Lovely autumn greetings from the Illinois Valley Country Club golf course!
The leaves are turning colors and it’s already getting difficult to find balls hidden amongst the light colored leaves. Very soon we will be firing up the giant leaf blower to pile them up along the edges of the rough. This is a battle of golfers’ errant shots versus Mother Nature’s yearly process of dropping massive piles of camouflage. We won’t be finished until at least mid-January as the gold, red and brown leaves fall in an extended fashion, with each frost event and wind storm dumping a bit each time until they have finally all fallen, leaving the trees bare for only a few weeks before the buds swell and the new leaves begin to push again.
This cool fall weather is helping us to save on watering and the savings on electricity will be very welcome. Of course, we still have to spread the treated effluent until Nov. 1 to help keep the city ponds at a manageable summer level, regardless of rainfall and cool weather.
This week we had a couple of fun little tournaments, beginning Friday evening with an all-comers, two-person teams, triple treats format. We played the first three holes as the best ball, in which each player plays their own ball from tee to hole and then the best score of the pair is chosen to write on the scorecard. This is a pretty standard format and used in a great many tournaments.
The next three holes we played Chapman format, in which both players hit a drive, then each player has to hit their partner’s ball from its lay, then the best second shot is chosen and then they play alternating shots using only that ball. This is really a lot of fun.
The last three holes, we gave a break to the golfers and played Scramble, in which each player hits a drive and only the best shot is chosen, then both players hit from the chosen lie, this continues until the ball is holed. We had 10 players and so had $100 in the prize pool. Graham and James split $75 and Todd and Freddie split the remaining $25.
On Saturday we had our second Greenskeepers’ Revenge Tournament for this season. Dennis placed the pins in exceedingly difficult locations on slopes and close to the edge of the green. He also double cut the greens and then rolled the areas on the downhill slope from the hole. He purposefully left the uphill slope unrolled, which made the area uphill from the cup comparatively slow and bumpy, making a golfer hit the ball a little extra hard, while also giving an uneven surface on which the ball would not track to the hole. Once past the cup, the ball picked up speed, faster and faster as it rolled off of the putting surface and into the deeper “froghair” which surrounds each green. I think I heard just a few swear words as golfers watched in horror at another potential birdie turned bogie. Winners were: tied for low net with 61 net, Huey, Jeffrey and Will with Danny, Dustin and Adam. Danny’s team also won a whopping 3 skins and also had low gross with 6 under par. Second net were Troy, Ty and Poke, they also won 2 skins. Poke also won 2 KPs, along with John and Jason. Denis put the holes back where they belong later that evening and watered the greens so that the Sunday golfers wouldn’t be too frustrated. Eugene did a nice job getting everything set up and making out the leaderboard.
**Next tournament will be the Men’s Club Championship, featuring Todd, D’Lynn, Freddie, Graham, Danny, Dustin and a slew of other great golfers competing on 36 holes to see who gets their name on the plaque this year.
**And remember, kids 17 and under always play for free at IVCC.
