older friends!
• We will continue to offer a Corporate membership for our Suppliers, an area which we hope to build on and improve.
• We are looking to improve our communications within the industry with the OGSA, and several golf publications as well as our website, and new this year look for us on Twitter for event info and updates through the year.
• We will continue to contribute scholarship awards to several key industry institutions
• Our primary goal as always is to run affordable, relaxed and informative golf events for our Members and Guests to gather, network and hopefully learn a bit in the process.

     This season promises to be every bit as good as last year. We have an outstanding line-up with some great golf courses for our Members to experience. Here is how the 2017 line-up looks :

•  Tuesday May 30^th – Mt. Elgin GC – host Steve Phillips   
•   July TBA – Crosswinds GC – host Mark McClure  
•  Tuesday August 22^nd –  Mystic GC – host Ryan Surette
•  Monday September 25^th – North Halton GC – host Ryan Scott

     Lastly our one important reminder, PLEASE CALL TO CONFIRM YOUR REGISTRATION FOR AN EVENT, IF YOU NEED TO CANCEL, AGAIN PLEASE CALL TO CONFIRM. As a courtesy to our host clubs and to the Association we need accurate numbers for our events. More and more Clubs charge the Association for the numbers given at registration so if you sign up and don’t show up, the Association is still on the hook for your fee for the day. It is getting increasingly harder to get onto courses so the easier we can make it for our hosts, the better. Please take a moment to update your contact info and return it to us so we have all your current information. As always if you know of someone who may be a potential member, please forward our info to them. We look forward to seeing you at a WOGSA event this year.

                                                                             For the WOGSA

                                                                             John Taylor – President

THE 2017 WOGSA SCHEDULE AND REGISTRATION FORM IS - Membership Application Form

look for us on Twitter @WOGSAgolf !!