March 2003

Volume 21, Issue 3

MEETING NIGHT - MARCH 11th - 7:00pm

Fivesome Reverse Waltz - March 16th

Los Serranos - April 6th

Fivesome Tournament - April 13th

President's Corner  Meeting Minutes  Tournament Chairman  Rules Chairman  Commissioner's Report  Treasurer's Report   

Feb Select Drive Results & Special Events

President's Corner

Quite a bit has happened in the past month.  Kudos to Cairo for a great job in running the annual Golfer of the Year tournament.  The number of the day was 69, as that was the winning score in both the net and gross flights.  Cairo and Rich Dennison will also be running the Quad Club, and will address that at the meeting.  The Select Drive was played without incident, except our group again didn’t even sniff cashing...we did have fun, however!  We began easing into some proactive pace of play policies and actions at this tournament and we will continue to refine them, as we work on this problem.  We were glad to see support for this from the membership, and we will continue to address this, but we need your help and cooperation.

Special thanks go to our course superintendent, Jack Glant and his crew, for their work on the course last month. They worked overtime after the big rainstorm the week before our tournament to get the course playable for us…THANKS!  Saturday Team Play has again advanced to the play-offs, and Captain Jim Baber should know their first opponent by meeting night.  Thursday Team finally hit its stride (after I left the line-up) but Industry Hills was just too tough an opponent to overcome. 

We have had great attendance at our first two general meetings of the year.  With Rick Evans continuing his special touches to the raffle, Nick Zamora preparing for Los Serranos and Tom Link and Al Ostberg dutifully taking tournament signups, I expect the big attendance to continue. 

See you at the course,

Bob Livingstone

In Memory

Bob Wilson, who served as President of our Club in 1983, passed away in November.  Bob was a jovial guy who loved golf and our Club.  He moved to Las Vegas many years ago, but always looked forward to receiving our monthly Newsletters and keeping up on what we were doing.  Our sympathies go out to his wife Cleo.

Meeting Minutes

The monthly meeting was held February 11, 2003 under the El Dorado Park Golf Course restaurant auxiliary tent.  Beef and gravy, mashed potatoes, and the fixings were available for $6. President Livingstone called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm and led the membership in allegiance to our flag.

Past Presidents in attendance: Tom Conlisk, Richard Scoville, Steve Shure, Ray McElhenney, Mike Montgomery, and Greg O’Brien.

Tom Burris and Bob Livingstone represented our life membership.

The minutes from the last meeting and Treasurer’s report as printed in the newsletter were accepted.

One new member took the podium to state his name, occupation, and presumed handicap.  Greg O’Brien took him on the informative tour.

Tony Rizzo, El Dorado General Manager, had a couple things to discuss.  The course is now under a new blanket with a new C.E.O.  There will be more money put into the golf course (i.e. parking lot, tree trimming, etc…).  Jack’s guys are going to be cutting the rough down to a shorter length to help in finding balls that get in the stuff.  Terry Fulford inquired when the urinal that has been out of order for three weeks is to be fixed.  Tony will bring this up with Becky.

Committee Reports:

Ray McElhenney - Golf Commissioner: Not a lot going on right now.  He has heard that Feb. 17 was Skylinks date, but nothing is set as to what he can tell.  El Dorado rounds were down 4-½% in January, but up 5% for the 12-month period.  Their revenue was $341,000, which includes lessons, green fees, bar sales, etc…  They can’t move forward on the Capital Improvement Plan just yet.  Recommendations are being received.  As for the bond issue, the money goes to a third party, payable back on a yearly basis.  American Golf has Skylinks on a rotational schedule for six tournaments.  Five will be at Rec Park, with the other one here, no 2-day events.  There will be another meeting on Wed. Feb. 26 at 2:00 p.m. at Heartwell Park to discuss the “outside tournaments” that American Golf schedules at the city courses.  We have the numbers and this will be adamantly discussed.  Ray needs to know the away tournament dates.  In June we will have our 2004 schedule.  Lastly, Ray noted that there are forms to fill out for what you see that can and should be improved.

Jerry Leininger – Handicap: Jerry has the 2003 SCGA handicap cards for new members and for later renewals who did not get theirs mailed to them.

Nick Zamora – Entertainment: Results are posted for the San Luis Rey tournament.  He has posted a lot of information about the away tournaments on the website.  Trying to be helpful, Cairo Piercy was open with suggestions and pointers to try to make Nick’s job easier.  Nick graciously accepted this input.  General Old is scheduled for Sunday, March 2.  He needs entry monies for this ASAP so the tee times can be posted.  We’re going to Los Serranos on April 6^th.  The index will be adjusted due to their loss of so many eucalyptus trees.

One raffle ticket was drawn for (2) sleeves of balls.

Mike Marmer – Rules: During Saturday Team Play a member had a suction cup on his putter to use for retrieving ball from the hole.  Questions came up as to if this is a conforming grip.  According to the Rules of Golf it is not which led to a disqualification.  Mike discussed rules for players with similar putts, and the rule where a player cannot change status from player to caddie on the same hole.  He also noted that if players A and B tee off, but players C and D come late to the tee and claim to have honors that A and B can not be forced to replay after both A and B have already hit.  Don Russell asked about the drop area to the right of #8 whereas it is not behind the hazard.  The drop area is a local rule that we will need to discuss.

Rick Evans – Special Events: Special marks were placed on a few raffle tickets.  Dave Pemberton won $10 for holding one of them.  There were (3) marked tickets and only (1) of them was sold.  We need members to actively purchase raffle tickets at the meetings.

Cairo Piercy – GOM / GOY: Only had (2) Net GOM cards. Tom Conlisk won over Rich Gilmore (who shot the round of his life, net 66) with a fine 76 – 13 = 63.  Gross went to Doug Jones who turned in card for both a 72 and a 70.  GOY is all set up.  Times are from between 9:06 and 9:50.  Gross players will be playing with Gross players, Net with Net.

Another raffle ticket was drawn, this time for a hat and a sleeve of balls.

Team Play, Saturday – Jim Baber expressed his thanks to Tony, Jorge, Becky, and to Mark Miller for his website support.  Happy to announcement that we are one win away from winning our division.  Highlights last Saturday were by Tom Conlisk, Ruben Gonzales, Steve Shure, and Kevin Orr.  One more win and we’re off to the playoffs.

Team Play – Tom McCutcheon; Concurs with Jim on the support from the course and the members.  Thursday team has won 2 of their last 3 matches, and intends to win again on Thursday.

Tom Link – Tournaments: Questions came to him concerning the scrip with “Merchandise Only” stamped on them.  Tony will allow their use for green fees and carts, but not on weekends or tournaments.  The Scramble fell about 20 minutes behind schedule early in the tournament.  The last group finished in just over 5 hours.  The February Select Drive is full, but he needs standbys.   You will be playing to 65% of your handicap.  All cards will be computer generated, which will have the strokes already marked on the respective holes.  The March tournament is a Reverse Waltz. 15 names were called from the lottery for tee times.

Old Business: Greg O’Brien noted the Hole-In-One fund is now up to $778.  Get in if you aren’t already in it.  See Mike Montgomery on the first tee on Sunday.

New Business – We should be playing quicker than we are.  It is realized that there are a lot of people who fraternize with friends at the course and are just having fun.  The ‘Board needs to find out how the membership feels before we enforce slow play penalties, we want to get the membership feedback.  Steve Shure feels we need to look at groups that are continually behind, out of position and warned several times.  He feels they need to be punished with penalties and perhaps only allowed late times in future tournaments.  Slow walkers will be required to get carts as directed.  Mike Montgomery noted that the groups

Between 6:00 and 9:00 need to respect the other groups by keeping in motion.  Tom Link noted the need to play ready golf.  There is no reason we can’t hit our ball, then go to help a partner find his.  Unanimous agreement by the membership that we need to keep pace.  The Rules Committee will meet on defining the action we will take on this matter.

Meeting adjourned.

Rick Evans conducted the raffle.  Don Russell pulled the tickets, and Rich Dennison handed out the prizes.  We gave away a lot of prizes that included cash, head covers, hats, golf balls, range cards, and more.

50-50 was $52 tonight.  The winner was Frank Followell.  This was split $26 for Frank, and $26 for Jr. Golf.

Membership drawing was for $60.  The number of Don “Dad” Marmion was pulled.  Unfortunately for Dad he was ill and could not make the meeting.  Next month it will be for $70.  

Mike Vaughn, Secretary

Tournament Chairman

We had a very good turnout for our February Select Drive Tournament this year.  We were booked from sun-up(6:18) until 12:30 p.m. The pace of play was acceptable, but we seem to have a lot of trouble getting off the first tee box on time.  We will run on time until about 8:30 and then we will start to fall behind.  The scheduled group at 12:30 did not tee off until 1:00, so it was very close to not having them able to finish.  We are open to any and all suggestions as to how we can improve.

The Gross flight was tightly contested, Ed Fernandes, Bob & Jay Johnston, Micah Albao and Steve Friend lost in a card off to Jim Fuchs, Tom Flynn, Mike Marmer, John Shellenberger and Ted Burroughs.  The Net Flight results are listed in the Newsletter.

We will be drawing for spots in our April Tournament at the meeting on Tuesday March 11^th.  This will mark the beginning of  Daylight savings time and will  extend the hours of play.  We should be able to get everyone in this tournament.

Start thinking about the Member-Member that will be held in May.  This is a mail in tournament and is one of the most anticipated tournaments of the year. 

Hope to see you at the meeting March 11^th.

Tom Link

Tournament Chairman

Rules Chairman

Mike Montgomery, who was working the First Tee at the February tournament, brought to my attention that several players were practicing chipping between the first tee and the ninth hole.  Mike felt that this constituted "Practice" and would be a violation. 

Rule 7-1 prohibits "practice on the competition course on the day of the competition."
The penalty for violation is "DISQUALIFICATION." 

There is one exception to Rule 7-1.  "Practice putting or chipping on or near the first teeing ground before starting a round or play-off is permitted."  So Mike you need not worry.

It's winter time; see if you know the answer to this question:  Rule 14-2 provides as follows:  "In making a stroke, a player shall not:  a.  Accept physical assistance or protection from the elements..."

Question:  In the rain, a player holds an umbrella over his head with one hand while holing a short putt with his putter held in the other hand; there is no penalty.

a.  True       b.  False

Answer:

Rule 14-2 prohibits a player, while making a stroke, from accepting protection from the elements from someone other than himself.  However, it does not prohibit him from protecting himself during the making of a stroke.  The Answer is True.  Did you get it right or wrong?   

See you at the meeting.  Mike Marmer

Treasurer's Report

Commissioner's Report

Well Gentleman my article is a bit late but here it is for the month of February. Our meetings have been changed to the last Wednesday of each month. Hopefully I will be able to meet the deadline for our Newsletter. 

First on the agenda was the news regarding Skylinks Golf Course. If you did not read about it in the local newspaper, the plans have again changed!!!  The redesign is now to take place in October?? I really do not have an opinion on that, but per the city this will take place in October, so we will just have to wait and see. Jay Carballo has made a commitment to get Skylinks back up to "par" with the other courses? He wants to bring back some customers to that facility so he will along with his staff will be working to gain a customer base!! 

Rounds played at El Dorado during January 2003 were 7,897, that is up 3.78% from 2002 January. For all the courses the play was up 2.79% compared to last year at the same time. The revenue generated by our course for January was 361 grand!!, not bad. The C.I.P funds stand at 847 grand. At this point those funds will remain basically untouched until an agreement has been reached regarding Skylinks?? The Strategic Plan will be coming out hopefully in April. This plan will assist in looking at the overall golf operation for the City of Long Beach. 

Finally the purchase of American Golf has been finalized. The company the bought them was Goldman/Sachs. There are not to be any wholesale changes per Jay.

Well that will do it for now. Golf well, and I will see you at our next meeting.

Ray McElhenney

Golf Commissioner

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