Tee Tattler

Hello and ugh, from a continuing very hot Illinois Valley Country Club golf course. Just kidding about the “ugh” as the mornings and evenings have been very pleasant, just the afternoons are pretty danged hot. However, if you want to feel like you own a golf course, come on out with a nice cool rag around your neck and fill your little cooler with some beverages out of our very cold drink display and enjoy a quiet afternoon with your special someone.
In this week’s Men’s Twilite League action leaderboard:
1 Cascade Auto-209
2 Taylor’s Sausage-206
3 tie Waldamar Ranch/Bud Bros-202.5
5 The Grahamulators 197
6 Bogey Nights 193.5
7 True Value 189.5
8 White’s Excavation 185
9 Kerby Electric 174.5
10 Valley Fab 167.5
11 Jerry’s Towing 166
12 The Kidz 153.5
13 Greyback 152.5
Been a little jostling for position in this league this year, pretty fun to see the placings moving around, especially when my team is moving upward!
The Jr program has been going very well, starting early in the morning while nice and cool with a bunch of cute little kids putting and driving all over the place. I interviewed a couple little kids and they are very professional, dressed in appropriate golf attire and all feel as if they are going pro next year.
In Ladies’ Thursday evening fun, the Nolan girls with Faith; Jaimie, Kasey, Emily, Megan, Cindy and Traci played in two groups. Great scores were posted. Emily got KP on #13 for a decent payout of $6. Cindy and Traci are showing massive improvement and enjoying being a part of the action and female companionship. I was setting sprinklers and was sent to the clubhouse to fix someone an ice cold gin and tonic and was passing by just as Emily hit and the ball whizzed past me and clear up to the green on #16, Jaimie Drake then hit a matching shot as well as any of the guys normally hit. It’s too fun seeing these gals developing such skills out there. It was discussed that a few people remember the old couples’ Friday night league and me and Jamie were reminiscing about those fun days a few years back. Well, we decided right then and there to go ahead and meet up with as many couples who would show up the next day.
So, on Friday evening, I sat in the clubhouse by myself with Greyson… Luckily some of the new kids showed up with girlfriends and buddies and I was able to talk them into playing a little 2-person scramble for $5 per team. Rowdy and Deva, Jake and Kaelyn, Jason and Jeremy, Scottie and Justice, me and Greyson all battled hard. My team had 4 pars in a row to start and were happy being a part of the leaders for a while. Deva, just a beginner but possessing a natural golf swing, saved Rowdy on every hole and they were actually one-under after 5 holes. Jake and Kaelyn held onto a tenuous lead throughout and came out on top with even par at the end to collect the $25 grand prize money. Me and Grey stayed afterward and got the greens sprinklers going before treating ourselves to hot wings and ginger ale at Pappy’s right during during ArtWalk. We hid in the attached Gracie’s Banquet room as the pub area was very busy and noisy, real nice ArtWalk evening.
Over the weekend we were able to apply quite a bit of water but it sure is hard for us to keep ahead of the extreme heat and evapotranspiration that not only steals the water from the fairways but also from the holding pond for the river pump. Thank goodness we have several employees and volunteers to help out moving sprinkler heads around to dry spots while Dave continues to heal, offering helpful advice from the seat of his little electric chair—that didn’t come out right, did it?
And finally, we had two teams travel up to Sutherlin for the annual Calcutta that they have been doing for a number of years. D’Lynn took Poke and Tyler and Troy teamed up with Todd and Graham. I spoke with Tyler at my house while they were delivering the big travel trailer back to my pasture and he told me that they did not know that it was a Calcutta tournament so they were out playing their practice round while the auction was taking place and missed buying their own team! They were able to buy back their team for only $250, cheap by any measure of team prices, some well into the $3000s. They finished in second place by only one missed putt that hit the pin and was blocked from dropping in the cup. That putt made the difference between a $6000 payout and the $2000 payout that they actually got. Not a bad profit for $250.
Coming up this Saturday, Joel Dierkes’ birthday scramble and horse race tournament. Only $50 gets you 18 holes of golf with a cart, a souvenir tee shirt and lots of fun and laughter.
And remember, kids 17 and younger always play for free at IVCC.