Hello from the fabulous Illinois Valley Country Club golf course!
Fall is bringing increasing numbers of lovely orange, yellow and tan leaves scattered and sometimes piled on the greens and fairways. The stiff pine needles carpet the greens and provide some interesting putting lines. Sometimes the needles fall vertically and stick into the green, and then point down to make little teepee frames as aiming aids.
In this week’s action, the Monday night league, playing skins for the winter season, had about 11 guys show up. Winners this week were Graham, Todd and Troy with skins; Todd winning KP on #8 for a carry-over worth about $25.
On Wednesday the Grants Pass Golf Course held a Breast Cancer Awareness fundraiser that attracted over 120 players. Attending from IVCC were Jake White, (sometimes member)-Jimmy Taromino, the ex-preacher man from Redwood Community Church and me. The other foursome was John Sloan, D’Lynn and Troy Roach and Scotty Kern. We all had a great time and donated for more than we budgeted to a wonderful cause. We all forgot to wear pink so we just wore our pants low in the back where our tan lines end to lend support. D’Lynn won three great raffle prizes and I won a nice fire pit with S’Mores kits wrapped in. There was also a new #3 rescue club in D’Lynn’s prize and a #4 in mine that we donated to the IVCC to offer as prizes in future IVCC tournaments. None of us won cash, but we all had a great time and Mary’s BBQ fed us a very nice Italian dinner afterward.
Emily reports that the Thursday evening ladies had a terrific time this week with Pam, Sue, Sherry and Jamie Drake joining Emily for some fulfilling feminine camaraderie. The other ladies groups were out this week and Jaimie was still finishing moving–not, not from the Illinois Valley Country Club, just to Selma into her new home! Mary’s group was evidently involved with Homecoming. So the “Sues” got 3 pars and used their glow balls on #9 as the sun set too quickly for them to finish before dark.
Speaking of sunset, I hope everyone has been enjoying the amazing appearance of Jupiter as it has made such an impressive show for the past few weeks. It is the first star to appear each evening and is the brightest all night.
Back to golf, Sherry showed off a brand new (to her and her husband) golf cart, complete with a rear-view mirror, dashboard and cover and to top that off, she also bought a new golf bag. She has been absent for a few weeks visiting friends in Palm Springs, poor Sherry.
Friday night skins was very sparse with just Todd, Graham, Colby and Jim as we had our annual Fall GLOW BALL tournament. The weather was perfect for this time of year, just getting cold for the last three holes, even the young “tough” guys were shivering by the end. So nice to see the year in and year out GLOWBALLERS attend, notably Amy Milner, Amy and Melindee Nolan, Mike Trinity and daughter Michelle (and kids). Scott, Colby and Ty did a great job of setting up the lighted markers and the dew surely wreaked havoc with Todd’s greens speed, depositing a thick coating of moisture to slow even the most aggressive putters. Sue Kern put out special “tricks and treats” instructions on each teebox with either a trick or a treat like, choose worst shot, drop out the player of the best shot for the tee shot and the second shot, use string in place of a shot and some other fun things. Winners were: First-Colby, Ty, Jim and Troy; second – Scott, Sue, Mike and D’Lynn; and third – Terry, Todd, Moe and Donnie Wylie.
Next tournament will be IVCC Club Championship Oct. 29 and 30. Please come and root for your favorite player. Gimmees will have delicious food all weekend staring at about 11: a.m. each day. Driving range is open all day and evening every day if you would rather not play for club champion.