Tee Tattler

Happy spring greetings from the golf course at IVCC!
The big news at the golf course this week was our annual Chuck Taylor four-person scramble. Chuck is one of the original group of people who got the course started and opened in 1978, so we started a family scramble tournament a few years ago to celebrate his birthday. We also show appreciation for his efforts in getting the course going and to raise a little money for course maintenance. In the past, we had mostly family members playing all on the same hole, which was really fun, but obviously took up a lot of the day. As the turnout became larger, we split the teams and put two foursomes on each tee box.
This year we had eight teams play. My cousin Rod Dailey brought Chuck’s sister, Aunt Bea clear from Phoenix Ariz. and cousin Cam Dailey got Aahron Hook and Troy Brown to fill out their team. Ron Hults teamed up with Jeff Nichols and our good friends Mike Modrich and daughter Kendyl, who drove all the way from Eugene, played 9 holes and drove right back home, picked up horses and continued to Redmond for a week-long horse riding competition. My team included my daughter and her husband, Emily and Colby Nichols and my son Casey, with 2-year-old Lennox. Chuck rounded out our team with a putter in hand. We started off at 10 a.m. with a little rules speech from Scott Kern who lead us in singing “Happy Birthday” to Chuck. Never shy of a crowd, Chuck stood outside his cart and replied with a few clever jokes, welcoming everyone. He is healthy enough that he drove Marilyn and Bea around for 5 holes and putted on the first 4 holes. He even took the ladies exploring out the back gate to see what’s happening out there, before taking their cart back to the clubhouse and on home to rest up before the big pool party at their house. Pretty good for two 93-year-olds. Notables for the tournament were a tie between the “ringer” team of Todd Johan, Dalton Pfau, Chris Olson and Daniel Gomez and John Sloan’s team of Isaac Hutchings, Joe Brown and Eugene Soole (who also happens to be our pro shop manager) at 7 under par. We had them all do a chip-off on the #9 green and six guys either duffed their chips or went off the other side. Isaac set his chip to about 7 feet and Dalton got one rolling but it failed to get inside 8 feet so we gave first gross to John’s team. We had a real cluster at first net with David Scott, Jamie Scroggins, Brandon Ewing and Bret Basset at 27; Ron’s team at 26.75, Taylor team at 26.7 and the Nolan’s team of Michael, Amy, Tyler and Melyndee at 26.26. Rounding out the field were the Kerns with Scott, Sue, daughter Lynn and her husband Travis.
Following the first 9, I ponied up $50 to start a skins pool and a big group all chipped in $10 each for a nice pot of about $150. Danny Day showed up for skins and was rewarded half of the pot with a par on #4. Brandon got the other skin with a birdie on #5. I fed everyone Taylor dogs and Casey made a yummy red potato salad to help soak up some of the whiskey that Don Howard (our stand-in beer cart girl) sold to the crowd. A good time was had by all, and we are looking forward to doing some more as summer draws near.
In other news, my cast is coming off on June 2, so I will be able to turn screwdrivers by myself again. I got the overgrown pasture behind #8 mowed on Sunday and watched five golf balls shoot out from the mowing deck. I also mowed the putting green and ran the mow lines from the edge by the creek all the way across the #1 teebox, it looks really pretty but I hope people don’t think that they can tee off the putting green. We have the Jacobsen greens mower back running with a bolt-in Chinese replacement motor and boy do those greens look nice. This means that I can reset the John Deere and start taking the putting green down to a putting surface. It’s been two years since I planted it and five since I first started getting it prepped, so I am pretty motivated to get that done.
**Next tournament is the Donny Peterson Memorial, a fundraiser for cart maintenance, scheduled for June 14, a four-person scramble with potluck and remembering stories about Donny.
**The Junior golf program starts June 19, so get the kids signed up.
**And remember, kids 17 and younger always play for free at IVCC.