November

Our 2008 club year is quickly coming to a close. As we head into Thanksgiving, I’d like to take a minute and thank the membership for your participation. Your support and participation is what make El Dorado one of the most active clubs in Southern California. On behalf of your board of Directors, thanks again.

I want to give a huge thank you to our current Board of Directors, who give a tremendous amount of their time putting together and administrating all our activities; I could not have a better group to work with.

Tom McCutcheon, Life Member, Thursday Team Captain, and very active member of El Dorado is being honored by the SCGA for his volunteer contributions. This is a very special honor for Tom and we send our congratulations to Tom. Thank you also for all you have done at El Dorado over the years. You can read additional details of the Jim House Award in Bob Livingstone’s article in this issue.

Our “Annual Meeting” is Tuesday, November 11^th where we will hold our election of officers for 2009. Please mark you calendar and plan on attending. Your vote is always very important.

Dennis Tramer will also be taking money for our largest tournament of the year, The Christmas Tournament. This is the day where we have the golf course for the entire day. We start off with a Shotgun start tournament followed by our Derbies.

Make sure to get your entry fees in early as this tournament always is a sell out.

I wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Hit ‘em long and straight.

The monthly meeting was held October 14, 2008 in the El Dorado Park Golf Course tent area. The restaurant offered their dinner selection and sides for $7.

President Jerry Leininger called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and led the membership in allegiance to our flag.

Pres. Leininger informed the Club that we lost an active member, and past Team Play captain, this past Thursday. Roger Scaife lost his long fought battle with cancer. The Club took an extended minute of silence in prayer and remembrance. Rest in Peace Roger.

Past Presidents in attendance: Tom Conlisk, Steve Shure, Mike Montgomery, Greg O’Brien, Bob Livingstone, and Richard Dennison.

Rich Dennison – Immediate Past President: Next month the Club votes for our 2009 Board of Directors. Rich read the slate as it stands and opened the floor to nominations. Terry Henson was nominated for Treasurer, Terry accepted. There were no more nominations, closed.

Bob Livingstone – Rules and SCGA Representative; Bob advised the tee work for 3, 9 and 12 have been pushed to 2009. The greens are healing well. On holes 1, 3, 6, and 11 they tried aeration at 1” wide by 1” deep. The course will be re-rated this month, October 30. We will play to whatever the course is reallocated. Green fees went up $1 resident and $3 non-resident. Bob went on to discuss the Ball in Motion Rule, don’t touch it. The $10 range cards have been eliminated and only larger ones are sold. American Golf feels you’ll use it eventually. New range ball machines will use renewable keys instead of cards. Skylinks has theirs in place. One concern is the minimum number of balls one can get is 30. A question was asked to Bob on how much the City makes off the golf operations. Livy said approximately $4.7 million.

Don Marmion – Commissioner: Not present. Pres. Leininger had spoken with Don and noted that there was nothing to report.

Mel Collins – Director: Mel had hoped for more players for tonight’s Putting Contest, as it was the last one until DLS time comes again. Had a twice-around 9-hole layout count ‘em all event. Andy Robinson and Jerry Leininger tied for 2nd and won $20 each. Taking the $50 1st place money with a -7 was Tom Retterath. We are down to the semi-finals in the Flights. There are (2) tee times available on Saturday the 25th. Be sure to get the rounds played on time. No more extensions will be granted.

Terry Fulford – Director: Had (16) cards for September G.O.M. Winning the Gross prize was Jerry Warner with a nice -2 score of 70. Net prize went to Eric Miller at 67.75. There were (13) cards turned in for the 9-hole tourney. Winner was Tom Conlisk for a 32 1/2 (40 – 7 ½). Second went to John Selby with 35 ½, and third to Chris Benes with even 36.

Team Play – Glenn Cantin, Thursday captain, noted the sign up sheet is in the hallway and tryouts are coming up. See Glenn or Mel Collins if you are interested. Paul Wildy, Saturday captain, also noted the sign up sheet is posted and tryouts begin in November.

Nick Zamora – Entertainment: Nick was not at tonight’s meeting. Pres. Leininger noted that Nick and Rich Dennison did a great job with the Weekender. Next time you see Nick be sure to thank him.

Bret Holloway – Special Events: Special Event this Saturday will be Zorro (11, 12, 13, 14 and 15). For a change the “C” Flight hole-prize will be 3rd shot on 8 to a 5’ circle.

Dennis Tramer – Tournaments: Partner-Partner was a lot of fun. Orange Ball is this Saturday. Dennis needs some singles due to late cancellations. Teams will mark their order on the card and return to table for BOD member to initial and you’ll be given (2) orange balls. When turning your card in at least one of the orange balls must be with it or your team is DQ’d.

Old Business: Last day to Renewals for 2009 at the $100 rate has been extended to through the tournament this Saturday, October 18. Be sure to catch the $20 savings. Via a phone call request of a members’ wife, Pres. Jerry wished Chris Benes a Happy Birthday.

Cash raffle tickets continued to be sold. Bret Holloway called the winning numbers. Didn’t catch the Grand prize as I was too busy counting the $15 I won!

The Membership drawing tonight was for $60. The number of Toby Kovaleff was drawn. Toby had been at the meeting but had already departed. Next month the prize will be $70.

Special Note; when the meeting ended Terry Henson came to Pres. Leininger to inform him that he wants to be considered to run Special Events and withdrew his nomination for Treasurer.

Well, the DREADED ORANGE BALL Tournament is in the books and I hope everyone had as good a time as I did. Speed of play was O.K., but we had a few groups out there that were lagging behind. I'm going to see what happens in Nov., and if we still are having problems next year I am going to implement a policy that if your card is not turned in within 20 minutes of the prior group your team will incur a 2 shot penalty. Let's play fast and make it enjoyable for everybody. As for the tournament, we probably had the biggest upset in history as the gross division was won by B. Livingstone, J. Nathon, R. Gallup, M. Ziegenhagen & M. Perry. They shot 220 which is 4 OVER PAR. By the way, the over-under for Jim Nathon "SIDEWAYS" shots was 3. I hear he made the under which was opposite of the consensus I took. That a boy Jim. The group that shot lights out this month was some "C" Flighters. Shooting a great 27 under par 189 were B. Maney, J. Baird, Stan Brown, M. Davis, & R. Valois. Nice shooting gentlemen. All results can be found on our website or in the hallway on our Board.

The November 15th tournament is an individual Nassau. I still have spots and full times available. In this tournament we will pay overall winners, front nine winners, and back nine winners. You can go "PIG" and win all 3 categories. This would be a nice "POINTS" win for someone if they sweep. The number of flights are to be determined.

Our biggie of the year is coming up on December 13th, the CHRISTMAS TOURNAMENT. As you know we buy the course for the day. We will have a 7:30 SHOTGUN. The cost will be $60.00 for walkers and $75.00 for riders. We will again play a threesome 2 best ball with 2 groups teeing off together so we play as six-somes. There will be entry forms on the internet and in the newsletter. I will also have entry forms at the November meeting and after that in the pro shop. Because the morning of the tournament I will be busy, I need your payments by December 9th, meeting night. There are 80 carts available, I believe we will be O.K., but if we have more riders than carts they will be given out on a first come first served basis. Those who PAY FIRST have priority. Also those who have not played in a Derby they are a lot of fun. If you are not in a Derby you are welcome to go out and play as much as you want as long as you don't interfere with derby’s in progress. There is one other note, if you do not play in the tournament you may NOT participate in a Derby.

Beginning Balance Checking Account			$ 31,763.23

DEPOSITS
CLUB CHAMP	$ 140.00
CKING INT	$ 0.71
HOLE IN ONE	$ 145.00
DUES '09	$ 7,100.00
WEEKENDER	$ 4,065.00

TOTAL CASH RECEIPTS	$ 11,450.71

SUBTOTAL			$ 43,213.94

DISBURSEMENTS
DUES '09		$ 105.00
WEB SITE '09		$ 312.65
TEAM PLAY '09		$ 300.00
HOLE IN ONE		$ 366.00
MEM DRAWING		$ 50.00
SAN LUIS REY		$ 2,048.00
SAN CLEMENTE		$ 1,464.00
SCGA DUES '08		$ 100.00
DSL		$ 10.00
LOS ALTOS TROPHY		$ 470.24
WEB SITE '08		$ 205.25
WEEKENDER		$ 563.47
PART/PART		$ 4,160.00


TOTAL CASH DISBURSEMENTS		$ 10,154.61
CHECKING ACCOUNT BALANCE			$ 33,059.33
CD			$ 5,214.50

TOTAL FUNDS			$ 38,273.83

Well guys, it’s hard to believe that another away trip season is fast approaching its final stop. Our last trip of the year is to Rio Hondo Golf Club in Downey. The date is November 8^th. Tee times begin at 9:00 am. The format is 2 Best Ball Net on all Par 3’s and 5’s, 3 Best Ball Net on all Par 4’s. The price is $80 per person. We will be playing from the blue tees.

This is also the last tournament in the running for the “Little Brown Jug” (details are in the last month’s newsletter). I should have the winners at the next meeting night, November 11^th.

Stay tuned for the next season, I have a few surprises in store; some new courses and a few old friends. We are thinking of a weekender in Las Vegas!

I flew to Phoenix to watch the final round of the FRYS.COM Open where Paul Goydos and John Mallinger started the final round tied for 3rd. On the final hole Paul, found the left greenside bunker and his ball rolled onto a grass divot discourteously left in the bunker...arguably one of the worst breaks I have ever seen. Several of the spectators were shocked when Paul didn't ask for a Rules Official to see if he could remove the divot or move the ball. Paul knew that the divot was a Loose Impediment, which caused him two problems. The first is that if you move a Loose Impediment and it causes your ball to move -- which would have been the case for Paul -- you incur a penalty (he knew that rule since it happened to him several years ago at The International). The second is that you cannot remove a Loose Impediment (rock, leaf, divot, etc.) in a hazard. He opted to putt the ball off the divot and up the probably 4 foot lip of the bunker to about 6 feet, but he unfortunately missed the par putt. This bad break cost him a top 5 finish and about $60,000. The good news is that if he had not known the Rule he could have cost himself an extra 2 shots!

I attended the SCGA Annual Meeting on October 29th. Outgoing SCGA President Bob Lowe is a good friend who is a true champion and proponent of the good things in golf and I wanted to salute his contributions to golf in southern California. Also, one of my dearest friends, and an Honorary Life Member of our Club, was an honoree at the Annual Meeting. Tom McCutcheon received the prestigious Jim House Award which annually honors someone for their volunteer contributions to the Association. Jim was an SCGA and USGA Committeeman and SCGA President who for over 30 years drove 15-20 times per year from his Brawley home to tournaments and events to help make the game better. Tom grew very close to Jim while they both served on the US Senior Amateur Committee, and this award meant a lot to him. As someone who played a part in getting Tom involved with the SCGA, I was very happy to see him honored by our Association! In the very near future, Tom and Phebe are moving to a ranch that he is building in Missouri, and I will miss him terribly. Congrats, my friend, on a well-earned honor and thanks for your friendship over the years!