Annual Report of the Chair, Board of Governors And the General and Special Committees 2024
we're at 52,052 total rounds, keeping pace with last year. Needless to say, demand for play remains near all-time highs. This year, Mr. King and his team continue to install drainage, cleanup the green edges where many of the putting greens had square footage recaptured, and transition most rough areas from cool weather grasses to bermuda grass. At Arlington, they also removed the two bunkers short left of the Red 1 green and cleared the majority of the pond edges throughout the property, most notably the pond between White 5 and Blue 2. At Fairfax, Mr. Betcher and his team have done a phenomenal job at recovering and maintaining greens that have been historically difficult to keep alive, particularly White 2 and 4. The bent grass fairways have proved to be a success. We were also able to renovate two of the three course restrooms. Our junior golf programs continue to be popular and consistently fill to capacity. We take great pride in seeing the competitive successes of our junior players and the love for the game that is being nurtured. A special thank you to our Director of Junior Golf, Jimmy Kowalski, for his dedication to the development and success of our kids. Not only is Jimmy a great instructor, but he’s also a superb player who helped the Army Navy A Team repeat as the Northern Virginia Club champions! We also want to recognize CAPT Eva Domotorffy, Chair of the Junior Activities Committee, for the hard work she and her committee do to help our junior golfers. We have many successes to celebrate, particularly with this being our centennial year. We are pleased to report that we will be holding a townhall this fall (date TBD), where renowned golf course architect, Andrew Green, will present a draft golf master plan for the Arlington campus. This draft plan will address myriad issues identified in the Club survey and the Golf and Green 2018 Town Hall and included in the Club’s strategic plan. For example, the aging infrastructure of the courses, the deteriorating bunkers, the strained practice facilities, the small green sizes in relation to the number of rounds being played, and even availability of parking. Most of these are issues that we weren’t able to address during the Course Renovation Initiative in the 2000s and were again highlighted six years ago at the 2018 Town Hall. All members will be invited to attend the Fall 2024 Town Hall where questions can be asked, and input will be solicited following the meeting. With respect to golf at the Fairfax campus, the Fairfax Task Force has been standing up and is actively holding meetings to develop recommendations for the membership on how to best maximize utilization of the campus. We look forward to working with them on the golf side. We consider it an absolute privilege to serve this membership. See you around the Club and hit ‘em straight!
RACQUET SPORTS COMMITTEE
MR. SCOTT BORDER, CHAIR Racquet Sports continues to grow rapidly at ANCC. Outdoor tennis court usage during the 2023 season increased over 25% in hours played and 10% in total court utilization. As in years past, the 2023-2024 indoor season maxed out the six court facility with 90% utilization over the five- month season despite fewer indoor contracts (135 down from 150 the previous year) as play consolidated to larger contract groups playing during peak hours in the mornings, weekday evenings, and weekends. Demand in instructional services remained strong again in 2023 as we topped 10,000 hours of lessons and clinics. And pickleball, once a new sport at the Club, has now reached 550 members playing at Arlington and 106 playing at Fairfax.
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