February

Thanks to all of you who joined us for the January Meeting. It was well attended and there is lot’s going on. Nick Zamora, our Entertainment Chairman, has 8 away trips planned this year. The first trip is to San Luis Rey Downs on February 22^nd and the 2^nd trip is March 7^th at General Old. He may have a few spots for San Luis Rey, get your money in early for General Old, it will fill up quickly. If you are a new member it is a great way to meet some of the older members, see Nick he will help you fill out a group or just form your own.

Our first Tournament went off without any problems, but speed of play still remains an issue. If you are signing up to play early, your group needs to play in 4 ½ hours or less. If you cannot play at that pace, we will assign you a later time.

Remember that we will have a sign up’s for our March Tournament, which is a Waltz, see Rich Dennison prior to the meeting for details. If you do not have a group or are not selected in the drawing talk to Rich after the meeting and he will put you on the waiting list.

Both our Thursday and Saturday Teams are in the hunt for the playoffs. Thursday Team is 3 wins and 1 loss with one more match against Lakewood Seniors. They are in control of their own destiny. Saturday Team is 2 wins and no losses with pivotal matches on February 7^th and February 14^th with Costa Mesa Men’s Club. They are always tough, best of luck to Saturday Team. We had our annual Grudge Match between Saturday and Thursday Team this past weekend, I will let the Team Captains, Tom McCutcheon (Thursday) and Jim Baber (Saturday) give you the outcome. I know the stories will be entertaining and slightly different.

The Southern California Golf Show is at the Long Beach Convention Center February 27-29. I would like to see some volunteers from our Club. Volunteers receive free admission to the show, an official Southern California Golf Show shirt, free lunch and a chance to work with the pro’s of the Southern California golf Community. See Dennis Tramer at the meeting for details, or call him at (562) 596-7208.

The monthly meeting was held January 13, 2004 under the El Dorado Park Golf Course restaurant auxiliary tent. The restaurant provided a beef, chicken, rice, and veggies combo tonight for your $6. President Tom Link called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. and led the membership in allegiance to our flag.

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

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

As usual for the January meeting several new members were in attendance. They all took the microphone and gave their names, occupation, and presumed handicap. Bob Livingstone took them on an informational tour.

Team Play has had successful outings to start the season. Thursday captain Tom McCutcheon noted they won 31 –14. Tom thanked everyone. Saturday co-captain John Davis reported that they won 38-10. J.D thanked everyone at the course for their’ support. Next match at 8:00 am Saturday with practice on Thursday. J.D then tanked everyone on the team for what they did.

Golf Commissioner - Ray McElhenney: There was no committee meeting this month. Ray did comment that the Skylinks project is ahead of schedule. The clubhouse is to be refurbished, not torn down and rebuilt.

Jerry Leininger – Handicap: Jerry reviewed what is need for new members to establish a handicap. Be sure to hold your score cards until you get your SCGA number and then turn them in with that number on the cards.

Nick Zamora – Entertainment: Nick wished everyone a Happy New Year. There will be some new course on our away schedule this year. We’ll start out at San Luis Rey on February 22. He has a few places left at $75 per. The one after that will be at General Old. Nick is looking to make the cost a bit less, perhaps paying a few less places. If anyone has a course they would like to go to see Nick now as he is setting up the 2005 schedule. Our Weekender this year will be back to Singing Hills in October. Tee times for away trips will be posted in all of the usual places at the course and on the Club website. We are getting a new bulleting board for the restroom hallway. Bob Bernard is providing the carpet, and Nick’s company, Big Sky Design, is providing the framework.

Rick Evans – Special Events: Last year went great. Rick is looking forward to a lot of things for this year.

Mel Collins – Rules: Mel is looking forward to serving as the Rules Chair this year.

Pres. Link noted that the 2004 schedules would be available at the tournament this Sunday.

Mike Marmer – Director: Told membership about Golfer of The Month (GOM) and its’ requirement. 12 winners each year qualify to play in the Golfer of The Year (GOY) tournament usually held in February of the next year. December GOM winners were Net – Mike Montgomery, 80 –15 = 65, and Gross Greg Lester, 74

Dennis Tramer – Director: Quad Club to be held Saturday April 24 at Rec. Park. Teams will consist of 40 players. Anyone who won 3 points last year is automatically qualified. The 4-somes include 1 player from each club (El Dorado, Big Rec., Lakewood, and Skylinks).

Rich Dennison – Tournaments: This Sunday is the January Scramble. Everything the same a normal, except putting. Before you play, set your rotation 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 before going out. If on hole 1 the first putters’ putt doesn’t drop the second makes his putt. Supposing it drops the third putter gets first attempt on hole 2, and so on, rotational putting format? This is to hopefully speed up the pace of play. The tourney will be flighted, teams play to the score they shoot, no handicap. February tourney is Select Drive. Let us hope it does not get rained out like it did last year. 10 names were called for the February tourney sign ups.

New Business – Tom Bentele asked if the scorecards in the Pro Shop reflect the same whole handicap as our tournament cards. They do.

ore raffle tickets were sold. Rick Evans called the raffle tickets out. We gave away a lot of prizes that included cash, a golf club travel bag, hats, golf balls, range cards, and more.

50-50 was $56 tonight. The winner was Ruben Gonzales. $28 for Ruben and $28 for Jr. Golf.

The membership drawing starts every year at $50. The number of Frank Followell was drawn. Frank was at the meeting, wining a cool $50. It will again start at $50 next month, increasing $10 per month until it is won, or until the December meeting when we draw numbers until we hit a member who is at the meeting.

Mike Vaughn
Secretary

I want to thank everyone who played in the January Scramble. We were a little late getting started in the morning, but everyone was able to finish. The A Flight had a couple of teams with 62’s, great score considering the new format. I want to congratulate all the teams that cashed. My team didn’t even sniff the money and I hope I don’t take on the T. C. lack of cashing.

Reminders: When you come to the meeting be sure to get your lottery ticket for tee times before the start of the 7pm meeting. Have your money and list of players ready when you come to the table, it makes it a lot faster on sign up. If you don’t cancel within 72 hours of the tournament there is no refund. All monies are due 2 weeks before the tournament, or you can lose your tee time.

The February tournament is the Select Drive. I have a couple of spots open, so call and I will put you on the standby list.

Beginning Balance			$21,139.52

DEPOSITS

Checking Interest	1.59
50/50	59.00
Xmas Tournament	192.00
Dues 2004	4,005.00
Savings Transfer	10,203.85
Raffle	535.00
Jan Tournament	7,013.00
Feb Tournament	3,586.00

TOTAL CASH RECEIPTS	25,595.44

SUBTOTAL			$46,734.96

DEBITS

Seaside Printing		$ 653.66
Directors Meeting		$ 50.00
ISP (2 months)		$ 30.00
Raffle		$ 498.87
Member Drawing		$ 50.00
Los Altos Trophy		$ 226.00
Xmas Tournament		$ 3,834.63
Away Trip Deposits		$ 1,300.00
Misc. Exp		$ 73.84
Digital Camera		$ 300.00
Team Play		$ 900.00
SCGA Dues 2004		$10,770.00
TOTAL CASH DISBURSEMENTS		$18,687.00

ENDING BALANCE			$28,047.96

Well Happy New Year to everyone. We just had our first Commissioners meeting of 2004. Not too many topics, but I will touch on some. I will not bore you with Novembers numbers, so here are the facts and figures for December 2003. All rounds for the month were down 22.55%. Keep in mind with Skylinks being closed these figures are a bit misleading. El Dorado's rounds for December were up 6.23%. Year to date totals are as follows. Total rounds down 8.52%, and our course was down 2.11%. On the other hand the total revenue for all the courses was still going strong. For the month of December total revenue was $851 thousand. $198 thousand going to the city. The C.I.P. funds as you know are being handled by an outside broker. It is expected by mid March we should know exactly what amount of money we have available. The Skylinks project is still going very well. Some updates: the lakes have been completed, trees have been planted along 11,15,16 and 17 fairways. Four new holes have been rough graded on the front nine. Again this project is well ahead of schedule. A couple of other items regarding this project. The name Legends has not been totally approved, therefore the city is still accepting suggestions. I f you have a suggestion for a new name, or keep the Skylinks name, please let me know so I can pass on to the city. The club house as I mentioned in December will just be getting a new face lift. The bids will be going out in a few weeks. There was 1 million dollars allowed for this area. A poster of the new layout/design will be in all clubhouses very soon. You can get a look at exactly what this new course will look like, yardage and everything. The strategic plan is again on the table for 2004. This will be the project that looks into the policy and procedures of the golf operation in Long Beach. Jay Caballo made a few announcements at our meeting. One being the credit card policy. That program is going well, in fact it has decreased the cancellations by 5%. Also Jay Schaffer is leaving Heartwell Golf Course. Steve Dewitt is currently running that operation. At Recreation Park the new General Manager will be Jeff Defranco. Finally, the outside tournaments will be handled by each course. That does not mean the courses can book any and all the events they want, but they will be doing the scheduling for tournaments that are within the tournament guidelines. We had a discussion regarding where the Commissioners would be meeting on a regular basis. It was decided that we would go back to the Jr. golf facility at Heartwell. Maybe once or twice a year we will go to an outside site. Before I put you to sleep I want to bring out one final topic, and the is Long Beaches Jr. Golf Program. This program is and will continue to thrive in our city. One area that would greatly assist this program is to get some volunteers to help with the Friday night program. They have roughly 200 golfers playing on any given Friday night. They need adults to walk with these kids. If this is something you would like to do, please contact me and I can give you the specifics. Well that is enough for now. See you at are next meeting.

Mike Vaughn Secretary

Mike Vaughn
Secretary