Letter From Bryan Nicholson, PGA Director of Golf

With the flurries that have been spotted on the hill to start April, I joked with some of my team. “If April showers bring May flowers, what do snow showers bring?” Jokes aside, the flowers are starting to pop (and my allergies firing on cue) – so it’s safe to say that springtime has arrived here in Western Washington. After our cold(ish) winter, it’s fantastic to see the Sahalee campus come back to life, basked in some sunnier and longer days to give us all a little more time to work on our golf game Spring exudes energy, and an opportunity to create fresh goals for the upcoming season Let’s not forget one of the greatest annual traditions in golf – the little gathering with a green jacket that is played in Augusta, Georgia Golf activity is certainly ramping up at the Club, and everyone is eager to come out to Sahalee and enjoy their amazing course!

Last month, our Men’s Division kicked off their 2023 golf calendar with the Frostbite Open! Given our sunny and 60-degree day, I’m not too sure the tournament name lived up to its namesake Featuring a four-man shamble format, all our field enjoyed their afternoon of golf Congratulations to the foursome of Dean Kain, Scott Heydon, Patrick Jentz, and Jeff Eisenstein for taking the top honors With 92 total points the foursome finished just clear of the field and claimed the bragging rights to kick off the new season! Well done, fellas!

Before I get into the meat of this month’s topics – I would like to take a moment to congratulate a few members of my team on their accomplishments this first quarter of the year. First, I am proud to officially announce that Assistant Golf Professional Laura Kraft has completed her requirements for membership into the PGA! Laura is now an official member of the PGA, joining the 28 thousand men and women that work tirelessly to perpetuate our great game. Please take a moment to congratulate Laura on this amazing achievement, which takes a minimum of 3 years to complete. Secondly, I am excited to share the promotion of our AIT, Colin Campbell as our newest Assistant Golf Professional. Colin is a tremendous asset to our Assistant Professional team, and rounds out the best golf professional team in the Northwest. Lastly, I’d like to recognize our AIT Grant Heilman who recently completed Golf Genius (tournament software) training and is one of very few “certified” golf professionals in this skill. Grant dedicated his off-season to learning the system and software and excelled with its rigorous testing.

Pivoting now, as we look ahead to an exciting 2023, I would like to take an opportunity to share what’s upcoming and new on the horizon at your Club After reading, I think you’ll see why I’m excited, and looking forward to showing why Sahalee is the truly the Best of the Northwest:

New Look to the Practice Tee: After a long and anticipated wait, we recently completed the refresh to the practice range. The products that we’ve purchased are customized to complement the look and feel that we’ve begun to incorporate throughout the Sahalee campus The practice area is the most visible aspect of our club and is the first impression of guests and members when arriving to Sahalee Our brand and image are significant aspects to creating a golf experience that is unique, special, and reflective of our position as one of the leading clubs in the United States There is a sense of arrival that is achieved when heading to the practice areas, and top clubs work hard to achieve this mission Our new products are functional, durable, and are timeless with color Additionally, we have added more targets to the practice fairway, inviting members to work on distance increments of 25 yard targets, rather than 50 yard gaps. I think you’ll also agree that the additional color on the range helps with identifying your targets.

Golf Professional Engagement: This season, each member of your Sahalee golf professional team has been tasked with playing golf with at least 50 unique members throughout the season My team will be active on the course with our membership and helping to promote our great game while assisting you by improving your own golf game! If a member of my team inquires about joining your group, I hope you’ll enjoy the opportunity to interact with them and spend time with them on the course

Friday Pro’s Game: Coming Soon!The Golf Professional team will soon be organizing a weekly “shop game” that will be open to any/all members of the Club on Friday afternoons. The staff will organize and collect requests to participate through Golf Genius and create this fun weekly mixer. This will be a nominal cash game, with variable formats each week. Some of the golf professionals will occasionally participate in the game, and my team will handle all the weekly payouts. This will be a fun opportunity to mix and mingle with the staff and other fellow Sahalee members. Instructional Programming: There has never been a better time to work on your game at Sahalee. This spring and summer, my team has developed several clinic opportunities designed to help improve your short game, full swing, speed training, on-course management, and golf fitness. There has never been a better time to work on your game at Sahalee, and I would encourage everyone to consider joining the team in working on your game.

Golf Professional Exhibition: I am thrilled to announce that on Friday, June 16, we will be hosting a Sahalee Golf Professional exhibition for our members and invited guests to attend beginning at 4:30 pm. This fun evening will be highlighted with your golf professional staff putting on a complimentary golf clinic with your Golf Pros displaying their talents, talking about the golf swing, and hitting a trick shot or two! The exhibition will be entertaining, fun, and interactive Afterward, all attendees will have an opportunity to work with a member of your Golf Professional team for a 5-minute swing evaluation on the range

Sahalee Golf Event Calendar: As you are reading through these bulleted points, member engagement is the top priority At the heart of every successful private club is core event programming. This season, your golf professional team is tackling the largest event/activities calendar in the history of our Club. Scheduled golf activities are up 30% from last year, but we’ve strategically planned the calendar to not interfere with the ability to host regular member play.Why would we do this? Last season, 3 out of 4 Sahalee members participated in at least one golf event on the calendar, and our goal this year is for 80% participation. We have multiple new events on the calendar, including our Senior Men’s Invitational coming up next month in May.

Sahalee Ravens Programming: Assistant Golf Professional Kyle McPherson is our lead on our enhanced junior golf program. Soon we will be releasing our comprehensive guide to all activities with our junior golf program. Designed to be the most comprehensive program in all of the Northwest, the Ravens programming is robust with activities from weekly Junior Golf Development, Drive, Chip and Putt, Summer Camps, Junior Golf Certification, and monthly competitions.We are also adding a Junior-Guest Day in mid-July. Being a junior golfer at Sahalee is awesome, and we can’t wait to help develop the future of our game.

·Personalized Golf Ball and Glove Program – We currently have nearly 50 members participating in our complimentary Golf Ball and Glove Program This personalized service for golf balls and gloves is available exclusively for Sahalee members and features the lowest prices anywhere You will not find golf balls or gloves lower cost than this program We hope you’ll consider joining this program – and information is in our weekly updates

·Golf Shop Retail – This season, we have all the top brands in the game in golf featured in the golf shop. Peter Millar, Greyson, Johnny O, FootJoy, Nike, Adidas, Lululemon among others are all prominently featured in the shop. We are enhancing our women’s selections in 2023 and we will be hosting more trunk shows throughout this upcoming year. As always, members receive preferred pricing in the golf shop, and we provide you with the ability to access and special order anything you may need to look good both on and off the golf course.

I have many more exciting things to share and will do so next month as we launch into the 2023 golf season I’ll leave off this month with some spring food for thought:

As many of you may remember, I spent over 15 years of my career in the Lone Star State Let’s talk about The "Texas Wedge” – because I often hear "Your worst putt is better than your worst chip!" Is it true? Does the data support it?

Arccos Golf tracks thousands of shots played annually by golfers of all handicaps. After a deep dive into the data – here is what we find:

Putting wins in all situations but one. When mid to high handicap players (10 – 36) are 5 to 15 feet from the edge of the green: They are ~0.10 shots better with putter, and their worst putt will be ~3 to ~6 feet closer than their worst chip.

When mid to high handicap players are 15+ feet from the edge of the green: They are ~0.15 to ~0.25 shots better with putter, and their worst putt will be ~5 to ~7 feet closer than their worst chip. Lower handicap players (9 and below) have more options. Putting is slightly better inside ~55 feet, and when outside 60 feet, chipping becomes the better option by a small amount.

What Does This Mean For You?

When you are in the fairway near the green, most mid to high handicap players should be using the putter as much as possible. You need a very good reason to not use a putter. Lower handicap players should use the putter when in close, and as they get farther from the hole, look to chip the ball. I would encourage you to spend a small amount of practice time hitting lag putts from off the green I don't want you to avoid practicing your chipping, but refining your putter from off the green can be a very reliable play that will help you shoot lower scores

I’ll look forward to seeing you at the Club!

Fairways and Greens, Bryan