With summer officially underway and the weather beginning to heat up, golf season is in full swing, and many local women are taking advantage of that fact.

    The Garrison’s Lake and Jonathan’s Landing ladies groups are in the meat of their seasons, but are still accepting members who wish to play.

    The groups provide a relaxed yet competitive atmosphere for female golfers of all skill levels, said Irene Simpson, tournament chair for the Garrison’s group.

    “We are out there to have a good time,” she said. “We want to play well, but we’re not cutthroat.”

    Both groups meet once per week, and each week a different format is used for the tournament to keep some variety in the action.

Garrison’s ladies rebuilding
    This past September, Garrison’s Lake Golf Course in Smyrna reopened after a five-year period of inactivity.

    All 18 greens were rebuilt with new complexes, a new irrigation system was installed and the fairways were redone.

    Club pro Barry Dear said the only thing that remained the same was the routing of the holes.

    “It’s like playing a new golf course because everything has been rebuilt,” Dear said.

    While the course itself was essentially rebuilt, the ladies group that played Garrison’s before it was closed down is in need of a similar redesign.

    The group stands at approximately 12 members right now, but co-chair Ann Williams said as word spreads about the course being reopened for its first full season she thinks that number will grow.

    The Garrison’s Lake Ladies meet Thursday mornings with a tee time that usually falls around 9:30 a.m. and Williams said any female golfer, no matter how experienced they are, should give it a shot.

    “It’s a very relaxed group,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what your handicap is.”

    Simpson added that since cards are drawn to determine who will be grouped with who each week, it can help golfers take all different tips from the other members.

    On occasion, Simpson even finds herself giving advice to the fellow group members to help them improve.

    “If they ask, I’ll say, ‘I’m not a pro, but this is what I see,’” she said.

    Though there is no age limit on the group, Williams, who co-chairs with Linda Barlow, said most members are 50 and older.

    For more information on joining, call Dear at 659-1206 or email bdear@garrisonslakegolf.com.

Jonathan’s group caters to all schedules

    When Elizabeth Birch, the Jonathan’s Landing Ladies tournament chair, came to the club five years ago, she said the group looked a lot different than it does today.

    The group consisted mostly of working women that would come to the course Wednesday nights and take in a quick nine holes.

    As the years have passed, Birch said, a lot of the women have retired, but numbers have grown creating a new dynamic.

    To cater to this, she said the group now meets with one flight on Wednesday mornings and the other in the afternoon/evening.

    “I set the games up weekly for the front or back nine,” Birch said. “If you play in the morning and want to play 18, the game will only be based on the designated nine holes so the scores can compare to the afternoon group.”

    The ladies in the group, she said, range in how competitive or skilled they are. Though most want to win, Birch said that much like the Garrison’s Lake group, it is a friendly outing more than anything.

    “For the most part they’re all pretty competitive,” she said. “But we have a very congenial and compatible group of ladies.”

    In addition to the weekly game, the ladies also play in one 18-hole tournament per month, which usually falls on a Saturday.

    Saturday tournament winners are presented with prizes at a dinner following the event, while those who put up the best weekly-game numbers are honored at the end of the season.

    The group is sitting at just over 40 members at ages 40 and older, but Birch said they are always looking to add to that number.

    For more information on joining, call Craig Coffield, director of golf, at 697-8204.

Email Brian Citino at brian.citino@doverpost.com