November/December 2022 | Dallas Athletic Club

A Letter from the President, Lance Lane

We are closing another fantastic year at DAC. This ismy favorite season with Thanksgiving and Christmasapproaching. With the mild DFW weather, thetennis and golf programs are in full swing. Thegolf courses remain in great shape and excellentplayability. The remodeled tennis facility should benearing completion at the time of this letter so besure to go and check out the updates.

The Club will be bustling with activities beginning in November. Get your reservations for Thanksgiving Brunch at the Club or order dinner-to-go prepared by Chef Lamping and his talented staff. Pancakes with Santa creates lasting memories for families. This event fills up quickly so don’t delay in making reservations. The Holiday Member Social will once again be paired with a toy drive benefiting children and families in our community. Please take advantage of this opportunity to give to those in need.

Our staff has had a challenging year with the labor shortages, especially in the hospitality industry. Most

of them wear many hats on any given day at DAC. Let’s not take them for granted and be sure to thank them for their hard work. We will have our employee Christmas fund starting in November. This is a great way for us to express our gratitude to the great folks that work at DAC.

Our membership remains full, with very few resignations and more people joining the waitlist every day. The secret is out about DAC. Families want to come and experience what we enjoy each day at DAC - a fabulous club environment with great staff and excellent amenities. We are all very blessed to have such a great retreat right here in Dallas.

Finally, I want to thank you, our membership. Without you, there is no Dallas Athletic Club. Our strength is in our members. You are the ambassadors who have spread the word about our great Club to friends and family. Our growth is in direct relationship to the desire of its members to further our progress toward excellence. None of this is possible without you. So, thank you DAC membership for your help in making this place a desired destination in DFW.

Lance Lane

President

From the Desk of Cari Wheatley

‘Tis the season to celebrate your favorite DAC traditions with your friends and family!

Thanksgiving Dinner To-Go: Don’t stand in the kitchen for hours! We are excited to offer Thanksgiving Dinner To-Go forms conveniently available online. Make sure you check out the delicious menu online.

Pancakes with Santa: Our dear friend Santa Claus has let us know that he is so excited to visit his favorite DAC kiddos once again this year! He will be here Saturday and Sunday, December 3 and 4 so that he can visit everyone.

New Year’s Eve Dinner: Bring your friends along and welcome the arrival of 2023 with your DAC Family! Chef Michael has an prix fixe five-course menu planned that will be one you and your tastebuds won't want to miss

out on. Our youngest memberscan enjoy the Noon Year’s Evecountdown with ClubKidsearlier that day!

I encourage you all to share yourClub with just one new personbefore the end of the year. Theholiday season is the perfecttime to invite your friends,family, and colleagues out toexperience Dallas Athletic Club.

Whatever the New Year meansto you, I hope it is filled withmany blessings as we embarkonto 2023.

Cheers,

CariWheatley

Membership Director

cwheatley@dacstaff.org

Course Conditions

by Travis Moore, Course Superintendent

Have you ever wondered what the golf course maintenance crew does over the winter months? Afterall, there is minimal grass to mow and it is often too cold for golfers to want to be using the course. The reality is that from mid-November through February we are working hard to complete several important tasks. Much of this work cannot be completed during the growing season and we have a limited window to accomplish a wide variety of maintenance items. I like to break these items down into three categories:

COURSE SETUP – The weather in Texas is constantly changing. We may have several days of very cold weather, followed by a week of mild and pleasant weather for golfing. For these reasons, we must still have the staff on hand and be prepared to set up the golf course for a busy day of golf. This includes routine tasks such as: mowing greens, changing cups, raking bunkers, setting tee markers, blowing leaves, etc.

ANNUAL MAINTENANCE - Annual Maintenance items are the tasks that we typically complete every winter and include:

re-furbishing course accessories, completing preventative maintenance and repairs on all equipment, tree trimming, irrigation work, bunker maintenance (checking sand depths, packing, rakes, edging, etc.), leaves and debris clean up, shop organization, etc.

PROJECTS – Every year we have several small projects that we attempt to tackle. Examples often include large drainage projects, irrigation modifications, cart path repairs, etc. Often times these are also annual maintenance items that we have decided to work on in depth.

One of our biggest priorities this winter will be to continue completing much needed tree maintenance throughout both courses. At DAC we have thousands of trees located within the maintained areas of the Club. These trees are one of our property’s greatest assets.

At the same time, they require a tremendous amount of labor to properly maintain. Individual trees must be constantly evaluated based on several different criteria including: safety, aesthetics, playability, impact on turf quality, and tree health. The majority of our tree maintenance this year will be focused on tree trimming and removals. We are working closely with our Golf Course Architect, Chet Williams, to ensure that any tree maintenance (including plantings) fits with future course plans.

A FINAL NOTE – At the end of each year, we evaluate our maintenance practices and work to become more effective and efficient in our efforts to continually improve course conditions. We have a long list of goals for 2023 and are excited about what the New Year has in store for DAC. On behalf of our entire crew, I would like to thank the membership for continuing to support our staff and our families. We wish you and your family a safe holiday season, and look forward to seeing you on the course soon. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me with questions, comments, or concerns.

Are You Struggling with Putting Speeds on the Greens?

Most of the time when I hearpeople talk about strugglingwith speed on the greens, it is99 out of a 100 times a tempoissue. Most golfers try to adjustthe length of their swing andthe speed of their stroke tofigure out distance. That is toomany variables. You only needto adjust the length of yourswing, not the tempo.

Now you're asking, great Lancehow do I manage my tempo?Great question! If you can count one-thousand-one

you can manage your tempo.'One thousand' represents thebackswing and 'one' representsimpact. The tempo will alwaysbe the same whether it’s a 100-foot putt or a one-foot putt. Youwill vary the length of the strokewithin the tempo you establish.Tempo is the key to having gooddistance control. Have fun and

see you on the putting green.

Lance P atterson

Director of Golf

lpatterson@dacstaff.org

Holiday Instruction Specials

Well, it’s that time of year again.Fall and cooler temperaturesare here and winter will follow.Football season is in full swingand the holidays are just aroundthe corner. This is when I offermy two Holiday Specials foranyone wanting to improvetheir own golf game or give thisas a gift and help someone elseimprove their golf game.

• Four hour package: $475

• Two hour package: $250

My normal hourly rate is $145 per hour.

any manner regarding time (30minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, etc.,per lesson session). They mustbe purchased in November orDecember before January 1,2023. Please contact me if youhave any questions or wouldlike to purchase one of these

Holiday Instruction packages.

Enjoy the holidays and I'll seey’all at the golf course!

Stuart Hendley

Director of Instructionshendley@dacstaff.org

A Message from Natalia Prinz

DAC Tennis hasbrought so muchexcitement this fallseason, and theend of the year will be no different! Weare looking forward to the WTA Member-Guestand MTA Quad-Level in November.To celebrate the opening ofour fabulous new Tennis Shop, we arebringing a very special event to DAC -Glow Tennis! This event is scheduledfor December 1st and is going to be avery fun and vibrant event you will notwant to miss.

The DAC Tennis Program has a lot tobe proud of this year. We started theyear with a new Tennis membership

category, we added the first TCD Love60 Womens team, our Men's USTA 3.0team made it to Nationals for the firsttime in Club history, and we have renovatedour Tennis Shop! We are very

fortunate to have tennis membersthat support our program and are soextremely active in daily activities. Astennis professionals, we do what welove and what we are most passionateabout. We hope to touch each memberwith our passion for tennis and expertise.To our DAC Womens players,thank you for being a driving force forour program. To our Future Stars andJuniors, thank you for bringing themost joyful moments to our DAC programand showing us your first hitsover the net. To our Mens program,thank you for growing the MTA andthank you to all the golfers that havedecided to share the love for both golfand tennis with us.

See you on the courts,

Natalia Prinz

Director of Tennis