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22 | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | SEPTEMBER 2021 | By Brian Garlington, PGA, Director of Golf In my previous announcement to the Sun Lakes membership, I mentioned we will be adopting a new way of directing golf cart traffic near the tee and green complexes on Par 4s and 5s of the Championship Course. If you remember, the new method is called the Gate System. The Gate System is a system of entry and exit gates at the beginning and end of each par 4 and par 5 holes. ALL CARTS MUST ENTER AND EXIT THROUGH THE GATES. The gates will be colored brown with yellow tops. Maintaining a healthy, dense stand of turf where cart traffic is excessive is a difficult proposition for any golf course superintendent. Add increased rounds of golf, as well as four carts to a group to the mix, and turf conditions can quickly deteriorate, resulting in poor-quality lies and bare ground. The club's current golf cart management strategy, which relied upon signs and small white and green stakes near the green complexes to signal when carts need to exit and return to the paths, were providing less than optimal results. It was common to see golfers running over them accidentally and causing more problems. They are also an unsightly nuisance. The new golf cart policy was created to improve the traffic pattern and provide greater clarity of where to drive and where not to drive. The policy has one easy-to-remember rule: enter and exit the cart paths between the "gates." Four-foot-tall wooden posts with yellow tops spaced approximately eight feet apart create the "gates," through which all golf carts are supposed to travel when leaving or returning to the cart path. One of these gates is positioned at the end of the tee complex and another up near the green complex. The locations of the gates are periodically repositioned by the maintenance team based on the amount of traffic and will allow the maintenance staff to better protect sensitive turf areas by shifting traffic to more robust areas. Thank you in advance for following our new Golf Cart Policy and I'm sure we will begin to see improved turf and playing conditions on the Championship Golf Course. If you would like more detail on the new policy, please don't hesitate to contact the Golf Shop staff. Good golfing! The Gate System - A New Golf Cart Policy Interest Groups If you want to start a group in Sun Lakes, let us know. Email your idea, just a few sentences is fine, to sunlakesnews@ yahoo.com and we will publish your notice for three months so you can generate some interest. Sun Lakes Veterans Yearbook We're getting a head start for Veterans Day 2021 and are planning a Sun Lakes Veterans Yearbook. If you or your loved one served in any branch of our military, please email a photo (preferably one at the time of service) with the name, branch of service, and years served. The dedicated email for this special project is sunlakesveterans@yahoo.com. Below is a sample of a few veterans featured in a similar yearbook. (Their last names have been abbreviated and years removed for this example.) This yearbook is being prepared for distribution in November 2021, and the deadline to submit photos and info is Sept. 15, 2021. If you have any questions, please call Courtney Taylor at (909) 797-3647. Dodie K - Marines Guy F - Marines