2023 Newsletters

Happy New Year to all! It’s hard to believe 2023 is here already. As your President, elected unopposed, you should have no expectations of me. On the other hand, I will have very high expectations of the Board of Directors and our Membership to maintain El Dorado Men’s Golf Club as one of the best public clubs in Southern California!

We have a full slate of tournaments for 2023 with Brad Wilcox running our Monthly Home Tournaments and Mike Petersen running our Away Tournaments including a Weekender at Singing Hills in September. These Tournaments plus Thursday and Saturday Team Play, Club Championships, Senior Club Championships, Flights, and the return of Quad Club in April, we have a full schedule to satisfy your competitive golfing appetite!

A note to new Members as well as old: Each player must Sign-Up thru the Member Portal on our website to enter Tournaments. Seems simple, but you’d be surprised of the amount of “cat herding” the Tournament Chairman must do. Help Brad and Mike out by Signing up for events early!

The Christmas Shotgun Tournament went off well! After a cool morning we ended up having a great day for golf. There was some good golf played and some not so good. My group wasn’t the worst, but we contended! Unfortunately, we had three teams disqualified. Two teams turned scorecards without 2 signatures. One team failed to turn in their scorecard in a timely manner. Lessons learned?

A Flight Gross winners at 140 (-4) Mike Petersen, Steve Sterry and Scott Sterry
A Flight Net winners at 135 (-9): Omar Diaz, Noah Busch and Justin Vanderbroek
B Flight Gross winners at 154: Dave Hasselman, John Hasselman and Drew Kroner
B Flight Net winners at 135 (-6): Jesse Duncan, Conner Burke and Michael Burke
C Flight Gross winners at 161: Emmet Hargrave, Josh Hendrix and Brian Lineberger
C Flight Net winners at 135 (-9): Bryan Knigge, Eric Kent and Josh Dubón
D Flight Gross winners at 172: Garret Marks, Greg Marks and Ryan Strong
D Flight Net winners at 138 (-6): Danny Martin, Jim McDavid and Jeff Allman

Complete results are posted on the website.

Fairways and greens,
Don Didier

On Tuesday, December 13, 2022, the monthly meeting of the El Dorado Park Men’s Golf Club was held in the Big White Tent. The pre-meeting was not meat loaf but instead a fine Holiday Feast of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, cornbread and cookies for dessert. For $7 this is the best deal in town. Have you been grocery shopping lately?

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by President Terry Fulford who led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. There were approximately 130 members in attendance including Past Presidents Mike Montgomery, Terry Fulford, Nick Zamora, Tom Retterath, Don Marmion, Cliff Aichele, Richard Scoville and (Life Member) Bob Livingstone. New Member Lat Syprasert introduced himself and was given the New Member Spiel by Nick Zamora. The previous month’s Meeting Minutes and Treasurer’s Report were approved.

Directors’ Reports were as follow:

Director Bob Livingstone gave a shout out to four members who recently competed in various SCGA events as representatives of ElDo: Jeff Thomas, Jim Fuchs, Patrick Soldana and Alex Resurreccion. Bob noted that none of the three suffered any serious injuries. As Thursday Team Play Captain, Bob explained Team Play for the benefit of our many new members. Contact Bob if you’re interested in trying out for a spot on the team. Bob also noted that past member John Tamney had recently passed away.

Director Mike Montgomery reminded everyone that he’d be selling tickets for the Big Raffle for 10 minutes after the meeting before starting the drawing.

Director Omar Diaz briefly discussed Saturday Team Play. He noted that there were no new rules to discuss this month.

Special Events Director Brad Wilcox discussed results of the November Superintendent’s Revenge Tournament and announced that Special Events for the December Christmas Tournament would include Skins, Net Par or better North of Willow, and Net Par or Better on all the even holes. Brad didn’t say much about the sin of Slow Play but you know he was thinking it.

Handicap Chairman Wally Gordon thanked 98% of the membership for doing a good job posting ALL your scores in a timely manner. You other 2% better watch out ‘cause Wally’s gonna getcha.

Director Mike Vaughn announced the winners and gave out rewards for the Flights Competition. Mike noted that we had 80 players and 5 flights this year – another excellent turnout.

Director Mark Ziegenhagen announced the Golfers of the Month for November. Net GOM was Andrew Pulido with a 66, while Gross GOM honors went to Beau Wesson with a 69. The Golfer of the Year Tournament, a competition among all of the GOM winners during the year, will be held in March. Ziggy also discussed the Derbies to be held immediately after the Christmas Tournament.

Director Nick Zamora “just wanted to thank and say goodbye to the Board and all Club members for their help and support" as Nick won’t be serving on the Board next year.

Course Superintendent/Head Greenskeeper Marc Lilliberg thanked everyone for the support that the Club gives the course. In actuality we should be thanking Marc for the great job that he and his staff do in maintaining the best kept course in Long Beach.

Vice President/Tournament Chairman Don Didier briefly discussed the results of the November Superintendent’s Revenge Tournament, noting that the aforementioned Mr. Lilliberg did indeed get his revenge as only six groups were under par Net. There are 192 players signed up for the December Tournament. Don noted that this was his last meeting as Tournament Chairman so if you don’t like your starting times next year, talk to Brad.

New Business: President Fulford announced the slate of officers for 2023. They include the following: President – Don Didier; Vice President/Tournament Chairmen – Brad Wilcox; Secretary – Rob Kuehn; Treasurer – Bob Livingstone; Returning Directors: Mark Ziegenhagen and Omar Diaz; and new directors Rich Koskela (Special Events), Mike Petersen (Entertainment), and Doug Balfour (Special Assignments).

Old Business: There was no old business.

The $50 Drawing winner was Steven Canales.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:40, after which Director Mike Montgomery ran the drawing and gave away $12.6 Million worth of prizes. Or maybe it just seemed like that much.

Rob Kuehn
Secretary/Membership Director

December membership is 504.

Due to work changes among some of our stalwart Thursday Team members, we are looking for some able-bodied Eldo members to join our SCGA Thursday Team. Our match schedule is as follows:

Wed. Jan. 11 at Lakewood
Thr. Jan. 19 at Eldo vs Lakewood
Thr. Jan. 26 at Eldo vs Industry Hills
Thr. Feb. 2 at Industry Hills
Wed. Feb 8 at Los Verdes
Thr. Feb. 16 at Eldo vs Los Verdes

Matches generally start at 9AM and the cost is $65 which includes, range balls, golf, lunch and adult (or soft) beverages. If you have any questions or are interested in playing, please contact me at boblivy@gmail.com .

Thanks, Bob Livingstone
Thursday Team Play Captain

Happy New Year everyone. The Christmas Tournament 2022 is in the books and was a huge success with over 60% of the field cashing. What a great tournament to end your term as VP, great job Don, you are leaving some big shoes to fill.

All Christmas Tournament Results Posted on Website.

Part 8 of the seven sins of slow play: Bad Golf Etiquette

I am creating my own rant here as it became clear to me at our last tournament that not all our members are considerate of other golfers. To me, Golf is to be enjoyed with friends, fun & nature, leaving the golf course in the same (if not better) condition than you left it is part of that formula. During our last tournament our group encountered at least 6 bunkers that players ahead of us (maybe not directly) had obviously been in because they FORGOT to rake the bunker behind them, this is completely unacceptable within our club. If you see groups in front of you doing this, please don’t hesitate to call them out on it, (or report the incident to a Director) everyone deserves to play with the same conditions and we need to do everything we can to make that happen! I hope I am not alone on this!

Some notable winners from Christmas Tournament:

Well, what’s Christmas without Santa, Santa’s Reindeer herder Andrew Pulido earned a nice $962 for tending to par or better on all the even numbered holes, 6 other players missed out by 1 hole!! Well done Andrew.

North of Willow had 30 players who had net par or better with only 29 cashing, maybe next time Sheldon!

Gross Skins:
A flight with 5 winners J. Vanderbroek birdie #1, R. Carroll eagle #4, Scott Sterry birdie #6, V. Followell eagle #7 & J. Hasselman birdie #9.

B flight with 10 winners E. Kent birdie #1, K. Hall birdie #2, T. Cox birdie #3, D. Garcia birdie #4, G. Ramsey birdies #9 & #16, L. Lipman birdie #12, R. Strong birdie #13, J Benedetti birdie #14 & K. Sharp birdie #18 (because B Knigge forgot to enter skins)

C fight with 3 winners T. Braswell birdie #2 (because Felsinger didn’t get in), D. Martin birdie #5 & B. Ball birdie #14

I would like to thank all Directors & Members for making my job (SE) a bit easier, it means a lot to me when people chip in and help when the need is there no hesitation. We have a great core of Directors & Members with a lot of new younger members starting to join this great Club, don’t hesitate to find out how you can do more for our Club and golf course.

It gives me great pleasure to hand over the Blue Box to Rich Koskela, welcome Rich to the Board when you stop by to pick up your winnings!!

SE for 2023 January Scramble:
C.T.P. holes #9 & 17 for $5 ea.
In the Circle/On the Green holes #3 & 12 for $5 ea.
$20 to get in everything!

Brad
VP & Tournament Chairman

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a Happy Holiday season! Looking forward to representing the best club in SoCal as your new Entertainment Director! We’ve got several away events scheduled for 2023 at some great golf courses.

Our first away event of the new year will take place this month on Sunday, January 29th at Recreation Park 18. Sign-ups are already open on the El Dorado Men’s Club website and are going fast! Please sign up as soon as possible.

The format for this away trip tournament will be a 1,2,3 Waltz. Entries include Green Fee, Closest to the pin & Prize Fund. The Closest to the pin holes are 5, 12, 16 and 2nd shot on 15. Carts are optional but need to be paid for at the course. We’ll also have two optional side pot games, $5 gross skins and $5 net skins, sign up for these pot games when you register. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at - entertain@eldoradogolfclub.org

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! We are now starting 2023...I am again Handicap Chairman for 2023 and I have elected to change our Handicap Committee. Our Handicap Committee for 2023 will consist of:

Wally Gordon - Chairman
Kerry Bryan
Vern Followell
Doug Jones
Bob Livingstone

Let's welcome them all to the team and let's have a great year!

I would also like to thank Al Ostberg for being on the Handicap Committee in 2022 and his time and effort for all the prior years he has supported the Handicap Committee. Thanks Al!!!

We have Most Improved Golfer for the Quarter
1st - Jim Jamison with improved from 3.9 to 2.3 a factor of 1.11.........wins $50.00
2nd - Bryan McMahon - improved from 14.6 to 12.2 a factor of 1.10
3rd - Ron Searcy - improved from 19.6 to 17.3 a factor of 1.08

Most Improved Golfer of the Year
1st - Sasha Bozic - improved from 1.9 to +1.3 a factor of 1.299........Wins $100.00
2nd - Darrin Jusi- improved from 3.2 to 0.4 a factor of 1.23...............wins $75.00
3rd - Dan Cormack - improved from 14.8 to 10.0 a factor of 1.22.....wins $50.00

All our ANNUAL winners and Jim Jamison can pick up their winnings at the General Meeting, January 10, 2023.

Hit 'em straight and hit 'em flush!!

Hello, El Dorado Men’s Golf Club membership. I will be posing as you Rules Chairman for 2023 following in Omar Diaz’s footsteps. I will be here to assist with rules issues as best I can and then defer to our very own USGA Rules Official Bob Livingstone as needed. I do know that there is a total of 24 Rules broken into 9 categories, so how hard can it be? Well, the answer to that question is that the Rules are not too hard in themselves. However, they can be very nuanced, and it can be to your advantage to know all your options when faced with a Rule’s situation. The USGA website has tons of Rules information in various forms that can be extremely helpful. I suggest taking the time now and then to use those tools for freshening up your Rule’s knowledge.

Happy New Year, see you at the course.

Cliff Aichele
Rules Chairman

Treasurer's Report - December 31, 2022

Balance on November 30, 2022		38,341.33
Income
Memberships	7,890.00
Christmas Tourney CC Entries	19,355.00
Christmas Tourney Cash/Check Entries	3,062.00
Super's Revenge Entry	80.00
Rec Away CC Entries	493.00
Hole in One Insurance	35.00
Sale of Men's Club Shirts	600.00
Interest	0.60
Total December Income	31,515.60
Expenses
Membership Dues - SCGA		2,556.00
Christmas Refunds		434.00
Scorecrds		49.50
Website Hosting Fee		371.76
BOD Meeting		408.00
Member Drawing - S. Canales		50.00
Christmas Green Fees		9,000.00
Christmas Cart Fees		2,500.00
Christmas Range Balls		500.00
Christmas Tee Prize Bags		4,410.00
Christmas Scrip		10,040.00
Christmas Special Events		3,380.00
Sat & Thrs 2023 Team Play Entries		550.00
Sat & Thrs 2023 Team Play Subsidies		2,000.00
Maint Crew Thank You Party		798.78
Net T of CC Entry (Fuchs)		155.00
Flights Trophies		637.71
GOM Trophies		75.79
Sycuan 2023 Weekender Deposit		2,260.32
Gifts/Cards to Sung, Marc and Bing		499.50
Q4 and Yearlong Most Improved		275.00
Credit Card Fees		320.54
Total December Expenses		41,271.90
Balance on December 31, 2022		28,585.03

Respectfully submitted,
Bob Livingstone, Treasurer


NOTES: The Club added $7,847 to the Christmas Tournament; $4,410 for tee prize and $3,437 for scrip.

We have prepaid $2,560.32 as deposits for 2022 Away Trips and $2,550 for Team Play entries and subsidies.

The Hole-in-One Insurance is currently $2,080 (of which $300 is in Scrip in the Blue Box).

We have $493 already paid for entries for the Rec Park away trip.

We assign membership fees received in the last 4 months of 2022 toward the 2023 budget, so we will be carrying forward to 2023, approximately $13,500 in funds that were unused in 2022.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Well, we needed some rain, but got more than we could handle causing cancellation/postponement of our Scramble Tournament and a couple of Team Play events. The good news is that the golf course is going to be in great shape for February. We will play the Scramble Tournament on February 19th. Our next General Meeting is February 14th and I expect a light attendance on Valentine’s Day. Hope to see you at the meeting but understand if your better half has other plans!

I would like to thank our Tournament Chairman, Brad Wilcox, and Webmaster, Mark Miller, in their handling of the canceled January Scramble Tournament, rescheduling it for February. Well done guys!

Mike Petersen, Entertainment Chairman, did a great job with the Rec Park Away Tournament. He had to deal with a shutdown of Golf Genius the day before the tournament but pushed through it all. His 1st event as chairman turned out to be one of the biggest Away Tournaments in recent history with 90 players. Well done, Mike!

Fairways and greens,

Don Didier

On Tuesday, January 10, 2023, the monthly meeting of the El Dorado Park Men’s Golf Club was held in the Big White Tent. The pre-meeting dinner was the well-documented meat loaf so nothing more needs to be said about that.

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by newly elected President Don Didier who led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. There were exactly 87.5 members (one half -wit) in attendance including Past Presidents Mike Montgomery, Terry Fulford, Nick Zamora, Don Marmion, Cliff Aichele, and (Life Member) Bob Livingstone. There were no new members present. And not that many old members either – maybe the cold and rain kept a few of you away. There was one returning member who introduced himself – the good Aichele, Mark. The previous month’s Meeting Minutes and Treasurer’s Report were approved.

Directors’ Reports were as follow:

Director Cliff Aichele (the other Aichele) briefly discussed the rule regarding “drops” and urged everyone to go to the USGA Website to fully understand the options regarding legal drops.

Director Bob Livingstone discussed the El Dorado “Hard Card” and various local rules the Club has adopted. Director Aichele extensively discussed “taking relief from the bush.” Whatever that means.

Director and Saturday Team Play Captain Omar Diaz discussed results of the Saturday Team versus the Thursday Team in the El Do Civil War (since Omar brought it up you can guess who won) and noted that the first Saturday Team event will be against Mile Square. Omar also discussed the upcoming Quad Club Tournament against Rec Park, Skylinks and Lakewood.

New Special Events Director Rich Koskela announced the events for the January Scramble – In the Circle/On the Green on Holes 3 and 12, and CTP on Holes 9 and 17. Rich urged everyone to contact him with different ideas for Special Events for future tournaments.

Handicap Chairman Wally Gordon discussed the new five member Handicap Committee. Wally also announced the Most Improved Golfer of the Quarter – Jim Jamison – and Most Improved Golfer of the Year – Sasha Bozic. Congratulations to these gentlemen for doing what we all aspire to do in golf – get better!

New Entertainment Director Mike Petersen noted that our first Away Tournament of the year is January 29 at Recreation Park. Only a few spots were still available so contact Mike if interested.

President Didier (filling in for Director Mark Ziegenhagen) announced the winners of the December Golfer the Month competition. Gross Golfer of the Month was Erick Simmons. There were no cards turned in for Net GOM. Someone could have had a nice plaque to mount over the fireplace. Or in the garage where my wife allowed me to put mine. Don noted that the Golfer of the Year Tournament for all of the Golfers of the Month would be held in March. Green fees for this event are paid by the Club.

New Vice President/Tournament Chairman Brad Wilcox noted that the demand for the January Tournament is larger than ever, emphasizing the need to sign up early for Tournaments. Brad vehemently reminded everyone that a key aspect of good sportsmanship and fair play is to RAKE THE BUNKERS! Brad discussed the format for the January Scramble.

New Business: There was no new business.

Old Business: Retiring Director Mike Vaughn had previously-won trophies to award to several members.

The $50 Drawing winner was Jim Zehmer.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:35.

Rob Kuehn
Secretary/Membership Director

December membership is 495.

Greetings New and Old Members!

Well the Atmospheric River has hit So. Cal and what a wet month it was for sure! It’s showed with score cards turned in this first month of the year. So my job was very easy this month with only one Gross GOM and one Net GOM cards turned in for January. Congrats to Taylor Cameron with a gross 73 and Neal Janssen with a Net 72. Good job in the wet weather. Also my newsletter did not post last month (Operator error) so I needed to mention our December winner. We only had one card turned in for month of December gross and that was Erick Simmons with a gross 69. No Net cards turned in. Congrats to our GOMs.

So look out for announcements for our Golfer of the Year tournament coming end of March or beginning of April. Emails will be sent out to 2022 Gross and Net winners. Here is our winners for 2022:

Gross Net
January 70-Doug Jones 68-Walter Gordon
February 69-Jack Deangelis 68-Tony Glorioso
March No Winner 67-Paul Standish
April No Winner 68-Terry Fulford
May 70-David Rubin 65-Sheldon Drantch
June 70-Vern Followell 65-Kevin Boylan
July 71-Chris McMonigle 66-Ronald Maden
August 67-Connor Fehmel 64-Henry DeGraaff
Sept. 70-Bret Holloway 64-Eric Lishka
October 68-Sonny Nimkhum 62-Ron Searcy
Nov. 69-Beau Wesson 66-Andrew Pulido
Dec. 69-Erick Simmons No Winner

Good Luck to our Team Play members and see you at the Course!
Ziggy

I hope the first month of the new year was a good one for all of you, and the low handicaps that Santa promised you have come true. I just wanted to say hello as your new Special Assignments Director. I look forward to representing you the membership and the best Club in Southern California.

I do not currently have any assignments to report on at the moment, but Don assures me that’s going to change. It’s a bummer mother nature didn’t allow the Scramble to be played in January, but look forward to it on the 19th. Also thanks to Brad for all the work put forth in trying to make the Scramble a go.

The Big Rec. away tournament was a fun day of golf, it was a little challenging being breezy and a bit chilly. Congrats, Mike Petersen on your first away Tournament, you and supporting staff did great.

Lastly I would like to piggy back on what Cliff was saying last month on staying fresh on the knowledge of the rules. I went to the USGA.org web site (link is on the Home page) to do a bit of freshening up and I found a great tool on the website. If you go to the LEARN drop down on the home page you can take ruling quizzes. They have a range in difficulty depending on your knowledge level, but it was a bit of a humbling experience on a couple of quizzes. If you have a minute check it out and test your rules knowledge.

Hit ‘em Long and Straight,
Doug
Special Assignments

Well, this is not what I had envisioned with my first tournament but here we are, after reviewing our options with the Directors it has been decided to reschedule the Scramble to our February tournament day of the 19th. Everyone will keep their same tee time you had Sunday!

Select Drive will be canceled, priority tee times for the Select drive will be used for the Pat Harris St. Patrick's Day waltz. Believe me this was not an easy decision and we know it might not be what meets your calendar, if that is the case, we hope to see you in April for our 1 gross, 2 net event.

We Directors appreciate your understanding with this change, we hope to see you February 14th at our next general meeting!

Regards

Brad

First away trip in the books! The rain held off until everyone finished and we had a very large turn out. All the results for the Rec Park away event are posted. A lot of good playing in some very windy and tough conditions, congrats to all the winners!

Next away trip is at the end of March at Lakewood CC, sign ups will open for this event on the next meeting night.

See you all on the links!

Wow, already into February! We’ve had a few questions on when to post rounds that are not completed.

If you play 14 or more holes and stop playing, for valid reasons, you must post an 18 hole score. Your score for posting is your total score through the holes you played (less any adjustments for net double bogey) and net par for any hole you did not play. If you play 7-13 holes then you must post a 9 hole score. This would be your total score through the holes you played between 7 and 9 (less any adjustments for net double bogey) and net par for any hole you did not finish (can only be hole 8 and/or 9) through the first 9 holes.

Maximum Score for Handicap Posting Purposes (Net Double Bogey)

Example- A player with a Course Handicap of 11 receives one stroke on the first 11 allocated stroke holes. On our par-5 with a handicap of 6, the player’s net double bogey score (for posting purposes) is calculated as follows:

Par plus 2 strokes ( net double bogey) plus handicap strokes received equals total score for posting
5 + 2 + 1 = 8

I’m sure that’s clear as mud!

If you have difficulty understanding net double bogey, you can enter your hole-by-hole score in GHIN and it will automatically adjust for Net Double Bogey.

If you have any questions, please let me know and I’ll be happen to explain.

Hit ‘‘em straight and hit ‘‘em Flush

Hello fellow golfers,

Things to know. There are 5 key Rules changes for 2023 and the following is just one example of those changes.

“Rule 9.3 Ball Moved by Natural Forces”

Generally, when a ball is at rest and then moves as a result of natural forces like wind or gravity, the ball is in play where it subsequently comes to rest. However, check out the NEW Exception 2, which deals with a ball that has been placed (say an outside influence like a dog or beverage cart moves it and you correctly replace it) or has been dropped (like from a Penalty Area or away from Ground Under Repair) and it comes to rest. If natural forces subsequently move that ball to another area of the course or out of bounds, the ball must be replaced. If it just moves to another part of the general area it is still in play, BUT if it rolls into a bunker or a penalty area or even out of bounds, it is your lucky day, as you are required to put it back where it was - FOR FREE! You don't get a tough bunker shot or any penalty, which was the the case before this year.

This is another great reason to use the recourses the USGA.ORG website has to offer concerning the Rules of Golf.

See you at El Dorado

Cliff Aichele

Former member and popular El Dorado bartender John Tamney passed away in his sleep on December 12th of last year. A memorial for John will be held on February 17th at 1:00 PM at All Souls Cemetery, 4400 Cherry Avenue in Long Beach. RIP, John. We also just learned on February 1st that long-time member Ruben Gonzales passed away after several recent health setbacks. Ruben was a class act (I worked for him in my 20s) and may have had the most recognizable laugh of any member in the history of our club! He will be laid to rest next to his wife Nancy and we will let you know if any service is to occur.

Treasurer's Report - January 31, 2023

Balance December 31, 2022		28,585.03
Income
Memberships	14,870.00
Rec Cash & Check Entries	630.00
Scramble & Rec CC Entries	20,699.00
Interest	0.55
Total January Income	36,279.55
Expenses
SCGA Dues		5,220.00
Member Drawing - Jim Zehmer		50.00
TP Scoreboards & Misc. Printing		34.77
BOD Meeting		55.00
USGA Membership		150.00
Rec Away Green & Cart Fees		4,462.00
Rec Away Prize Fund		2,040.00
Rec Away Skins and CTP		990.00
BOD Pictures and Nameplates		160.65
Calif Sec of State Fees		20.00
Credit Card Fees		617.54
Total Expenses		13,799.96
Balance on January 31, 2023		50,984.62

Respectfully submitted,
Bob Livingstone
Treasurer

NOTES: The Club added $282 to the Rec Away Trip Prize Fund

With the rain-out of the January Scramble, we did not expend roughly $8,200 in green fees and $7,500 in scrip and special events winnings, so our ending balance is artificially high!

We made it thru a wet February and had our 1st Home Tournament of the year, February 5-man Scramble. Thursday Team Play finished their season 2-4 and Saturday Team 3-2.

March is here and we’re hoping for sun and fun as we tee it up! Mark “Ziggy” Ziegenhagen has organized the Golfer of the Year Tournament on March 11th. Daylight Saving Time starts March 12th. With that in mind, Ziggy will also run a 9-Hole Tournament and Omar Diaz will run a Putting Contest prior to the General Meeting on March 14th. Our Home Tournament is the Pat Harris St. Patrick’s Day Waltz March 19th (see Brad Wilcox). Mike Peterson is running the Away Tournament at Lakewood GC on March 26th.

Webmaster Mark Miller will have a proposal to enhance Website protection. Mark will inform and have Q&A for the Membership. This expenditure must be approved by our General Membership in attendance.

If you attend the General Meeting, make sure you check-in with Brad Wilcox prior to the start of the meeting to be included the Priority Tee Times for April’s 1-Gross/2-Net Tournament!

Fairways and greens!

Don Didier

On Tuesday, February 14, 2023, the monthly meeting of the El Dorado Park Men’s Golf Club was held in the Big White Tent. The pre-meeting dinner included chicken fajitas, rice, refried beans, tortillas, salad, and cookies for dessert. At $7 quite a bargain.

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by President Don Didier who led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. While there were some significant audio system issues with the microphone, swift action (a stiff kick) by the Board resolved the issue. There were 49 members in attendance including Past Presidents Mike Montgomery, Terry Fulford, Nick Zamora, Dick Scoville, Cliff Aichele, and (Life Member) Bob Livingstone. The extremely low turnout was due to various factors: cold weather, Valentine’s Day, and the fact that tee times for the March Tournament were already assigned. New member Francisco Diaz introduced himself and was given the New Member spiel by Past President Fulford. The previous month’s Meeting Minutes and Treasurer’s Report were approved.

Directors’ Reports were as follow:

Director Bob Livingstone had no report. This was the first time since 1987 that Livy did not grace us with a report.

Director Mike Montgomery sadly noted the death of former member John Tamney and longtime member Ruben Gonzales. A memorial service for Ruben will be held March 4 at All Souls Cemetery.

Handicap Chairman Wally Gordon discussed “net double bogey” and how it applies to your posted score. If you don’t understand how this works, contact Wally. He can’t wait to discuss it with you.

New Entertainment Director Mike Petersen noted that our next Away Tournament is March 26 at Lakewood. Limited starting times are available so sign up early. Mike also noted that awards for Away Tournaments are always paid in “points” and not American Golf scrip. These “points” are redeemable for anything any place in the world.

Director Mark Ziegenhagen announced the winners of the Golfer of the Month competition for January. Gross Golfer of the Month was Taylor Cameron with a 73, while Net GOM honors went to Neal Janssen with a 72. Ziggy noted that the Golfer of the Year Tournament for all of the Golfers of the Month would be held on March 11. Green fees for this event are paid by the Club. The Quad Club Tournament (EL Do, Skylinks, Rec Park and Lakewood) will be held on April 29. Contact Omar if you’re interested in playing in this “bragging rights” event.

Vice President/Tournament Chairman Brad Wilcox discussed the format for February’s Scramble Tournament, the rescheduled rained out January event. Brad noted that the starting times originally determined for February would automatically be transferred to the March Tournament.

New Business: There was no new business.

Old Business: There was no old business.

The $50 Drawing winner was Michael Miller.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:25. Almost the shortest meeting on record. Thanks Livy.

Rob Kuehn
Secretary/Membership Director

February membership is 499.

I am going to try to replace the irreplaceable Mike Vaughn, as I am taking over some of his duties like the Putting Contest before the General Meeting nights starting with this upcoming March meeting, starting at 5:30ish and going to 6:30. We will start with a count them all for March and $5 gets you 2 turns and remember the Club supplements the pot by $50 each month.

I am also doing the Quad Club tournament in April on the 29th. Quad Club is a tournament of the 4 local clubs: Lakewood, Skylinks, Recreation Park and El Dorado. This year Rec Park is the host as it was in line to host before the pandemic cancelled the event for the last couple of years. Each club has a member in the group, all will play to their handicaps and points are awarded on a 3-2-1-0 scale. 25 guys will represent each club and Mike has giving me his list of all those 3 points getters so I will be calling on you. We are still finalizing some details but I will be reaching out soon to get the El Do team ready to bring back the Cup.

I will also be doing the Flights Championship starting in August. For you new members that is a match play format where you play 1 round a month. The number of brackets will be determined by how many entries we get. 16 players per bracket. We had 5 brackets last year so I anticipate the same for this year as well, more details to follow in coming months.

As for Saturday Team Play we had a great year 'til we ran into that buzzsaw Los Verdes team. I was proud of our guys as we represented El Do very well. Got a lot of compliments for our hospitality and course conditions.

Speaking of course conditions a big shout out to Marc Lilleberg and his staff for doing a great job of keeping El Do is great shape, especially with all the rain we got in January, Thank You Marc. I want to say thanks to my team for playing there harts out for me this year, and looking forward to next year.

Good luck to everyone in March.
Omar Diaz

Hello Members!

Well, it has been an interesting couple of months of weather. Hopefully, the “Atmospheric River” of rain has passed and is ready for some Spring/Summer Golf. Our participation of GOM cards has been down but hopefully, that will change in the upcoming months. This past month we only had three cards turned in for GOM. We had one Gross card turned in and that winner is Beau Wesson with a 1 under par 71. He must have caught one of the sunny days last month! We had two NET cards turned in and the winner for February is Terry Fulford with a net 70. Now that he is not president anymore, his golf game is about to HEAT UP! Nice job guys!!

Our 2022 Golfer of the Year tournament is scheduled for March 11th with the first time starting at 8 am. All that have qualified have been sent an email. If you have not responded yet, please do so no later than Tuesday, March 7th as I will set tee times and groups the next day. Remember golf is paid for by the club, you pay for carts.

Daylight Saving starts early this year so we will start our 9-hole and putting tournaments before meeting on Tuesday, March 14th. Sign up sheet and $5 entry fee envelope will be with the starter. You are responsible for getting a tee time for the nine holes. You are only posting a front-nine score for the tournament. Please indicate your 6-month LI as well.

Lastly, we have the Quad Club Tournament against Lakewood, Rec Park, Skylinks, and El Dorado on April 29. Each squad consists of 25 golfers. Sign-ups will be on the website soon if you are interested in participating. I will have more information at this month's meeting.

Hit'em Straight and Long!
Ziggy

Well gents, February is in the books and the weather cooperated so Brad could do his first tournament. It was a great scramble tournament, Brad did a good job and I hope all the members who played in it enjoyed it as well.

We had awesome effort from our team play who made a good run at it, we came up a bit short but had a blast going for it. A thanks to our team captains (Bob Livingstone-Thursday & Omar Diaz-Saturday) you guys did a great job keeping it organized.

Now going into March I look forward to our St. Paddy’s Day Waltz tournament, as well as an away tournament at Lakewood GC. I look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting on the 14th.

Hit ’em long and straight.

Doug
Special Assignments

What a great day it turned out to be, a little on the cold side but I think most of the full field of 180 members were prepared. Playing from the Combo tees helped along some low scores but the one that stands out to me was our low gross team of A Flight: Andrew Carmichael, Ian McCutcheon, Robert Lopez, Michael Petersen & Jeff Thomas, shooting 55 (-17). Wow!
A Flight Net Reed Wilson, Mike Berka, Jeff Eastwood, Clark Izu, Ryan Pettys 55
B Flight Gross Jim Cox, Eric Taylor, Aaron Woodard, Jim McDavid, William Behr 61
B Flight Net David Hunter, Jason Gonzales, Andrew Pulido, Pedro Garcia, Robert Jojola 51½
C Flight Gross Rodney Dickerson, Patrick Serge, Josh Hendrix, Stanton Faris, Tim Braswell 61
C Flight Net Scott Chamberlain, David Ahmadi, Mike Chamberlain, Jeff Allman, Mark Aichele 49

Next Home Tournament is the March 19th Pat Harris St. Patrick’s Day Waltz. This is a Flighted Foursome Format with the same twist as last year to the Waltz. Normally the Waltz format is Best Ball on the 1st Hole, 2-Best Balls on the 2nd Hole and 3-Best Balls on the 3rd Hole, repeating this thru the round. This makes the Waltz into the Irish Jig by changing the format to Best Ball on the six hardest holes, 2-Best Balls on Hole Handicaps 7-12 and 3-Best Balls on the six easiest holes. The Scorecards will be clearly marked showing how many balls to count on each hole. Gross and Net will count as the team score. We will be playing the Combo Tees at your full handicap or assigned handicap, whichever is lower. Format and rules will be on the back of the Official Scorecard.

Sign Ups for the April 16th 1-Gross/2-Net will open during the General Meeting March 14th. As always, check-in with me prior to the start of the meeting to make sure you are included in the ”Priority Times”. Names will be called from the random drawing that’s closed once the meeting starts, if you're late to the meeting you are out of luck so come early and check in with me!

Just a note on Pace of Play:
We want you to always be aware of groups ahead of you as well as behind no matter what hole you're on. If you are waiting to hit your tee shot because of the group ahead, you are Keeping Up. If you are playing a par 4 and the group ahead of you is on the green, you are Behind. Pick up your Pace.

Regards,
Brad Wilcox

First home tournament is in the books! Fortunately, the weather cooperated and the course has benefited greatly from the recent rain.

We had a tremendous number of Special Event winners this go-around. Maybe a historical high? 28 people cashed in A flight, 20 in B flight and 17 in C flight. Lesson learned - make sure that the par 3 circles are much smaller from now on.

The winners are listed on our website so I won’t bother to list them here. Instead I will recognize a couple of noteworthy players:

Hole #9 – Closest to the Pin
A. First place goes to DJ Dortch with an amazing shot – 4’ 10”.
B. There was tie for first place in B flight between Vern Cannon and Joseph Grubic – 22’ 2”.
C. Anthony Coyne took first place – 31’ 11”.

Hole #17 – Closest to the Pin
A. First place goes to Justin McCullough at 5’ 6”.
B. Timothy Hodge hit a great shot – 4' 6”. That’s close to hole in one territory.
C. Brian Ball took first place – 16’ 9”.

I also want to recognize Pablo Rubio and Jeff Thomas who cashed on 3 of the 4 events. Nicely done guys.

A couple of final notes:
1. Make sure you know what Flight you are in. Brad sends out the list to all tournament attendees the night before the tournament and there is also a list at the First Tee on tournament day.
2. Write legibly on the popsicles.
3. Starting on April 1, anything left in the box from January 2023 or earlier will get donated to the Christmas prize fund.
4. The Special Events for April will be Gross Skins, Up Livy’s Creek and CTP for Hole No. 3.

See you at the blue box,
Rich

The shortest month is in the books, the Super Bowl didn't disappoint and Daylight Saving begins in just over a week! Welcome to March and let the madness begin. Away trip this month is on Sunday March 26th at Los Verdes. Please sign up if you haven't already, as of the last day of February we had 69 signed up for 60 spots, so it goes without saying I'll be contacting Los Verdes to add more times. My goal is to always try to accommodate as many golfers as possible and we're on track for the second away tournament in row going over the scheduled spots! Just goes to show how great this Men's Club is and the participation is second to none! If anyone has any questions please feel free to reach out to me anytime.

Remember if your Full Swing sucks go with the Half Swing!
Michael Petersen

Here we are in March and the sun is shining bright …..NOT! Well, at least the rain has slowed down a bit. Handicaps…..well, nothing has changed in the handicap arena. Most guys post their scores…some guys don’t. Quite a few members don’t understand net double bogey. Members think they should shoot their handicap every time they play…WRONG. Only 1 time in 5 rounds should your shoot your handicap. On AVERAGE, when you play golf, you should shoot about 3 strokes above your handicap. So if you have a 10 handicap index, when you play a golf course with a par 72, you will most likely shoot an 85.

That’s all folks!!!

Hit ‘em straight and hit ‘em flush!!!

Greetings fellow golfers. The USGA is going to be having two online Rules of Golf seminars that are open to anyone with an interest and that belong to an SCGA (or other Regional Golf Association) Club. One covers "Free Relief" like cart paths, temporary water and ground under repair, and will take place on Wednesday, March 15, at 2:30 PM Pacific Time. The other covers "Penalty Relief" such as penalty areas, and unplayable balls and that will be on Wednesday, March 22 at Noon, Pacific Time. There is no fee to sign up, and they are limited to the first 1,000 people who register. A great way - and a small commitment of time - to get better at the Rules of Golf.

The links to register are displayed at the top of the Home page.

Thanks,
Cliff

Treasurer's Report - February 28, 2023

Balance January 31, 2023		50,984.62
Income
Member Dues	7,150.00
Scramble Cash & Check Entries	1,566.00
Scramble Credit Card Entries	1,169.00
Hole In One Insurance	40.00
Interest	0.78
Total February Income	9,925.78
Expenses
Scramble Green Fees		8,274.75
Scramble Special Events		3,160.00
Scramble Scrip		4,300.00
Scramble Refunds		1,594.00
BOD Meeting		75.00
GOM Trophies		118.85
Tax Prep Fee		110.00
SCGA Dues		2,196.00
Printing Hard Card and Schedule		505.44
Printing Copies and TP Scoreboards		15.93
Member Drawing - Michael Miller		50.00
Credit Card Fees		620.73
Stamps		12.60
Total February Expenses		21,033.30
Balance on February 28, 2023		39,877.10

Respectfully submitted,
Bob Livingstone
Treasurer

NOTES: The Club added $115 to the Scramble Prize Fund

Look for a proposal at the March General Meeting to
upgrade our website to enhance fraud protections on credit
card transactions.