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Weather
We finished last year with a stretch of cool and rainy weather. We were fortunate to have an early opening but the cool and rain continues. My predictions on when the weather will improve always seem to be wishful thinking and never seem to be accurate. The Superintendent and his staff are doing the very best they can to keep the course in great shape. Your assistance in observing the “Cart Path Only” signs is appreciated. We are all looking forward to a more favorable weather pattern.
“Smart Pass” Discounted Guest Passes
We are again offering the popular discounted guest passes during US Open week. Passes are $35 and include a cart and may be purchased from June 10 thru June 17 inclusive. You must be in the group using your passes. Passes purchased during this period will expire at the end of the 2020 golfing season. Plan accordingly and see the pro shop or Julia to get yours.
Calendar
The club calendar on our website has been updated with all known activities. Things change quickly so be sure to check back often. Below are a couple of important upcoming dates. Please mark your calendars and watch your email for more details.
New York State Legislation
I have struggled the past couple of weeks as I debated whether to include this in my Fox article. I like to think of myself as apolitical and for the most part I believe we all leave our politics at home and are pleasant and respectful to all of our golf course family.
Recently a bill has been introduced in the state Legislature that would allow municipalities and counties to assess private golf courses based on the property’s “highest and best use”. BSCC current assessed value is $1,500,000. We challenged our assessment last year resulting in a saving of about 9K. Our tax bill went from about 37.5K to 28K and change.
The bills, Senate S4420 and Assembly A6664 are both currently in committee. Status can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s4420
Here are a couple of links to news articles gathered from around the state which may provide you with a better understanding of the issue and its impact on golf courses.
See you on the Course – Think Sun and Warm!!
Paul
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Double H Ranch Lake Luzerne - Our Designated Charity for the AJGA Tournament
How You Can Help
BSCC's commitment to this summer's hosting of the inaugural UHY LLP CPA's Albany Junior Tournament involves many tasks and is motivated by several goals. By hosting this tournament, BSCC will be nurturing The Game's growth through the participation of about one hundred boys and girls in their teens, from all over the world; it will give our club benefits such as media exposure and revenue and it allows us to choose a local charity to benefit from the event.
The Committee has chosen the Double H Ranch, a 320 acre site in Lake Luzerne, as our charity. Their local corporate sponsors include many local businesses such as Stewarts, Price Chopper and Adirondack Trust. Two BSCC AJGA Committee members visited the charity to begin the process of partnering with Double-H (Health & Happiness) Ranch and we are excited to be able to support their worthy goals.
To quote from the Double H website:
The Double H Ranch, co-founded by Charles R. Wood and Paul Newman, provides specialized programs and year-round support for children and their families dealing with life-threatening illnesses. Our purpose is to enrich their lives and provide camp experiences that are memorable, exciting, fun, empowering, physically safe and medically sound. All programs are FREE of charge and capture the magic of the Adirondacks.
The Double H Ranch, located in New York’s Adirondack Park, is a demonstration of the commitment and generosity of philanthropist Charles R. Wood and actor Paul Newman. Since the Ranch officially opened its doors on July 4, 1993, it has served over 60,000 children dealing with life-threatening illnesses from around the world. It was the second “Hole in the Wall Camp” in what has become a worldwide network of not-for-profit recreational and therapeutic experiences for children with serious illness.
It is the goal of BSCC's AJGA Committee to raise enough money through donations to sponsor at least two children in this camp, a total of $4,200. Members as well as guests and green fee players are encouraged to donate to this cause and you will soon see signs and emails which will describe how this can be done. Thanks for any help you can give us in supporting this wonderful institution.
If you have any questions regarding any aspect of the AJGA Tournament feel free to ask one of the Committee Members: Betty Rice, Joan Johnson, Roger Laime, Mike Farina, Kate Oppedisano, Louis Walsh, Cindy Walkanowski, Tucker, Todd Manderson, Rick Funaro, Tony Lupino.
https://www.doublehranch.org/
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As BSCC’s Office Manager, Julia brings many skills. She is familiar with Social Media, promoting the Club on our Facebook site as well as through her LinkedIn account. She is also active in local Chamber of Commerce meetings and is responsible for bringing in two new Members as well as a new Corporate Member. Her office colleagues talk about her fiscal responsibility and how she “spends the Club’s money as though it were her own, watching expenses very closely and often suggesting less expensive alternatives.”
Tell me a little about yourself.
I was born in Veronezh, Russia, a town of over two million, about 300 miles south of Moscow. I have a teaching degree from Veronezh State University with majors in History and English as a Second Language.
Family?
My Mom and sister are living in Russia, my Dad passed six years ago. I am very close to my sister – I’m sure everyone has seen me Facetiming with her in the middle of the day, as it’s the only time we both are awake. I am a single mom with two beautiful daughters, Bella and Sophia, ages 13 and 9. We enjoy cooking and baking together, watching movies, playing cards, taking weekend trips. Both girls are strong swimmers, so summertime is a lot of fun for us. The girls have a sophisticated palate and their current favorite food is sushi.
What brought you to the USA?
At the age of 14 I began the first of several trips to the USA on the Work and Travel Program which, over the duration of my participation in the program allowed me to live in DC, Wisconsin, New York City, San Diego, Shutter Island L.I. and Austin Texas. Austin was my first stay and seeing the Texans with their cowboy hats and all was my first impression of the USA.
I attended SUNY Albany where I got my accounting degree and I also have several Securities licenses. I became an American citizen last year and have lived in the Ballston Spa, Saratoga Springs area for the last fifteen years.
Your career so far?
I worked for Trustco Bank after getting my accounting degree, first as an internal accountant, then as a Branch Manager. After three years I was recruited by Foresters Financial and became a financial representative. After eight months I was promoted to Assistant Branch Manager New Rep Development.
At this point I was looking to balance my work/family commitments and accepted the job at Ballston Spa Country Club.
How’s it going so far?
I think what I like most about working at BSCC is that it allows me to do what I really like and feel good at, which is business development and marketing and it also gives me the ability to take care of my family.
The biggest challenge of the job… is the biggest asset…people. With the increasing membership it is tough to manage all the accounts, remember every conversation, every request. I just feel really bad when I can’t remember a Member’s name.
Again though, the greatest asset of the Club is the people. I am grateful to be surrounded by such a nice group of individuals. What is the expression…if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.
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May 15th, 2019
I have continued to work with Al and Julia as we refine our membership revenue numbers. We have about $16,500 in outstanding invoices for members who BSCC is assuming are not coming back. They have not called the office to let us know of their intentions so we will reverse those charges and inactivate those members sometime in May.
We continue to get calls for memberships but it is difficult to guess how many more new members we will get.
With all of that said, we have collected to date, $497,000 in dues. We collect approximately $12,800 per month from those members who are paying monthly, so that will total $102,400 in additional dues for May through December. That will put us around $600,000 in total membership dues for the year. That is $15,000 over our budget. Additional new members will only increase that number.
Before you start giving me ideas on how to spend that money (just kidding), we are still very early in the year and with all of the rain, we are slightly behind our cart revenue from last year. Also, one bad month of weather can have a significant impact on our outside play and outside tournaments and that is still the second biggest revenue source for BSCC.
BSCC is certainly bucking the trend for golf courses in our area. $600,000 will be the highest revenue number since at least 2004, which is how far back my reports go.
We did experience an issue this month with getting invoices emailed out to the membership. Julia has worked with Club Prophet to determine the cause. If you asked that your invoices be sent by email only and you did not receive one the first week in May, please contact Julia and let he know.
Julia has sent out, via email and postal mail the invoices for April. This will include your charges for the restaurant and Golf Shop. Payment for these charges is due no later than May 31st. You can mail in a check, charge your credit card or pay online. If you do not pay by the 31st, you will incur a late fee. If you do not pay by June 15th, your golf privileges will be suspended until payment is received. Please, Please make sure you invoices get paid in a timely manner. Taking away playing privileges is not something we ever want to do but we do need to collect the monies owed to us. I and the entire Board certainly appreciate your efforts to make your payments in a timely manner.
As always, if you have questions on anything that I have mentioned or you have been wondering about, please email me (tucats@nycap.rr.com) or talk to me when you see me at the course. I would be happy to provide you any info you need.
Sincerely,
Rick Funaro,
Treasurer |
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The start of the golf season has been a wet one but Steve and his crew have done a great job getting the course ready for play even with all the rain. Todd has done his best to accommodate the needs of the membership during the rainy spring. At some point later in the summer we will be saying we sure could use some rain. Even with all the rain, the wet conditions, cart paths only, or no carts allowed the number of golfers playing has been impressive.
We have several new members this year so if you see someone you don’t know introduce yourself. Our members are very friendly. I see a lot of new members in our Tuesday Men’s League. This is a great way to meet people and set up a match for the weekend or anytime during the week. The Men’s and Ladies’ leagues are up and running now if we can just get the weather to cooperate.
I would like to remind everyone that all golfers and guests have to check in with the Pro shop before you start playing. This will allow the Pro shop to control the play and make sure the correct foursome is going off the first tee. No one is allowed to go off the 10th tee to start their round without the Pro shops approval.
The members own the golf course so if you take a divot or see one, fix it; if you make a ball mark or see one on the green, fix it. We have a beautiful golf course and we are all grounds keepers. Every little bit helps to keep our golf course beautiful.
As I am also the assistant treasurer, I just want to remind everyone that your monthly bill should be paid by the following month. We have to pay the restaurant and Pro shop within fifteen days of the following month so please pay your bill on time.
I’m sure most of you have heard the Ballston Spa CC will be hosting the American Junior Golf Association tournament July 28-August 1, 2019. This is the first time this tournament will be played in the Albany area. There will be a lot of volunteers needed to help with the tournament. You will be receiving more information regarding the needs in the near future. Please consider helping if you can.
Hit them straight and long but most of all have fun.
Tony Lupino
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Greetings golfers. It is finally spring, and the sun is shining. As you may have noticed there are many new and returning members on the course. Please welcome them, and let’s enjoy the season ahead. Congratulations to the winners of the kick-off raffle, Ginny Charboneau and Mike Zigarelli. They each won a round of golf for four with carts.
New Members 2019
26. James Markewicz Young Adult
27. Robert Brown Junior Executive
28. Mark Thornhill Jr. Single
29. Ethan Paster Young Adult
30. Chris Pain Single
31. Ron Murphy Single
32. Steve Basile Junior Executive
33. Joe Snyder Junior Executive
34. Charles Alsdorf Single
35. Taylor Fortin Young Adult
36. Jeff Jones Single
37. Josh Marr Junior Executive
38. Brandon Wood Junior Executive
39. Jack Morrow Young Adult
40. Matthew Sheffer Junior Executive
41. Kevin Lennon Junior Executive
42. Sam Guba Junior Executive
43. Dylan Nizolek Junior Executive
44. Tomek Duszak Junior Executive
45. John Bassett Young Adult
46. Conor Crotty Young Adult
47. Chris Pehl Junior Executive
48. Peter Murphy Single
49. Tyler Best Junior Executive
50. Sam Moquin Junior Executive
51. Furbeck Lucas Student
52. Al Kirchhein Single
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Well the weather this past month as you know has been rather wet. We have not really firmed up since the frost came out the ground from winter. I don’t know how much total rain we have gotten over the past month but I am sure it’s up there for a record. Some areas of golf course have not been mowed yet this year. Frustrating for you and I. Carts and mower have made lots of ruts out there in the low areas. We will have to fix those areas after they dry out. Overall all I think we look good. We are hanging in there with giving you some ok conditions. The grass on the course is greening up very nicely. As we get closer to Memorial Day, I hope we get some more drier weather to help dry the course up a little.
With it being so wet we have not been able to work on the #4 green surround very much. I was hoping to have the entire area done by Memorial Day but it is tough with the wet weather. One rainy day messes up that day and the next because the clay soils stay so wet. We will keep at it. It will get completed as fast as we can. Thank you for your patience.
We took delivery of two new work carts this week. Our old work carts where beyond repair. The board approved the purchase of these during the winter and it is VERY much appreciated. Thank you.
The new tee on #7 is looking very nice. The roots are growing down deep and I am anticipating open the tee for play on Memorial Day weekend. Thank you for your patience. This tee will be a great addition to the course. Hopefully some other tees could get a facelift at some point in the future as well.
Is this Larry?
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This is an archival piece that I wrote for the TU Golf Insert many years ago. I reprint it here mainly to annoy one of my golfing buddies, an accomplished bowler. The article was headlined Bowling For Dullards, I believe.
My golfing friends know all about my disdain for bowling. They've heard me describe it as akin to playing the same hole over and over again, in a windowless warehouse that smells of stale Genny Lite and malodorous shoes.
On the other hand, as a golfer I have played many courses in several countries in all kinds of weather, experiencing holes that range from a side-of-the-mountain Himalayan track to oiled sand greens in Manitoba to kangaroo-infested courses Down Under. Even when I play my home course, Ballston Spa Country Club, I often find myself playing any given hole from an adjacent fairway, lending a degree of freshness to the experience.
My point being: golf and bowling occupy distantly opposite stars in the Milky Way of sports. The only similarity the two diversions share is that both have never been played in a canoe by the Pope. Nowhere is this antipodal relationship manifested more than in the language and cultural heritage of each game.
Let's start with the basics. Like many sports, the object of golf and bowling is essentially to move a ball from one position to another. To do this, bowlers roll or throw the ball. Golfers have many choices.
We are all familiar with driving, hooking, drawing, slicing, fading, lobbing, pitching, putting, topping chunking, blading, blasting, skulling, whiffing, chili-dipping, toeing, heeling, exploding, scooping, punching, lagging, threading, skying and of course, shanking. We also hit fat shots, grass cutters, worm burners ,pop-ups, knock downs, bump-and-runs, fliers, and stingers, not to mention duck hooks and zoomies.
We execute these shots with modern woods, metals, wedges, irons, putters, chippers, various sorts of wedges, ginties and hybrids as well as the historic brassies, mashies, niblicks, jiggers, cleeks and baffies.
Bowlers roll the ball. With the arm. On the morbid up side, it's like experiencing death without the messy part.
The terminology I have mentioned for golf is pretty standard stuff, but there exists in golf literature a degree of specialization that takes it even further. A sclaffed shot is a fat shot, but the club bounces into the ball. A snipe is a line drive with a sharp nosedive at the end of its trajectory. A foozle is a failed effort, with a skittering mud-runner result. A smudge is a smothered fudge of a stroke that invariably causes one to relinquish the honor on the next tee. Finally, John Updike describes a gronkled shot as one which is "topped in such a way that it comes to a halt behind some inconvenient undergrowth some thirty yards distant from the point of imperfect contact."
Now let's examine the literature of the games. There are hundreds of literary books about the culture of golf. There is no literature about bowling. But writing derisively about bowling's lack of class is too easy, much like the heyday of stand up comedians during George W's terms in office. Feeling as though I wasn't giving bowling a fair shake, I went all bleeding-heart-granola and searched for witty, insightful quotes about the pastime.
I have well over 200 books in my golf library, four of which are devoted to golf quotations, but finding any quotes at all about bowling was like searching for a pork chop in a synagogue. The golf quotes are often witty or pithy - "Golf is the loneliest game, not excluding postal chess" and even poetic/philosophical, such as "The links were sweet with the scent of wild orchids and thyme, commingling with the brackish breath of the ocean and the sweat of a golfer trying to conquer himself."
Then we have the best bowling quotes I could find on the internet.
"So you'd go to the bowling alley. We bowled and you could be in the back and you could make out. And you know how hot it was to make out." Stephen Tyler
"I haven't had sex in eight months. To be honest, I now prefer to go bowling." Li'l Wayne
"Shopping tip: You can get shoes for 85 cents at the bowling alley." Anonymous
I finally realized that there was hope for bowling in the world of culture when I realized one of my favorite movies from my favorite directors, the Coen Brothers, was a bowling movie. The Big Lebowski has many memorable quotes, although sadly they only serve to underline the game's (I'm being generous here) Everyman status in the world of recreation. Few actually refer to bowling, although they're there: -The Dude asks "You brought a (expletive) Pomeranian bowling?", to which Walter replies- "Brought it bowling? I didn't rent it shoes. I'm not buying it a (expletive) beer. It's not taking your (expletive) turn, Dude."
But mostly the good quotes represent the bowling ethos without referring to it specifically.
"Darkness warshed over the Dude - darker'n a black steer's tookus on a moonless prairie night."
I rest my case.
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The Fox May 2005
Memberships are 268, Members are 323, Dues Revenue is $510,000
Rutland CC cancels our reciprocal agreement based on budget problems
Steve Solsky is our new Course Superintendent
Labor budget is set at $157,750. Course expense is set at $96,700. This represents a $60,000 decrease from 2003, although an additional $40,000 was added for aerating and equipment.
June 2005
The Annual Stockholders Meeting in May did not have a quorum and Members had to phone friends to get them to come to the meeting. Meeting got underway at 9 PM.
Fox publishes an Apathy Index: Number of Letters to the Fox in the last 15 years: 0 Number of Stockholders/Proxies present at 2005 Members Meeting: 146 Number of years in recent memory when we've had enough stockholders at a meeting to change a bylaw: 0
Tournament Results:
Breakfast Scramble: 1st Gross: Rich Flavin and Tucker's team 2nd Gross: Tom Hudy's team 1st Net: Tony Merola's team 2nd Net: John Paolucci's team 3rd Net: Todd Swetkowski and Tim Preston's team
Four Man Scramble: 1st Gross: Bruce Kay's team 2nd Gross: Jim Bryant's team 3rd Gross: Tom Hudy's team 1st Net Steve Ludwin, Leo Bouleris, Ron Symanski, Dave O'Connor 3rd Net: John Moony and Chuck Bootier's team
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