That was worth getting up early for: A hot sunny dry Saturday. It made the golf feel that much easier and the course look that much prettier.  They soaked the greens to protect from the sun, which made for some irregular putting, but other than that conditions were ideal.  In our group we all shot good scores and missed a ton of short putts.  I heard some amazing numbers - net 64... net 65 - I say the better the course is, the better we play. And nice work there Pfluger & Wooley.

During the week I ran into Scott Ingram, our greenskeeper.  He estimated that the greens are running about 8.5 or 9 on the stimpmeter.  In his opinion that wasn't fast enough, but the best he could do in his first year.  Just for fun he's going to try and tweak them up in September.  His goal is to hit 11 or 12 in mid-September, just before the aeration.  That will be fun and hopefully a preview of 2012. 

Mike Belmont says they are getting close to 300 rounds every day.  If the weather had cooperated earlier in the summer they'd be on a record pace.  People are finding and appreciating our course.  Still, the real story is Charlie - who is funding the renovation of the driving range.  Plan is to have two targets out there with astro turf tops and raised "greens."  A driving range with a country club feel.  We're benefitting in so many ways from the great work Charlie, Mike and Scott are doing.

Those Wild Turkeys were back in the woods between #8 and #3 - a nice addition to the course - and possibly the dinner table...

Appel and Gramolini are our President's Cup Finalists.  First group goes off at 6:00 a.m., maybe a little earlier.

This Week At A Glance

From the First Tee	Saturday, July 23rd	Play This Week
	First Tee Time: 6:00    Forecast: Sunny, Hot	President's Cup Final      Gramolini v Appel      Weekly:   Stableford Scoring

Reminders - everyone's handicap is on the Tee Times/Handicaps page; Comment Box is on the "About Us" page; All members' contact info is in the Members Only section (ask webmaster for password if you can't find it.)

With the President's Cup almost decided, it's time for the rest of us to get ready for the next event - the Club Championship.  If you want to sign up, please click below and let us know.  There is one change to the timetable though, play will start on July 30th and end on September 3rd.  This will leave Sept 10 open for all to participate in the Doherty Cup.

The tournament schedule posted at the first of this season had the Club Championship starting in Aug and finishing on Sept 10.  Upon review that didn't seem right and since the President's Cup will finish a week early, we decided to move up the next tournament.

Play will be in five flights:  Open, A, B, C and D.  We're hoping to create roughly equal divisions so that there is no need for qualifying - everyone who signs up would be in the draw (good idea, Schimoler).  The exact handicaps in each flight will depend on the level of interest.   We'll balance the number of entries against the handicap ranges and hope to create draws of 8 to 16 players in each category.   Since competition is head-to-head without strokes, we want the groupings to be fairly tight: ideally within ~five strokes, so everyone has a chance.  

At first glance that means  Open would be 12 and under, A Flight 13-16, B Flight 17-20, C Flight 21-24 and D Flight 25+.  Actual ranges will be set next weekend. Each flight will have 4 seeds - the top handicappers in that range.  The remaining spots in the draw will be, well, drawn - like from a hat.   If a flight has more than 8 entries, but less than 16, then the top seeds will get a first round bye.  After that, it's every man for himself.

Sign up deadline is midnight Friday, July 22nd.  We'll try and do the draws next Saturday so that you can get a jump on arranging matches - and booking time with Charlie.

SIGN ME UP For the Club Championship