Eagle Pointe – Canceled
Today’s Tournament at Eagle Pointe is officially canceled and will be rescheduled for a later date TBA.
Eagle Pointe – Alert
We’re still on schedule for February tourney at Eagle Pointe noon tomorrow, February 18th. Eagle Pointe G.C. will let us know early tomorrow morning whether we should continue our tournament or not. Stay tuned for latest updates regarding playability on our website, email and Facebook.
Newsletter – February, 2012
Welcome, HVGA golfers!
HVGA would like to welcome new golfers to the 2012 golf season, and also welcome back HVGA members from previous years. Now that we’ve had plenty of rest from several months of “HVGA down time,” it’s time to prepare for another exciting year’s worth of good golf, starting with the season opener at Eagle Point Golf Course. This year’s line up of tournament golf courses is just as enticing as last year’s lineup, and more. Invite your friends, neighbors and co-workers to come out and join us at each tournament to expand HVGA’s reach across this great city. It is our goal to ultimately turn HVGA into a household name.
Recently, the HVGA Committee held a meeting and invited all members to attend and plan for the upcoming golf season. Several members showed up and shared their views. Among them were Thomas Nguyen, Vinh P Nguyen, Johnny Dang and Alex Nguyen. The HVGA Committee would like to extend our gratitude to these members for devoting their time to improve the club. Many decisions that were made during this meeting dictate the policies for this year. We will continue to invite all members to key meetings throughout the year, so if your schedule permits, please join us so we can all put our heads together in an effort to improve the club. Thank you in advance for all your efforts.
Because the HVGA Committee has had to make many decisions for the club in the past, we decided to involve members’ inputs for some of the decisions that will affect policies and procedures for 2012 and beyond. To that end, the committee solicited a survey on our website that was announced to all our members via email at the end of last year. The results from the survey revealed many of our members’ opinions that helped the committee to implement a few changes for 2012. One such change is the trophy designs. You will be seeing trophy design changes as soon as February or March of this year, and hopefully, you’ll be holding one in your hands. A good percentage of those who took the survey thought having a monthly tourney on a Sunday instead of Saturday was a good idea, so we will try to schedule a monthly tourney on Sunday either this year or the next. There’s also talk of a gimmie putt, but that topic may need more time to plan for.
For the 2012 season, HVGA is starting with a zero balance due to extra spending in 2011 events in an effort to make them more fun for everyone. We spent more money than usual on the Crawfish Boil event to make sure we don’t run out of food like previous years. We also spent more money at the yearend dinner to provide better menu and more prizes. We also handed out a few more trophies this year to recognize more achievements that we haven’t in the past. All-in-all, it was money well spent since everyone had such a blast at those events. We will try to identify more sources of revenue and donations this year to continue our traditions, and still carry over a positive balance for next year’s budget or for use at the end of the year “fun” tourneys.
Hope everyone will have a great start for the golf season 2012, and even a better finish.
Kiet Luong
HVGA President
Tournament Rescheduled
Due to the wet and unplayable conditions at Eagle Pointe GC and forecast of more rain tomorrow morning, the HVGA Committee has decided to postpone the tournament to Saturday February 18th, Noon Shotgun. Click here to re-register or you can shoot an email to our Tournament Coordinator, Thanh Trinh.
HVGA Forum
HVGA Forum open for discussions! Click here to register.
Celebrated in Asia, Little Known in America
ORLANDO, Fla. — It is the all-American girl’s study as conceived by a Hollywood set director. In addition to her growing collection of trophies, Yani Tseng has displayed two dozen Starbucks mugs from all over the world, an ad for a local pizzeria and a plush Angry Bird scowling from a loving cup. Only the 8 ½-by-11 certificate noting Tseng’s completion of a Level 4 English class hints at her deepest roots.
Tseng, 22, is the world’s No. 1 female golfer, a one-name celebrity in her native Taiwan and the spark of the sport’s next big boom, in her homeland and in China. Read more.
Members Survey
It’s that time of year for the HVGA Committee to meet and discuss successes and challenges in past events to improve on for future events. Before we meet for this purpose, however, we’d like to include all of you in on our brainstorming session.
To that end, we invite you to answer a few questionnaires so we can get an idea of what the club as a whole thinks towards certain topics. Your responses are appreciated and will help to better our club for years to come.
Change 267 Years in Making: A Tweak in the Rules of Golf
Change comes slowly in golf, a game that traces its origins to 15th-century Scotland. Its longstanding rules, honored under a gentleman’s code, endure even when they seem to defy logic and reasonableness.
“Golf is an inherently complicated game, and the concepts of simplicity and fairness very often pull in diametrically opposed directions,” said David Rickman, the director for rules and equipment for the R&A, formerly the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the sport’s ruling body in much of the world.
But change is not unheard of. And it came this week with a whiff of the revolutionary. The R&A, along with the United States Golf Association, which administers the game in this country, amended nine principal regulations from the Rules of Golf, the bible of the game. No longer will a player be penalized a stroke if the wind moves his ball while his club is near it. And if he or she smoothes the sand before playing a shot from a bunker, and in doing so does not gain an advantage, well, that’s O.K., too. Read more.
Colonizers’ Influence Infuses Southeast Asian Cuisine
I woke up on a sunny morning ready to discover an unfamiliar city. Out on the street I passed a woman serving perfectly baked baguettes smothered with fresh pate. I strolled by cafes, gelato shops, the Opera House and central market. Arriving at Paris Bend, I stared up at the towering peaks of Notre Dame cathedral and wandered the halls of the Central Post Office, designed by Gustave Eiffel in the late 19th century. Read more.
UH PES Open – Fall 2011
University of Houston’s Program for Excellence in Selling
The PES Open is a golf tournament established to give sales students the experience of learning current sales techniques, form vital contacts with leading companies, gain selfconfidence, and improve their communication and presentation skills.
This is a charitable event that benefits current and future students. These students understand the charitable nature of others and are already offering their help to other charities. These are the people that your contributions are going towards.
Contact Mike Le if you would like to participate.
Click here to download the PES Open sponsorship info packet.
B-Flight Retains Cup
Good afternoon, Houston!!!
And what a good afternoon it is, as we learn of the results of the TX Cup event. Our B Flight players were able to fend off the challengers on their home course to retain the TX Cup in Houston. Our A Flight players were not as successful, however.
Regardless of the outcome, it was a great weekend and we hoped everyone enjoyed themselves. Let’s take what we’ve done successfully this weekend and build on them next year, and improve what we didn’t do well. The Dallas team was well prepared as they hoped to win back the trophy from our team, therefore, they did not take the practice sessions lightly. We need to do the same next year if we want the trophy to remain in Houston. We hope you’ll try your best next year to be a part of this exciting event.
The Dallas team was a gracious host, and the event was successful due to the TX Cup committee on both teams. Please help us to extend our thanks to them and everyone else who were involved in the planning process.
We hope to see you soon in the upcoming off-season shootouts that will be hosted during the Holidays, and thank you all for a great golf season!
Kiet Luong
HVGA President
Quest for The Cup(s)
Good luck to captain Ha Van and his teams as they travel to Dallas this weekend to defend at the Texas Cup.
Newsletter – October, 2011
Greetings HVGA golfers,
Less than a week away before we take what we learned this year to our Vietnamese Golf Association brothers in Dallas and compare notes with them. I’m confident that our notes and playbacks are more detailed and extensive, which will result in rewards in the form of two metal trophies. Before that, though, I want to share with you the exciting events leading to the Texas Cup competition in Dallas on October 8-9, 2011.
First, the exciting Club Championship tournament held at The Wilderness Golf Course in September. Back-to-back rounds of golf on the same day is a true test of focus and resilience, and the Club Champions proved they’ve got what it takes to rise above all others in the field. Congrats to all the Club Champion winners in all flights.
A-Flight GROSS Club Champion: Hien Vo
A-Flight NET Club Champion: Kiet Luong
B-Flight GROSS Club Champion: Joe Bui
B-Flight NET Club Champion: Hai Nguyen
C-Flight GROSS Club Champion: Huy Nguyen
The next memorable event was the Club Championship Awards and Year End Dinner. Here, we recognized all Club Championship Winners, announced Texas Cup team members, raffled off numerous golf items, and even had a few “closet singers” came out and entertained all the members and their families. It is a regular occasion to be recognized by our peers as winners in each of the monthly tournaments, but it is a special treat to have our families cheering for us as we are recognized for our achievements. The addition of the band this year made the event even more enjoyable than it already is. Mingling between members and families brought us closer as a club. We hope to see more members and families join us at this event in the years to come.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Kraig Nguyen, Kevin Le and Anh John for making the Club Championship and Year End Dinner memorable. Kraig donated the R11 Driver that was a hot raffle item, Kevin and Anh John facilitated the appearance and performance of the one-man-band that provided plenty of entertainment. We hope to see more similar donations and efforts for next year. Again, thank you for your generosity.
A few members had requested the HVGA Committee to show the current balance of the club to show their concern for the club’s financial health. We will abide by their requests by showing the financial status of the club now, and more regularly from here on out. Hopefully, after seeing the financial reports, the members can become more involved in generating more income for the club to give us a chance to serve our members better. So far, our efforts have been to make sure we have enough for all our events, with not very much carry over balance. We will need more member involvement to increase our income in order to give back more to our members and to the community. One way to achieve this is for members to show up at the year-end meeting to help plan for next year’s activities. Emails will be sent out to invite members for this meeting. Another way to hear members’ opinions is through the use of a poll/questionnaire. This method is being planned, and will be announced as well to al members. Please keep an eye out for these announcements for your chance to improve the club.
Below is a brief summary of the club’s financial status to our members. If you want more details, please get in touch with either myself or the treasurer(Nhan Tran).
$3,400 (current balance)
$2,400 (less Texas Cup expenses paid by HVGA)
$895 (less prize golf balls and Club Championship trophies)
$105 (balance after Texas Cup)
Finally, let’s wish all the Texas Cup Team Members best of luck as they travel to Dallas to try and keep the Texas Cup here in Houston. The friendly feud between the Dallas Fort Worth Vietnamese Golf Association and Houston Vietnamese Golf Association is a tradition we all look forward to every year. It is a true testimony of friendly rivalry between two clubs with a common objective, which are separated only by geographical locations. Regardless of the outcome of the event, weíd like to thank the DFWVGA team for all their hard work hosting the event this year.
Until then, keep working on your game and we’ll see you again soon on the golf course!
Kiet Luong
HVGA President