Tee Tattler

Hello from the golf course at the IVCC!
This week was pretty busy with such warm and dry weather so there was some action at the course almost every day.
I now have a cast clear to my elbow, so I did not play skins nor Men’s League, but I was able to do a few things at the course with my left hand. Tracy convinced me to use a plastic food-handler’s sleeve to keep the cast clean so I continued resurrecting a dead cart that’s been in the maintenance shed all winter.
Vince Lombardo, who was up from Burbank visiting last week, and I pulled all the lead-acid batteries from one of the new carts that Frankie Pinios bought for us and slid in a brand new Lithium one. We figured out that we would put the old batteries in #5, a pretty nice EZ-GO that we bought from Red Mountain when they sold out to the pot growers a few years ago. We hooked up the Lithium and the new cart wouldn’t go. Scottie came to see what was going on and he pointed out that the new carts are 48 volt, unlike the old ones, which are 36 volt. So Monday evening, while Men’s League was playing, I was able to wrestle the batteries back into the new cart with just my left hand and a little steadying myself with my cast sitting on the steering wheel. Thank goodness it ran again and got back into the fleet.
Then I tackled the old EZ-GO cart with no batteries. I was able to modify the battery holder enough while just using my left hand and battling the dry dusty battery acid. I got the Lithium hooked up and the LED on the ALLTRAX controller blinked one green and then five red flashes. I looked it up and this means either a dead battery or a bad solenoid. After switching the forward reverse switch a couple times, it started working. I test drove it out to #2 green to check on the valve and I seriously think that cart has no top speed. Nice to have that clean little cart back in the cart shack.
Monday and Wednesday Men’s League guys are having some great fun out there. We could use some more players to get some more exciting competition, but the guys are having a good time ribbing each other and enjoying some fresh evening Southern Oregon air, notwithstanding the aroma of the nearby wastewater plant, which actually barely smells.
The Ladies have been meeting for the past two weeks and had a real nice, although small, tournament on Saturday. Emily, Sue and Eugene set everything up and they made up a really pretty awards table with a bunch of Petunias in little pots and green balloons for prizes alongside a delicious lunch. After pouring a few mimosas to get things started, they went out and got way too much sun. The field ended up with Taylor and Tracy Taylor, Megan Taormino and Emily (Taylor) Nichols with 42 (good thing I can spell “Taylor”), Jaime Scroggins, Jamie Drake, Courtney Scott and Meghan (Jackson) at 43, Sue Kern, Melissa Becker, Heather (Kern) and Beth Moreale with 47 and Amy, Melyndee and Tasha Nolan and Cindal with 49. In studying the leaderboard, I noticed that every team had at least one skin, that’s pretty remarkable. Hope to have many more ladies tournaments because they leave the pro shop so clean and smelling so nice.
While the Ladies were out, I was able to dig up the #2 greens sprinkler valve, as we noticed that water had not been running through it for a few days and the green was getting very dry. I didn’t remember exactly how the automatic valve works, so I pulled it all apart and found that the main spring looked as if it was not pushing the diaphragm up entirely. I stretched the spring out and somehow got the valve screwed back together. I primed the pump and went back and the water was coming out of the sprinklers! My little guess paid off. Of course it rained right after that but it’s nice to know how the valve body works.
Saturday evening I got invited to feed the Texas Hold’em group who meet at the Boys and Girls Club once a month. In exchange, they offered to donate the proceeds to the Jr Golf program. Grey and Ash “helped” me serve, in exchange for me taking them to Dollar General to spend their allowance money. The Jr Golf program got $350 and the kids got a bunch of candy and a couple toys for their “efforts.”
And on Sunday evening, the guys came out for skins, with Freddie Hults hitting his drive off #1 teebox into the trees, next shot onto the green and draining his putt for a birdie. Todd Johan making it onto #2 on his third shot and picking up a birdie for the second skin and D’Lynn hitting his second shot fat and short, third shot fat and short but it made it onto the fringe of the green. Todd says that he then sunk a 30 foot putt for birdie and the third skin. KPs were Poke on #8, who stuck his drive within 4 feet, usually a gimmee but D’Lynn insisted that he had to putt it to claim the birdie. Poke settled for par and a bunch of teasing. And James Osburn got the KP on #4.
As said earlier, we could use some more two-man teams Wednesday evenings for Men’s League to make the League more fun and extend the season into fall.
**Next Tournament is the always fun, Chuck Taylor four-person scramble. Only $60 will get you golf with a cart, a souvenir T-shirt, lunch and prizes. We will also have the coolest beverage cart in Cave Junction roaming the course with an entertaining and engaging server.
**And remember, kids 17 and younger always play for free at IVCC