Professional Services
Club Storage is available to members for an annual fee of $100.00. With club storage your golf bag will be waiting on a cart before you play, then cleaned and placed in storage after play. If a member is properly serviced the recommended gratuity is $1.00 per bag.
Lockers are available by contacting Tommy Crosswhite for the men’s locker room, or the main office for the Women’s locker room
Annual Fee: Full Locker - $45; Half Locker - $22.50
Shoe Service is available by the locker room attendants. Women are asked to place their name and requested service on an envelope and place shoes on the corner table in the locker room. Men are asked to see the locker room attendant for service. There is no charge for the cleaning/polishing service but gratuity is greatly appreciated. Recommended gratuity for proper service is $3.00. Spikes can also be changed for $.65 per spike plus gratuity.
Pull Cart and Carry Bag Storage – is available at a fee of $75 for standard pull cart, $100 for deluxe/electric cart, and $100 per golf bag. Please contact the professional staff for information and to register for the service. Electric Pull carts will be allowed in storage, however the member will need to charge their own battery.
Hole-In-One Club – The fee to join the Hole-in-One Club is $2. A member who joins this club will be charged $2 per year. This charge is built into the handicap fee. Players making a hole-in-one will split the fees collected. A member may be in the Hole-In-One club without participating in our handicap service by contacting your professional staff.
USGA Handicap Service – The club provides a USGA certified handicap service for $35 per year ($2 of the handicap fee goes toward the Hole-In-One Club) is required for participation in any club or VSGA Event. If you would like to sign up please contact the professional staff. If you do not care to be a part of the Hole-In-One Club please contact your professional staff to remove the charge.
As required by the United States Golf Association, the Handicap Committee (Golf Committee) at Hidden Valley undertakes activities to ensure that all Members understand the USGA Handicap System and that all scores are posted.
As part of their duties they will be monitoring the posting of scores on selected days, and follow up with those who fail to post. Golfers failing to post scores will have a score of two shots lower than their previous recorded low round. Equitable handicaps are the life of the Club and any manipulation or lack of integrity concerning handicap policies and procedures is a serious matter.
The USGA System
Handicap Indexes established under the United States Golf Association (USGA) Handicap System are the backbone of amateur golf. They enable all golfers at Hidden Valley to play equitably with one another and, with the help of the USGA Slope system, to play away from home with equal ease and equality. The Handicap System of the USGA has seven (7) key elements:
- An 18-hole score must be posted for all rounds of 13 holes or more, even if you pick up on some holes.
- A 9-hole score must also be posted. The handicap system will automatically combine two 9-hole scores to create an official round. There is no restriction on the number of 9-hole scores a player can record.
- Posted scores must be reduced when you have an unusually high number of strokes on any hole. This procedure is called Equitable Stroke Control (ESC).
- Tournament scores must be identified by a "T" when they are posted.
- Your Handicap Index will automatically be reduced if your tournament scores are consistently better then your scores in informal play.
- Each Club must have a Handicap Committee to supervise the system and ensure that all scores are posted.
- The Handicap Committee must adjust the index of those players who do not post all their scores or ignore the basic handicap rules.
Equitable Stroke Control (ESC) is the downward adjustment of individual hole scores for handicap purposes in order to make handicaps more representative of a player’s potential ability. ESC sets a maximum number that a player can post on any hole depending on the player’s Course Handicap. ESC is used only when a player’s actual or most likely score exceeds his maximum number based on the table in Section 4-3. Players are required to adjust all scores (including tournament scores) before posting.
| Equitable Stroke Control |
| To use Equitable Stroke Control (ESC) properly, you must first determine the number of strokes you receive when playing that course and tee. Then use the following table to assist you. |
| Course Handicap |
|
Maximum Hole Score |
9 or less
10 through 19
20 through 29
30 through 39
40 or more |
|
Double Bogey
7
8
9
10 |
Golf Equipment
The goal of the golf staff is to have every member purchase their equipment and clubs from their PGA Professional. In order to accomplish this goal the following has been implemented to ensure the membership supports their club:
Superior Customer Service: No one can offer better service than your professional staff. If you purchase your equipment from Hidden Valley, you can be assured the staff will do everything possible to make sure the club fits your swing and the best possible club for your game. If you ever have problems with your clubs, you will have a PGA Professional standing behind it and doing everything possible to provide a replacement in a timely manner.
Trade-ins: Any players wishing to trade-in his/her clubs can check the value of his/her clubs at tradein.PGA.com and then turn them into Hidden Valley for credit against a new purchase.
Pricing: Hidden Valley does everything possible to ensure the lowest prices available for our members. All members receive discounted pricing on all golf shop merchandise and equipment.
Professional Club Fitting: Every golfer’s game and swing is different. Professional club fitting utilizes the latest high performance technology available to create clubs that will maximize the distance, accuracy and consistency of your golf shots. As PGA Professionals, we are required to have some knowledge of club fitting. As a staff we have taken this requirement to the highest degree. We are the only club in Southwest Virginia that is certified by Callaway, Cleveland, Cobra, Ping, Taylor-Made, and Titleist.
The goal of our staff is for our members to be proud of their golf shop and support it. They are very dedicated to do whatever it takes to make sure we reach this goal.
Practice Facilities
Hidden Valley offers three different practice facilities to our members. The driving range is supplied with range balls and the cost is included in the dues structure. Artificial Mats will be used on Mondays and Thursdays to allow proper rotation of the practice tee.
A short game area is located to the left of hole #17 and #18. The area is set up for players to practice wedge shots of 100 yards and less and members are responsible for retrieving their own balls. Renovated in 2005, this practice area now includes two practice bunkers and a full-sized green with three pin locations at all times.
In addition to the ranges, there is a practice putting green. The lower putting green is reserved for putting only and the green between 17 and 18 may be used for chipping, pitching, bunker play and practice.
Driving Range is closed from 5:30 PM on Sunday until 11:00 AM on Monday for maintenance.
A New addition to our practice facility in 2008 is the Lamanca Learning Center. Our staff is extremely excited about the opening of the learning center. This is going to be a terrific resource for the Members and our Professional Staff. The building is very attractive but what is going to make it special is what is on the inside. We will store all of the custom fitting carts from the major companies and the staff will be using the Vector Pro Launch Monitor to offer top of the line professional club fitting services. During private lessons, the professional staff will be utilizing multi-camera video system by JC Video. The JC Video System allows students to be compared to over 300 professional golfers or compare two different swings from a student simultaneously on the same screen. The center will also contain three state of the art mats made by True Strike. The mats provide the golfer the most realistic turf on the market today without “grabbing” the club as some artificial surfaces do. The center will also have a synthetic putting service that will enable members to practice their putting strokes in a controlled environment. The staff will be using the putting surface to give putting lessons using TOMI Putting Analysis System. The system, like a launch monitor, will provide hi-tech data to help improve all putting strokes.
Members may reserve times in the practice bays by calling 24 hours in advance at a rate of $15 per hour. Members who participated in contributing to the project before the building was constructed can make times in advance by calling the golf shop. The time in advance varies according to the level of the donation.