February

The 2008 EDMC season got off to a good start with our January Scramble. You will have to search long and hard to remember a January Tournament with better weather. It started a little chilly for those with early times, but turned out to be a great golf day after that. Looking at the scores, a lot of teams found the course to their liking. The greens were as good as I’ve seen in a long time. Thanks to Jason and staff for the hard work… it shows.

February will start our away trips and Nick Zamora has put together some good courses for us. We’ll start on February 24 at General Old, a fun, old classic test. Contact Nick if you have questions or are looking for a spot in the away tournaments.

Talking about tournaments, a reminder…… all Men’s Club tournaments are conducted under the Rules of Golf. In the January tournament, I heard there were some groups lining up and standing directly behind their partner while he was putting. This is not allowed under Rule 14-2b and carries a two stroke penalty. I know it was the first tournament, a scramble, and we did not post our scores but let’s not get sloppy when it comes to the rules. I don’t want to see us getting into bad habits that will be hard to break in our future tournaments. If you have a Rules of Golf question contact Bob Livingstone, Rules Chairman, or any director and we’ll get you an answer and make sure we all play the same game.

Make sure to attend our February 12^th General Meeting for the starting time drawing and to test your luck in the raffle. Bret Holloway changed up our format and based on the response in January, we should have some big smiles in February.

The monthly meeting was held January 8, 2008 in the El Dorado Park Golf Course tent area. The restaurant provided a beef and chicken dinner selection for your nominal donation of $7. President Jerry Leininger called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and led the membership in allegiance to our flag.

Past Presidents in attendance: Tom Conlisk, Richard Scoville Steve Shure, Don Marmion, Mike Montgomery, Greg O’Brien, Bob Livingstone, a special guest appearance by Tom Link, and Richard Dennison.

Bob Livingstone – Rules; Bob first noted that we are giving cash, instead of golf merchandise, as raffle prizes in effort to create more participation. This will be the first raffle he has bought tickets for in 20 years. Bob discussed the major rules changes for this year and how they will affect both match and stroke play. Items of immediate interest were when your ball hits your equipment, asking and receiving information on yardage, and water hazard needing virtual certainty that you ball is in the water if there is anywhere else the ball may be,

GOM and Team Play: Larry Lipman, Thursday captain, could not make the meeting. Pres. Leininger advised the first match is Vs Rio Hondo here. Terry Fulford, Saturday captain: There are some good matches set up for this year. As for the December GOM, there was only one card submitted all month. Net winner was Bob Maney with a nice 82 – 19 = 63. There was one other card turned in but no tees were marked, no attest signature, and no date so it had to be disqualified. Be sure to circle the tee you play, have attested by a member who played the round with you, date the card, and sign it. Use the white GOM scorecards that are in the Pro Shop on / in the computer cabinet.

Mel Collins – Director: Mel will be conducting the Putting contest and some other things this year.

Tom Retterath – Handicap: Tom mentioned that approximately 10% of the scorecards were not turned in or were posted incorrectly. Be sure to do things right to prevent Penalty rounds be applied.

Nick Zamora – Entertainment: Wished everyone a Happy New Year. Nick is taking sign ups now for the February 24 away trip to General Old. It will be $60 per, 60-player, 3-Best Ball format. One week later on March 2 we’ll go to Brookside to play the big course from the white tees. That will be $85 per, 60-player, 2-Best Ball format.

Bret Holloway – Special Events: At the Christmas tourney the sign for #14 was not turned in for the “C” Flight for 2^nd shot on the green. If you made that shot be sure to let Bret know. January tourney will have Special Events on the par 3 holes. Noted the cash raffle has over $200 in it so far.

Dennis Tramer – Tournaments: Tournaments are held on Sunday during Team Play. Next Sunday is the January Scramble and the field is full. Be sure to play fast and do not spend 5 minutes looking for a lost ball. There will be three (3) Flights. Handicap to be assigned based on your handicap; 0-5=0, 6-10=1, 11-15=2, 17-23=3, and 24 and more = 4. Everything will be printed on the card.

Pres. Leininger noted New Members were not noted earlier. David Erard was the only new member at tonight’s meeting. He went with Rich Dennison for the introductory tour.

New Business: The 2008 schedules were printed late. They were sent with the Newsletters. The email Newsletter group will be receiving theirs within the next 2 weeks.

Bob Livingstone took the podium to note that in looking at the very low numbers that are being turned in for GOM. Bob proposed that we now use 75% of the handicap for GOM purposes. Most agreed with the thought so Bob made the motion, it was seconded. Terry Fulford asked if the numbers would be rounded up or down. The number will be exact, say 12.4. Richard Scoville commented that the SCGA wants all medal play to be at 75%. The majority ruled in the vote. GOM will now be figured at 75% of an individuals’ handicap.

Raffle tickets continued to be sold. The cash raffle went over well. This will be the new format for the monthly raffle. The first $40 goes to our Jr. Golf annual commitment and the rest will be raffled off. Tonight’s grand prize of $100 was won by Jim Coates.

The Membership drawing tonight starts at $50. The number of Mark Burkes was called. Mark was not at tonight’s meeting. Next meeting the drawing will be for $60.

Well, I’m glad our first tournament in 2008 got off without any glitches including a beautiful sunny January day. I would really like to thank the players on their pace of play. We stayed on time all day and the last group finished with about 20 minutes of daylight left. Please, anyone who has any suggestions on how I can serve you better or any ideas about different tournament formats, let me know.

Congratulations to B. Hasselman, J. Hasselman, M. Hasselman, C. Price and B. Huntington for a very nice 56 to win a card off for low gross (27) back. It was a nice effort from Team Collins as they also shot 56 with a (28) back. Nice shooting gentleman.

Our next tournament is the Select Drive on Sunday, Feb. 17^th. The tournament is full. I am once again going to ask for you to keep up the pace of play. I’m going to go 2 times extra after noon to accommodate more players as I have 18 on the standby list. We’ll be cutting it close but after your performance in January I believe that everyone will finish.

I will be taking sign ups for the March Fivesome Waltz March 16^th at the February 14^th meeting. Please make sure you sign up before the meeting for the tee time drawing. Reminder, we need a minimum deposit of $50 to sign up 3 players and $100 minimum to sign up a Fivesome. Daylight saving starts early this year, March 8^th, so more tee times will be available. I will be able to go to around 1:00 P.M.

One last note, I would like to encourage all new members to sign up for tournaments. I know it’s difficult, especially if your not in a group. I will do my best to get you in March’s tournament just come see me before the meeting. I would especially like to welcome back Dave Dvorchak as a returning member, now if we could only get Dave Young back, the club’s demise would be in full swing.

Beginning Balance Checking Account			$ 45,958.66

DEPOSITS
MISC INC	$ 30.00
DUES '08	$ 3,355.00
50/50	$ 55.00
JAN TOURN	$ 6,175.00
X-MAS TOURN	$ 3,855.00
CKING INT	$ 1.53
FEB TOURN	$ 3,300.00
HOLE IN ONE	$ 708.00



TOTAL CASH RECEIPTS	$ 17,479.53

SUBTOTAL			$ 63,438.19

DEBITS
SAT TEAM PLAY		$ 550.00
HOLE IN ONE(transfer)		$ 657.00
08 MISC EXP		$ 155.80
X-MAS		$ 14,844.35
07 LOS ALTOS		$ 297.40
CD		$ 10,000.00
SEASIDE		$ 609.70
MEM DRAWING		$ 50.00







TOTAL CASH DISBURSEMENTS		$ 27,164.25
CHECKING ACCOUNT BALANCE			$ 36,273.94
CD			$ 10,000.00

		TOTAL FUNDS	$ 46,273.94

Let the new season begin. Hopefully the rain has gotten the golf courses in tip top shape and the greens in perfect condition. Our first trip will be Sunday, February 24^th at General Old in Riverside. Tee times begin at 9:00 am. The cost will be $60 per person and the game will be 3 Best Balls. I will take single sign ups, as well as a 4 man team.

Be ready, because the week after, our next trip will be to Brookside in Pasadena. If you have seen the Rose Bowl game played they always show Brookside. They use it as a parking lot for the games. From El Dorado Park it takes about 50 minutes to get there. The date is March 2^nd (Sunday). Tee times begin at 9:00 am, the cost is $85 per person. The format is 2 Best Ball. If you are interested you must sign up by the February meeting, because we will have played before the March meeting.

The monthly meeting was held at Skylinks on January 23rd. American Golf and the City have developed a new online reservation system for tee times. Reservations can now be made eight days in advance with the new program with residence going online starting at 6:00AM to 6:30Am and non residence from 6:30AM with reservation cards. Golfers without reservation cards can book tee times after 10:00AM. The website address is as follows: www.lbcgolf.com or www.longbeach.americangolf.com. For those members who do not have access to a computer, there will be terminals in the Pro Shops for making tee times. It is just getting started and there are a few glitches as with any new program, but be patient and it will come together.

As for things at our course, at the end of December, the greens were verticut and fertilized and chemical were applied to control insect, weed, and other pests. New sand bins and gates have been proposed for future construction and the Superintendent is rebuilding the nursery green. As a final note, American is proposing an increase in non-resident reservation cards and probably by the time you read this they will already been increased. Sorry for the late notice about the increase, but as usual they advise the commission a week before they activate. Until next time, hit 'em straight and keep your head down.