The Fox
From Ballston Spa Country Club
President’s Letter
Hello and Welcome to the 2015 Golfing Season. I trust everyone survived the harsh upstate New York winter. As I write this message we have been open for just about 1 month. It is hard to believe how quickly the opening came about, how well the course wintered, and the warm weather we have been enjoying. Guess maybe Mother Nature owed us one.
Your Board, Committees, and the Staff were busy during the winter months in an attempt to provide you the best golfing experience possible and to continue to be the “Capitol District’s Best Golf Club Value”.
As I prepared for our last Board meeting I took some time to reflect on the accomplishments over the winter and I see lots of positives actions and I am confident we can continue to improve. I do not want to steal the thunder from the individual Board Members report so I will only mention a few:
We continue to try to stay ahead of the every changing world of technology. Early reviews of the Golf Genius app are very positive. If you have any questions check with Todd who is patient with the technologically challenged. I speak from first-hand knowledge. I hope everyone is exploring the new website and enjoying what they see. Please take the time to update your member profile in the Member Directory. Hopefully we have solved the free wifi issue in the clubhouse. Login and password information is posted in the clubhouse. Our Facebook page has over 533 total page likes and routinely we reach over 1500 people on a weekly basis.
We are again offering the popular discounted guest passes. Passes are $30 and include a cart and may be purchased from June 15 thru June 21 inclusive. Passes are good for play during the 2015 season. See the pro shop to get yours.
Overall membership, participation in the Men’s League, and participation in the Ladies League are all trending upwards. We have gained over 34 new members at last count. Say hello and welcome them to the BSCC family. While this is a positive I believe in the old saying “the more, the merrier”. While the Membership Committee has worked long and hard this winter I believe that the current members are our greatest source for generating the new members we require to continue to grow. If you are happy with the condition of the course, with the member tournaments, with the BSCC leagues, with the pace of play, and with the number of reciprocal courses to name a few then let your friends and acquaintances know why you are a member and invite them to join.
I look forward to seeing you on the course and having a fun filled golfing year.
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!!
Dale Rifenbark
Vincent Martiniano
Robert Ellis
Anthony Pino
Eric Wright
Paul Corradi
James Whalen
Jacob Spiegel
Deb DiMaggio
Scott Knapp
Mark Thornhill Jr.
Geoff Guido
Jess Esposito
Tyler Hoosier
Brian Simpson
Semarr Patrick
Joe Macaluso
Bryan Hunter
Chris McCarthy
Nicholas DeCelle
Tom Tokos
Lance Chapman
Dave Ostrom
Patrick Murphy
Bill Scholl
Ron Preusse
Jon Moscovic
Brian Bagdasarian
Jonathan Barge
Andrew Fera
Michael Eckert
Eric Zeh
Quinton Jensen
Zachary Scala
I first want to welcome everyone back and say hello to our new members. I know that you are as excited as I am to get this season underway. This past winter seemed to be a typical hard northeast winter. Lots of snow and continued extreme cold temperatures set the stage for most of the winter. When the warmer weather finally arrived we were able to see that the course faired quite well. The damage that did occur was on greens that did not have covers on them or low areas of tees and fairways where ice formed earlier in the winter. All in all, I am quite pleased with the conditions that we have to begin this season. My crew and I have been busy aerifying and seeding damaged areas around the course. Hopefully these areas will fill in quickly. The greens were aerified, topdressed, and seeded a few weeks ago and are filling in beautifully. Big thanks to all the volunteers that helped clean off greens behind the aerifier. We could not do as good of a job without your help. Thank you very much.
As most of you know the #8th fairway has seen some major changes over the past few years. The lack of turfgrass coverage through the middle part of the fairway was very poor. The lack of sufficient sunlight and numerous tree roots were to blame and action towards the trees was needed. The project started with the removal of white pines on the left side of the fairway. New donated deciduous trees were planted farther out away from the fairway. This past fall we removed all the tree roots in that area. A total of 25 dump truck loads of roots and rocks were removed. With the idea of widening the fairway some, fill (from our dump) was brought over followed by aeirification plugs to act as a root zone mix. The entire area was cleaned and graded to make way for seed. We should see some germination here in a few weeks. Now that the left side of the fairway is seeded, I can focus on the right side of the fairway. Trees were removed over the past two winters in an attempt to get sunlight onto the fairway. There is a large amount of cleanup to be done in that area including the removal of all the roots out of this area. Fill will be added to this area and eventually this area will be grass. Possibly a fairway bunker could be added if approved and the funding is available. All this work is being done to give you the best playing surface possible. We have seen throughout the course that trees in the wrong place can limit the grass’s ability to be healthy year round. Grass needs lots of sunlight to survive at closely mowed cutting heights and the trees roots take away water and nutrients from the soil that the grass needs. The middle part of the 8th fairway survived this winter beautifully. I think a lot of the tree work that had been done the year before had a lot to do with its success. We will continue to work on this project until its completion.
The last update that I have for everyone is that Chad Wilson our mechanic left the club back in November. He had been our mechanic for 8 years and has decided to move back to his hometown to be closer to family. I spent most of the winter looking for his replacement. After interviewing many good candidates, I chose the one that had the experience and expertise that we needed for turfgrass equipment. His name is Joe Roberts. He has worked for Grassland out of Latham which is the main commercial Toro supplier for New England. He has also worked as head mechanic at Wolferts Roost in Loudonville. Joe has already made huge improvements to how equipment is maintained. His experience has really shown on several difficult projects in the short time he has been here. He has been able to diagnose and fix several pieces of equipment that in the past would have been sent out to get fixed. If you see Joe out on the course please make him feel welcome because we are very lucky to have him as part of our team.
Parring the 19th
It has been said that golf is a game of honor. Compared to other sports this is certainly true, but golf is also one of the most cynical, untrusting games in the sports world. Oxymoronic, you say?
Golf is essentially a solitary game. A person and his little white sphere are often separated from the opponent by scores of yards, and indeed are frequently out of sight. In cases such as this, one must trust one's opponent not to advance his cause in the match through an unscrupulous interpretation of the rules. The opponent's conscience and/or his risk of being labeled a cheat, forever banned from the Sunday Foursome, are the only forces at work in such a situation. And there have been many instances of players calling penalties on themselves when (s)he was the only witness to the infraction.
Why then, do we have so many rules that penalize the instances of innocent mental or physical lapses that are inconsequential to the outcome of the game?
Item: A minor tour money leader drops his ball while preparing to place it in front of his ball marker. The ball hits the marker and it moves slightly. He discusses the situation with his opponent and they decide it's no big deal. They continue. The next day, as he is waiting to play a sudden-death playoff for the title, he mentions the incident to an official. He is disqualified on the spot for signing an incorrect scorecard. He should have taken a one stroke penalty.
Item: John Cook marks his ball on the green and takes a swipe at the ball to pick it up. The ball evades his grasp and goes sailing into the adjacent stream. He cannot recover the ball and is forced to finish the hole with another. Penalty stroke.
Item: Craig Stadtler places a towel on the ground to avoid getting his pants dirty while making a kneeling under-the-tree shot. Two stroke penalty for "building a stance".
I could go on and on. The point is, golf has a plethora of rules that are in place to prevent a blatant attempt to gain an advantage. But did the player plot to gain an advantage by dropping his ball at just the right angle to advance his marker significantly on a 24-foot putt? On purpose? Did John Cook think that if he lost his ball he would be able to replace it with one that would improve his chances of making his putt? Did the Walrus really put the towel down with the conviction that the added 1/16" of height would actually make a difference to his shot?
Aside from turning the game into a joke, many of golf's rules make the game slower than it has to be. Moving your ball marker from an opponent's line should not have to involve marking your ball, removing your ball, measuring the distance in line with a distant target, moving the marker, then reversing the whole process once you are ready to putt. And don't get me started on the Book of Decisions, a hefty tome that covers such minutiae as what species of ant hill you get a free drop from.
Let's get real here. Is golf a game of honor or not? Golf rules are not etched in stone. The original rule makers could not possibly envision the evolution of the game, its equipment, courses and culture, especially the character of the game that has been directly affected by television. Just as the architects of the American constitution did not conceive their document with a knowledge of the internet and the Uzi, golf rule writers from the eighteenth century were naive about the changes that might have evolved in the ethos of the game over the years.
Many sports have calls that are purely subjective. Is golf, the Honorable Game, ready to allow reason and logic to rule in cases where there is obviously no malice aforethought?
I think most of the rules of golf stink. They were made up by a bunch of guys who couldn't break 100.
Chi-Chi Rodriguez
From the Golf Shop
As we get started into the heavy months of the season here, I would like to remind everyone to please use the CALENDAR on our website to see what is going on at the facility. Anything and everything that happens at Ballston Spa Country Club will be on the calendar whether it is golf related or banquet related. We hope that this will enhance your scheduling of play for the season.
Golf Genius
As most of the members who participate in the Leagues or in the member tournaments are aware, we have a new tournament software program that we are using this season. It allows real time scoring and more interaction within the events for the season. If anyone has any questions or issues getting involved in this, please do not hesitate to contact me to help you. In the interim, anyone who has a smartphone can download the FREE app onto their phone. It is Golf Genius. It is a great program and gives players great interaction and statistics on their game for the entire season.
Twitter and Facebook
We are on twitter and facebook. If you don’t have a twitter account, it is free and is a way to get instant information to the membership without getting numerous emails that some members seem to think in monotonous. Get involved and stay abreast of all of the latest information that we have to offer.
Single Sign On
We are looking to get a single sign on to our website. We are close to having this process finished. This will allow the membership to sign into our website 1 time to make and book tee times and view all the private member owned side of the website. This will be much easier for all shortly.
NEW MEMBERS
We would like to welcome all of the new members to the Ballston Spa Country Club. Also to welcome all the existing members back this season. Just a few benefits that come along with your membership.
1.Access to 9 different Reciprocal golf facilities.
2.Member only golf events.
3.Men’s and Women’s Member only golf leagues.
4.Discounts on golf merchandise in the Golf Shop.
5.GHIN handicap access.
6.Ability to make Tee Times 24/7 and 7 days in advance.
7.Unlimited play at Ballston Spa Country Club
8.Camaraderie amongst friends.
If you have any questions regarding anything that you think the staff in the Golf Shop can help you, please don’t hesitate to ask us as we will be glad to assist you.
E-MAIL ADDRESSES
Just a quick note to notify us so we can notify you. If you are not currently receiving our notices then please notify Laura or myself so we can get your email updated in our system to keep all updated for the information sent out.
May 2015
Welcome to the 2015 golf season. It has been a long winter, but the golf season has finally arrived. Thanks to Steve and his crew, the course is looking fantastic. Thanks to Todd and the proshop staff, we are playing at the most up to date technological course in the area. Thanks to Kate and the kitchen staff, we can all enjoy excellent food and drink when we finish play.
Ballston Spa Country Club has been known as the best kept secret for too long. I would like to thank the membership committee for working all winter to bring this secret to the public. At the time of this writing , we have added 31 new members . Our committee is still working hard to bring even more new members to the club. If you have ideas, let us know.
One of our biggest projects was to increase marketing to the area. As you can see, we have a new website and this has been quite a benefit. Please update your profile, so members can contact you.
One of our new members, Joyce Basset , had been interviewing other new members. You can go the members section of the website and read some fun facts about the newest members of the club.
Hopefully you have been able to partake in some of the fun . If not , at least go to Facebook and Twitter to add to the conversation. We had an Open House on April 24th with live music from Vinyl Evolution. The Opening Scramble was held on May 9th. The first Cocktail Scramble will be May 22nd.
Starting on June 5th , Ballston Spa CC will be part of First Fridays of the Downtown Ballston Spa Business Association. We will be offering $1 off a bag of range balls and from 5-7 in Dozers , you can get 6 free wings with the purchase of a pizza.
As you can see, it has been a busy winter/spring. I hope you enjoy all the benefits of membership. Let us know if there are other items you would like to see offered. And of course, tell your friends.
Happy Spring,
Cindy Walkanowski
Now that Winter is a bad memory, and we jumped right into Summer, our very busy tournament season is upon us.
The opening men's and women's scramble was a great success, with a blistering -13 recorded by the winning men's team of Rick Funaro, Ed Lake, Keith McNab and Bill Tucker. In second place gross, with a score of -10, was the team of Dan Markiewicz, Don McCollum, Ed Ruffer and Tom Shannon. In third place gross, with a score of -8, was the team of Lance Chapman, Paul Corradi, Colby Krogh and Dave Ziobrowski.
In the net division, first place went to the team of Gene Gass, Tyler Hoosier, Randy Mcquiston and Bill Scholl, with a score of -16. Second place went to the team of Jim Bryant, Jack Cottrell, Kevin Krogh and Steve Monnat, with a score of -1.
In the women's division which was an ABCD format, first place went to the team of Diane Brown, Linda Lake, Jody Mcquiston and Beth Todd, with a score of -3. Second place went to the team of Mary Assey, Mary Jane Crowley, Ruth Horton and Cindy Walkinowski, also with a -3.
Upcoming tournaments include; The Cocktail open on May 22nd, Men's Match Play Tournament May 23rd - 25th, Men's and Women's Member/Member June 6th and 7th, Men's and Women's Presidents Cup June 14th, and Men's Member/Guest June 25th- 27th.
To keep our fees down, there are a number of outside events this season, so be sure to check with the pro-shop before scheduling your golf.
Have a Great Spring Season
Beth Todd
Tournaments |
