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Novomber 15, 2017
Well this golfing season certainly ended quickly with a thud. The weather which has been not cooperative all year appears to have had the last laugh. We went from a cross country event with over 100 golfers in sunny 70 degree weather on 28 Oct and a little tease on 4 Nov with temps into the 60s to a string of unseasonably cold and winter like weather. As I write this the weather has resulted in the course being closed to all play.
As you may recall we no longer will be having an informational meeting for the membership in December. However, we will offer the popular discounted guest passes during the week of 11 December thru 17 December. Call the office to order your passes. The discounted passes will also be available during US Open week in June.
CONTRACT UPDATES
I am pleased to announce that BSCC has entered into a new agreement with our Superintendent, Steve Solsky. Term of the contract is 5 years and takes us through the 2022 season. A special thank you to Dick Cody and Mike Farina for negotiating this agreement and Sue Kahler for sharing her extensive knowledge of child health coverage. I look forward to 5 more years of Steve’s hard work and vision which has transformed Ballston Spa CC from a good course to a great course. This contract completes what I call the “trifecta” of Superintendent, Golf Professional, and Restaurant and positions BSCC for continued growth into the future.
COMMITTEES
Our bylaws delineate how we should operate our club and list some very specific requirements as it pertains to standing committees. The purpose is to involve more members in the business we own to deal with the various aspects of running our Club. The committees provide recommendations to the Board and helps us hear the desires of a larger segment of the membership. The committees to be established are Executive Committee, Finance Committee, Golf Committee, Grounds and Greens Committee, House Committee, Membership Committee and Social Committee. Detailed descriptions of each required committee can be found in the members section of the web site. On an annual basis the President will solicit from the membership volunteers to serve on the Standing Committees. If you are interested in sharing your expertise on a committee, please email Julia in the business office or contact the Board member assigned to that committee.
TECHNOLOGY
Go Paperless
Paperless billing is working well, and feedback received has been very positive. All members account statements currently default to a statement via snail mail and a statement via email unless you change your delivery preferences. Let Julia know your preferences via email office@ballstonspacc.com or give her a call (518 885-1603 option 2). It is estimated that for every billing period we spend more than $250 in paper, envelopes, and stamps.
THINK SPRING
Paul
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November 15th, 2017
I would like to ask any member who has an outstanding balance to please get it paid as soon as possible. We have a significant amount of dollars that we have paid to our restaurant vendor that we are still trying to collect from our members. Many of them are months overdue. I will be recommending changes to our no pay no play policy to the Board this winter which I hope will encourage our members to pay their bills on time. We are a very small organization with only Julia in our business office and we simply cannot afford the time and effort it takes to try and collect the monies we are owed.
As the golf season comes to a close, we will be looking at our financials again to continue to finalize our end of your cash position. Any new golf revenue will not be significant enough to have an impact and we will work to estimate our final expense numbers (labor dollars mostly). If we have some additional dollars to spend, the Board will be deciding on the priorities for those funds.
We have a fairly complete budget at this time. There are some additional adjustments that will need to be made and we will make those at our next Board meeting in December. The current budget is projecting a very small surplus but I believe that once the final adjustments are made, our 2018 budget will show us with expenses and revenues being pretty close to equal.
The 2018 budget is reasonable and includes increases for labor for Steve’s staff and also includes additional dollars for Todd’s staff. I think our membership dues budget is reasonable and maybe even a little on the low side. However, our green fees and carts budget I believe might be a little bit high based on the 2017 numbers. Our 2017 revenue in this category was nearly $35K below our initial budget.
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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Hi my name is Tony Lupino and I’m a new board member this year so I thought I would tell you a little something about myself. I have a BBA degree in accounting from Kent State University. I have worked as an accountant my whole career. My family and I moved to Saratoga Springs in 1983 for my work.
I have been a member of Ballston Spa Country Club for about 27 years. When I joined, there was an initiation fee and a waiting list and the golf course was advertised as a golfers’ golf course, which is what I was looking for. The course has changed considerably since I joined and all for the good.
My job as a board member will be Assistant Treasurer and to address golf issues. I will be working with Rick Funaro with the finances and Todd Manderson on golf issues and tournaments.
Golf in this part of New York is very competitive. There are probably at least four new golf courses that were built since we moved to this area. If we continue to improve our golf course and give our members and the public what they need and want, we should be able to continue to grow.
We just finished playing the cross country tournament on October 28th and it wasn’t snowing! Last year I had a winter jacket on and wore winter gloves. This is my favorite tournament and it gets bigger each year. We had 120 golfers this year. I played in a five-some with Todd. The average age of the other four golfers in our group was somewhere above 75. We all thought great we got a banger in our group. Well Todd had what I think you call an off day; he lost his “A” game. We all decided he was getting heavy but we still had a great day; the weather and the company was great. Oh, by the way, if anybody finds Todd’s “A” game on the course would you give it back to him - thanks.
If you have any questions or concerns related to my duties as a board member you can E-Mail me at etlupino@aol.com.
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Fox- Membership report 11/2017
It seems that we are nearing the end of another great golf season. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have, and I hope to see you all next year. In the last Fox, you read about some changes to the new member incentives. Now it is time to see some changes to the membership rates. It is never an easy decision to raise prices, but expenses have increased, and we need to pay the expenses. This approximately 1.5% increase will help our club maintain its outstanding play and lead to an even better overall experience for our members and their guests. Below is the matrix for the new 2018 rates.
For those heading south, travel safely. For the rest of us, maybe we can still get in a few rounds. Happy winter and see you in the spring.
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Well the weather has finally taken a turn for the worse this past week. We were accustomed to the nice warm weather of the past months. I guess Mother Nature has brought us back to reality. According to channel 6 news, October was the warmest October on record. It was nice to have the season extended a little after the record rainfall we had in May and June. With the weather changing fast in November, we will push to finish projects and get the course ready to be put to bed for the winter. Soon enough we will see the white stuff falling from the sky.
I’m sure you have noticed the project making progress the 7th green. As you know this green surround was selected to be this year’s improvement (along with the 8th green that we completed this past spring). A large amount off fill has been hauled in to make way for the green to be extended forward and the entire front and right of green to be sodded with bentgrass. The bunker was cleaned out and sod laid around the outside. The new bunker had drainage and a liner installed. Finally the bunker got new sand put into it. The spruce trees behind the green were removed and an arborvitae hedge was installed. This was a massive project done in a short time. I want to thank all the volunteers for their help on this project. I would not have gotten this project completed before the weather changed for the worse without help. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think this project turned out beautiful. It is huge improvement compared to the previous condition of the hole. The new 7th green surround will be easier for us to maintain and hopefully a more enjoyable hole to play.
This time of year we are preparing to close the course down. Today we are blowing out the irrigation system. This is a two day process that blows all the water out of the system so that the pipes don’t freeze. Next step is spraying the entire course for snow mold disease. This product that we spray helps the grass fight off mold diseases from the cold moist condition of the winter months. The turf should look as good as it does now in the spring. The greens will get another deep tinning and topdressing of sand. This process helps the greens in the freezing and thawing process in the spring. Lastly we will cover the greens. These covers help the green survive the winter months protected from ice and cold temperatures.
I think we have had a very successful 2017 season. I am very happy with the way the season went. We have had many challenges from Mother Nature this year, but I guess we are always at her mercy. We had a little too much rain early in the season but finished with some great weather in the second half of the summer. We finished two more green surrounds this season. They both turned out well. Each year our goal is to keep improving and providing you with a great course to play and enjoy. The course to date is in beautiful shape with healthy turf, so all the winter preparation that we do should provide us with beautiful turf conditions in the spring. I hope to see you all again for the 2018 season. A BIG THANK YOU to all my employees and volunteers. Surrounding yourself with good people is a big reason for this club’s success. We have some very dedicated employees and volunteers.
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Thank You
I would like to thank all that have supported me in the past years and also this season. We have had a very good season for golf this year. I have been here for 18 seasons now and this season was one of the most active since my inception. With the addition of many new members this season, and the fact that they were all very active, this made for a learning of many new names which was a nice challenge.
We have done many new things here within the past few seasons to enhance the golfing experience for all. We added a new Ballston Spa Country Club App to our facility this season and had just over 500 downloads to it in the 1st year. We had 190 participants in the Loyalty Program this season for Draft Beer alone and had 2476 punches. We have 1170 pages of players use the App to keep score on while they played golf this season. The next has been the Golf Genius Tournament Software that we introduced 3 years ago and I think we all know the success rate that has had here and the engagement of our membership has embraced this significantly. We even had Mike Radzevich and Roy Knutson trade in their Flip phones for a smart phone so they could be more engaged. That alone shows that it’s exciting.
Most facilities around are losing members and they say that play is down. We are doing great things here at Ballston Spa Country Club and are growing. We as a golf facility are in the entertainment business here and we are moving forward with all of the “fun” things we have available for the membership. I feel that we are one of the leaders of golf in our area as I get calls quite often from other Golf Professionals and GM asking me various questions as to many of our programs that we use here.
You all should be proud of what you have here at Ballston Spa Country Club. It has come a long ways with many new improvements in my 18 seasons and we are not going to stop any time soon.
Golf Academy
The Golf Academy is up and running and we have various classes that have already started. We have many new programs that will be up and running shortly also. We will keep all up to date electronically as things change and programs are added. We are planning on have a sky tracker technology in the academy for instructional purposes and also for rounds of golf to be played exactly like a simulator works. We are happy with the success of the building and how it turned out and look forward to adding to your “fun” factor for the off months of the golf season. We all have an opportunity to learn year round now here at Ballston Spa Country Club. John Souza has been a great addition to the Ballston Spa Country Club team and I think we will all agree that his knowledge of the golf swing and how the body is supposed to turn and move to make the golf ball travel from Point A to Point B is quite impressive.
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Tee to Green
All Tournament Results Reported Here Include Only Current Members for the Sake of Space
June 1997
Course opened on April 18th
Sharon Nevins aced #17 with a Ginty
Hal Van Earden eagled #1
59 women attended the Women's Association meeting
117 members turned out for Spring Project Day
100 Members signed up for the Memorial Day Scramble
September 1997
Men's Member/Guest experiment with shotgun start on Friday
George & Claudia Mahoney were crowned Prince & Princess at the King & Queen Tournament
Tucker & Maxine Tucker won low gross with a 73 & Tucker aced #2 with an 8 iron.
Kate Oppedisano & guest Cindy Ginsberg won her flight in the Women's Member Guest
Sr. Men's Match Play Club Championship: Stan Ziobrowski won 1st Flight and Tucker won 2nd
Bob Lavigne won the Sr. Men's Stroke Play Championship, Pete Kanches was 4th
Pat Stack won the Sr. Ladies' Stroke Play Championship
Mark Thornhill Sr. aced #17
The 1997 NYS Sr. Women's Championship was held at BSCC
October 1997
We have 384 playing Members
Women's League Chairs Max Tucker/June Bowler turn helm over, after 4 years, to Deb Cottrell, Pat Stack & Sue Kahler
A new John Deere fairway mower was bought for $25,000
Mixed Member/Guest: 1st Rox Andrews/Tucker (68), 2nd John Andrews Max Tucker (69)
Women's Mini-Member/Guest 1st: Suzie Mansfield/Sue Kahler and guests
Men's Club Championship Champ Flight: Gary DeLuca 1st, Tucker 2nd, 1stnd Flight: Pete Kanches
Women's Club Championship 1st Flight: 1st: Sue Kahler, 2nd: Suzie Mansfield
Junior Club Championship 1st Place: Ben Eldridge
Burning Leaves Tournament 3rd: Sue Kahler/Tucker
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Browsing the usual slew of golf news stories this morning, I was reminded of a proposal I considered many years ago for my home course, Ballston Spa Country Club (The Capital Region's Best Golf Value). Among the pieces about animals on South African courses, a golf question on Jeopardy that caused some concern and of course The Donald's round with the Japanese Prime Minister and Hideki Matsuyama, was a video of the second attempt by European PGA players to play the fastest hole ever.
Ian Poulter's English team played a par 4 in less than 35 seconds, beating the record held by Sergio Garcia and friends a couple of years ago. They used the same format I was talking about two decades ago, but my idea was for a complete round.
My concept was for teams of 4 or 5 to play 18 holes as quickly as possible, with players leap-frogging their team mates. As an example, on our course you might have a driver on the first tee, a second shot player around the 150 marker with appropriate clubs, a third guy near the green to chip any wayward shot and a fourth on the green to sink the putt. While the first hole chipper gal would run or drive to the second tee, the tee shot person would be positioned near the second green (carts are allowed) and the second shot guy from hole #1 would be on the green. By this time, the tee shot woman on #2 would be on the third tee, and on and on. Throwing the golf ball between holes would be okay (this would be appropriate on several holes such as #1 green to #2 tee - we're a 1925 course and the tees are often close, but not dangerously so, to the previous green).
Each team would be given a dozen balls marked with their team # and at the end of the round any missing balls would be assessed a time penalty of a minute or two (this would have to be determined), and would force each team to decide how long, if at all, an errant ball would be looked for. In fact, why not give each player three of the 12 allotted balls so that they could tee off as soon as the ball is holed on the previous green or throw another down if a shot flies into a Briar Patch From Hell? Each team would tee off on the first tee whenever the preceding team reached the fourth hole, easily visible from the clubhouse, thus ensuring no team would be held up.
Teams would have to be assembled according to skills such as accuracy rather than length, chipping and putting skills, etc. This alone would take some time and thought. Next, teams would have to lay out a feasible leap frog plan that would maximize these talents and, if possible, practice their plan a few holes at a time in the days before the actual tournament.
The format ensures a fun time for all participants and knowing BSCC there would be a sizable gallery. There is no doubt the best laid plans would run a muck on a regular basis and it would be entertaining to see how each team handled their crises. As an example of BSCC spirit, we just had our cross country 9 hole tournament and over 100 members signed up for the popular event. The tournament might bring players together who might not play in each other's foursomes during the year, and the meetings and planning would forge new friendships. We might also have women's, men's and mixed flights and possibly two divisions, one for the under 50's that bans carts and one for the rest of us, with carts.
It's a Silly Season kind of tournament that would be a great way to start the year while allowing lots of time for the planning meetings during the winter months. It would keep members involved with the sport and the course, while reminding us all that golf is a game and games should be fun.
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