Tee Tattler

Happy Spring greetings from a much cooler and breezy golf course this week. The real Spring weather is here and we are really enjoying it.
This past weekend we bid a sad but fun farewell to Don Peterson, one of our strong supporters of the golf course here in town and in golf in general. Don played in the local Senior tour and was able to take away from his job at Napa Auto Parts to play in numerous events throughout Northern California and Southern Oregon. He always came back home with a fun story about the tournaments he was able to attend. Don’s younger brother JoDon asked me if we could put on a little tournament to get some folks together and play some golf and share memories of Don. So, on Saturday, we had an impressive 9 teams show up to play a 4-person scramble. JoDon made a nice speech to kick off the tournament with a few quick memories and a positive message to get everyone started. Angel drove the beverage cart and kept everyone “hydrated”. I had scheduled to cater the Cooke/Kennedy family reunion out at Lake Selmac but me and Casey were able to take a cart out beforehand and visit with the players. We came upon professional Roger Hults, his dad Huey, brother Freddie and Grandpa Roger Sr and they were doing very well, with 11 under par score and 3 holes left to play. Roger had driven his ball onto the green on #3, a 360-yard par 4 and they were looking at a birdie putt when we left them. We then came across JoDon’s team, who told me that they were sitting at only 7 over par, not too bad for 4 guys who actually had never played or had only played just a few times. Next, we came across Todd Johan’s team of Chris Olson, Daniel Gomez and Dalton Pfau. They told me that they had 2 holes left to play and were sitting at 13 under par, with 2 Eagles. After we got back from the dinner we served, the standings ended up with Todd’s team on top for low gross with 13 under par, Roger’s team with a 60 gross for a 1st net score of 53.125 and Poke and Tyler Robbins with Trae and Troy Roach with a net score of 58.5. Other notables were Randy, Randie, Jason and Reggie’s team, who were all normal partners with Don’s teams over the years; Larry and Melissa Becker with Ken Armstead and Eugene Soole; the kid’s team of Carter, Billy, Zak and Tyler; James and Graham Osburn with Danny Day and Roger DeMaui.
In other news, Men’s twilight league is going along nicely with everyone having a good time and no rain-out days this season yet. With June being nearly over, I do not suspect that we will be rained out at all this year. We still have no leaderboard posted as the handicaps have not been figured up yet, but I am going to push for it to be posted so that I can once again provide a list of sponsors and standings, arrgh!
The effluent pond is running again, and the city is supplying what appears to be about 300,000 gallons of water per day. I spoke with Brian, who runs the wastewater plant and asked him to leave as much nitrogen in the water as possible, he told me that, other than treating it for bacteria, the water is in its natural state. I am hoping for a good boost of nitrogen from it. The river pump is running without attention when we need some fresh water in the freshwater pond. I tell ya, that river pump and sump hole are so efficient and barely take any attention all Summer. The turtles and frogs I am sure agree with me.
The Jr program has started with about 35 younger kids and 15 or so older ones. The little ones play on Tuesdays, and the older ones play on Thursdays so nobody will have to play in the afternoon heat.
The putting green is vexing me as the solenoid that runs the 3rd set of in-green sprinklers has failed for the second time. I have to run that set by hand and I usually forget to turn it off so there is a nice soggy spot on all sides of that row. The rest of the sprinklers run just fine and are hassle-free, but for some reason, that third set has not worked right since I put it all in.
Next tournament is the St Anthony’s Festa 4 person scramble this Saturday, June 21. There is a $100 entry fee and lots of prizes. I will be serving Portuguese Linguica dogs at the turn.
Also happening on Saturday is our very good friends Danny Day and Megan Clady’s wedding. I have known Megan since she had the Smoking Duck out in Selma. She helped us to get our Tuesday night taco and margarita night going at Pappy’s and she is an all-around great gal. Danny is wonderful and a welcome addition to our course, winning long drive often, he also taught me how to chip properly, shaving at least 4 strokes off my scores. Best wishes to the both of them.
And remember, kids 17 and younger always play for free at IVCC.