Member Notes:

THANK YOU FOR A GREAT 2024 SEASON!

The MSGA’s 2024 season ended on September 16th with the final tournament at Elcona C. C. in Bristol, IN.   Elcona C. C. proved to be an excellent choice for the 2024 final MSGA tournament.

The weather was sunny and hot for mid-September with the temperature near 90* for the afternoon.  Gentle breezes made playing golf tolerable.  Staying hydrated was the issue, but Elcona had water available every third hole.

Elcona is a beautiful golf course with perfect fairways and greens and plenty of sand traps along fairways and protecting greens.  The greens were hard and fast, especially for sidehill or downhill putts and was very challenging for the players.  Overall scoring was very high with only four players beating or matching par.

The Elcona tournament turned out to be a nice ending to the MSGA’s twenty-sixth season.  For the season, all tournaments were completed but with several being played in very hot weather.   The golf and banquet staff did a great job for the MSGA.

At the Annual Membership Meeting, Mike Hoffman and Walt Ailes were re-elected for 3-year terms beginning in 2025.   Walt announced that he was retiring as President but would remain on the Board and that Tim Holmes would be replacing him as President starting in 2025.

The final tournament is a popular event that includes lunch, dinner, extra awards, door prizes and raffles.  MSGA 2024 Championship winners, Bill Dekker and Ron Tarpley were acknowledged for their victory as Swan Lake. Their names will be engraved on the permanent John Pavlos Memorial Trophy as 2024 MSGA Champions and each will receive an engraved replica of the permanent trophy.  Second place finishers Bill Murray and Rick Ogle were also acknowledged.

In the season-long Brady Cup competition, Kevin Shidler finished in first place with 1963 points in the closest race ever.  Second was won by Brian Gensel with 1960 points and third by Tom Moser with 1844 points.  Kevin’s name will be added to the permanent Brady Cup trophy in addition to receiving an engraved replica of the permanent trophy.

In an effort to get feedback on our tournament process, etc. from the membership, a short survey was distributed and returned by attendees.  The Board hopes to get suggestions to improve the MSGA.

The 2025 Season will be the twenty-seventh for the MSGA.  Over the previous twenty-six years, the MSGA has played 241 tournaments on 53 different golf courses throughout the Michiana area. 

Tournament entries for 2024 averaged 88 for the individual tournaments vs. 83 for 2023.

The current membership stands at 134, up slightly from 130 for 2023.  Although membership remained stable, the average entries were 66% of membership as compared to 64% in 2023.  Over the years, 922 players have held membership in the MSGA. 

The Board of Directors is completing work on the 2025 tournament schedule and expects to post the finalized schedule on the website within the next few weeks.  We hope that all current members will re-up for 2025 and invite their friends to join them.

Membership renewal information for the 2025 season will be sent out in late January or February for the 2025 season.  Membership renewals will again be online with annual dues payments and MSGA/BlueGolf handicap fees paid via credit cards.  Members will be notified when renewals open. 

Tournament registrations will begin in March or early April.  Members will be notified when registrations are opened.

We will also be processing new member applications online for 2025.

The Board wants to thank all the members who participated in this year’s tournaments and made 2024 another successful year for the MSGA.  We look forward to another great year in 2025.