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July 15, 2018
Greetings from the great state of Alaska. As many of you know Pat and I are on one of those bucket list trips and will be traveling until the 30th of July. When you receive your July Fox we should be pulling into port in Vancouver and starting our journey eastward.
While the weather in Alaska has been warmer than normal it certainly is not the heat wave you have experienced. Pat & I did get out and play some tundra golf at the Black Diamond Golf Course, a short (2600 yard) par 34. The narrow fairways were the length of our rough and our winter temp greens are better than their greens. At this time of year the course is open 24 hours a day.
Hope all is well in the lower 48 and you are enjoying your golf course.
See you on the course soon.
Paul
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July 15th, 2018
We have signed up a few additional members in the last month and we will certainly exceed our $560,000 budget projection. I’m still expecting approximately $580,000 in dues revenue this year.
Our green fee and cart revenue for the first 10 weeks (mid April through June) is in line with previous years so I’m cautiously optimistic that we will achieve our budget for this year. We did have an excellent June but that included the sale of the $35 guest passes which gives June a significant bump in revenue for green fees.
The bunker assessment has been mailed out as part of the June invoices. It was 3% of dues of your membership category. This years assessment will pay for the work completed on hole number 3. This will complete the third year of our five year plan to redo all of the bunkers on our course.
Next month we will be sending out bills for those who are in the process of purchasing stock.
Just a reminder to everyone, that our billing cycle is within the first few days of each month, your bill for the prior month is emailed out to all members who have an email account. Within a few days after that, invoices are sent via US postal service (unless you have told us you only want to receive an electronic copy) to the address we have on record. Those bills are expected to be paid by the end of the month. If they are not paid by the 15th of the following month, playing privileges will be suspended until the bill is paid. If for any reason, you did not get an electronic or paper invoice, please contact Julia so we can determine why. Also, if you change addresses, the office needs to be notified.
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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Well summer has arrived the weather has heated up and so has the golf season. The golf course has been very busy. All the leagues are going strong. The outside play has started to take off and this means the golf shop has been busy. As you can see the golf course is in great shape thanks to our superintendent and his crew.
The Ballston Spa Member Guest was played in June and I’m told it was a great time. We had some unwelcomed visitors. Several cows got loose from a farm along the 13th fairway and decided to take it over as their new grassing field. Not to worry Steve Ludwin took care of things and herded them back to the farmer that lost them. I didn’t know Steve was a farmer. It’s a good thing he was there.
We have several events coming up in July and August so I thought I would give you a heads up. On Saturday 7/14/18 at 3PM there is a Family Fun Day, Saturday 7/21/18 is the Women’s Member Guest 8-12:30, Sunday 7/22/18 is the US Kids Junior Tour Event 1:30-3:00, Friday 7/27/18 is the Schuyler Meadows Interclub event 8:30-9:30, Wednesday 8/8/18 2018 Senior PNC 36 Hole Event 18 Players 7:30 AM Start, Friday 8/10/18 Men’s Guest Day 12:30-1:30, Sunday 8/12/18 Mixed Member-Member 1:00-5:00, 8/18-19/18 2018 Men’s/Women’s Club Championship, 8/26/18 Tuesday League Year End Outing 8:30-1:30. These events are all listed on our calendar which can be reached through the Ballston Spa CC app. If you have any questions about any of these events please contact the pro shop.
We are always trying to make your golf day as much fun as possible. This can be accomplished if we all are considerate of the other golfers on the course. We are much busier this year than in past years with the many new members we have this year. I can personally say that everybody I have met has been very gracious. If you are a new member and see someone you don’t know introduce yourself to them.
The Saratoga Track season will be starting in July and runs until the beginning of September. This brings in a lot of nonmembers that want to play golf before the races start. If you want to play mornings during track season I suggest you sign up for a tee time instead of just showing up to play.
Todd and his crew are always there to answer any questions you might have and they will try to accommodate you if at all possible.
Hit them long and straight but most of all have fun.
Tony Lupino
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Membership
Welcome to Summertime Golf. We are certainly in full swing. The course is looking great, the greens are rolling fast, and if you’re lucky those birdie putts are dropping . If not so lucky, you may be putting from off the green. I have certainly played both sides of that one lately. So to the newbie’s, and even some old timers, “remember , keep the ball below the hole”.
Welcome Newest Members!!
As you know, we have been keeping all records on the Club Prophet System. This is a new report of the membership data as of 7/10/2018.
Cindy Walkanowski
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I just have a few updates for everyone. The weather this past month has been quite nice. We haven't had any extreme weather patterns. It hasn't been very wet or very dry. The temperatures have been moderate as well. The course is shaping up quite nicely. We are able to keep up with the mowing with the great weather. The new mowers have been working well. The greens mower, fairway mower and used rough mower all are greatly appreciated. Having reliable equipment gives us the opportunity to mow your course regularly without breakdowns.
Besides keeping up with the daily mowing we have been busy with the next green surrounds. If you remember we started the 3rd green surround at the end of last year. We worked first on the large approach bunker. After giving the bunker some nice lines and a good shape we sodded and put the liner and sand in. Next was the left side of the green. Mounds were created from the excess fill from the front bunker; we needed to lose the fill somewhere. This was a short haul for us and created separation between the 3rd and 10th holes. Once these mounds were created and raked, we sodded this area as well. We are currently working on the bunker on the right now. Once the sod was removed we began with shaping the bunker with our excavator. This upcoming week we will install the drainage, sod around the bunker, add liner, and finally add the new sand. I want to thank everyone who has volunteered on this project. I can’t do everything myself. My crew is always busy keeping up with mowing the course. Doing projects of this size in house is huge. Not many courses have the talent and or the help from their membership. Just by playing a temporary for a day so that I can work undisturbed is a huge help. Thank you membership for your patience during these large projects. We will complete this project as quickly as we can.
Just a friendly reminder that it is summer and you will see me out on the course watering and spraying. When it’s dry I water everything during the night and finish up early in the morning. Our system is older and has trouble keeping everything green on the entire course during hot dry spells. Overall it works ok for an old system. During the afternoons I may have to cool greens and hot spots in fairways off with some water. I apologize for this but it is necessary. As far as the spraying of the golf course. I try to spray well ahead of play to give a chance for the product to dry on the turf grass. The grass can frequently need plant protectants applied to them to prevent them from getting diseases. Fertilizer and wetting agents are also sprayed frequently. The idea is to spray at low rates in a proactive approach to stay ahead of problems.
Steve Solsky |
Men’s Member Guest Event
We had a successful event once again for 2018. With 48 teams in the event, it was sure to be a blast and it lived up to the hype right down to the very last putt of Dick Fox rolling in a 25 Foot Birdie Putt in the shootout on 9. With the majority of all of the players surrounding the 9th green and only 2 teams left in the shootout, the team of Dick Fox and Henry Fregeau were up against the team of Jonathan Andrews and his partner Rob Shantz. There were no strokes left for anyone to receive and the final hole was straight up scratch. Dick Fox rolled in the winning putt and to see his daughter Laiken come running out and cover him in water was a memory that I am sure he won’t soon forget. The event went off without a hitch and all the participants had a fabulous time.
With our active membership base that we now have here at Ballston Spa Country Club, this event filled up in 1 day and we had a lengthy waitlist to get into the event. We will be looking over the sign up process for 2019 and we are quite certain that the event will sell out in a few hours next season.
Women’s Member Guest Event
The Women’s Member Guest Event was another sell out for this season of the club events we hosted this year. Although we have no results of the winners yet, we are quite certain that this will be just as exciting of an event for their group as well. They will be playing a different format for each 9 holes that they play and it has surely spiked interest of many.
Men’s Guest Day
We will be having a Men’s Guest Day this year on Friday August 10th. We will have a 12:30 Shotgun Start with lunch and munchies after Golf. Each member may invite up to 3 guests. We will have betterball of Partners event for both net and gross prizes. We tried these in the past and are looking to get a great turnout for a Friday afternoon Shotgun Start. Each Member can be paired in the event with all 3 of the guests for the Betterball of Partners. The fee will be $75/Player for the event and will include carts, golf, food and prizes. Sign up in the Golf Shop.
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I was recently reviewing some old issues of Ballston Spa Country Club's newsletters when I noticed in the Tournament Results section that it has been 20 years this June since my cousin Jim and I won the Championship Flight at the BSCC Men's Member Guest. It was, I believe, at this moment in June 1998, that Jim won his ongoing, uphill battle against Mount Golf Addiction, crested the peak and just said "The Hell with it" and plunged into the warm, welcoming waters of the Grotto of Golf Obsession.
Topographical mixed metaphors aside, the man is a card carrying Golf Nut.
BSCC's Member Guest Week has become Jim's Ramadan, Hanukah and Christmas all rolled into one. We used to play up to eight rounds in the five days he was here, including two 36 hole days and two 27 hole days. I have witnessed Jim return from a 27 hole day, then apologetically excuse himself while he goes to a nearby driving range to "work on a few things". In the rain.
Put this in the context of his golf year up until the Member/Guest tournament. Living in Ottawa Ontario, most years Jim's golf season doesn't start until at least two weeks after ours. Until his recent retirement a couple of years ago, his eight rounds in five days in late June were often more rounds than he'd been able to fit in to that point in the Ottawa golf season.
Thinking about it, I suppose the signs of his disease were there early on, if you were looking for them. In one of his wedding pictures, taken at just the right angle, you can see him embracing his wife Linda. Look at his hands. He's using the Vardon grip.
He denies it, but Linda insists the following conversation took place when they were shopping at Carpet City where they'd gone to pick out flooring for the new house they were buying.
Linda: What are you bringing into the store?
Jim: Oh, nothing.
Linda: It looks like a miniature ski slope or something.
Jim: It's called a stimpmeter.
His sons, Eric and Bryan, laud their father for building a large sand box for them when they were toddlers, but struggle to explain their confusion not only for why they were banned from the sandbox and sent to their rooms for 20 minutes prior to their father leaving to play golf, but why there seemed to be substantially less sand in the box after he'd used it.
I could go on. He saved every issue of Golf Digest and Golf Magazine for 22 years, even though he never re-read any issue. He buys at least one new club every year, usually a driver. He goes through golf instructors like John Daly goes through fifths of Jack Daniels. His last instructor fled Ottawa, having made his fortune, to return to the Jim-free island of Tasmania.
In the twenty years Jim has been playing the BSCC Member/Guest he's carved out his own niche. He festoons our cart with Canuckian flags and everyone we play against in the tournament knows they will be given a bottle of Ottawa craft beer. Canuckians are like that, always promoting their culture, one way or another. If you tell a Canuck you like something that is uniquely Canadian, they will give it to you and in subsequent visits bring you more. The Amazing Max once voiced her fondness for a Canuckian chocolate (candy) bar. That was 32 years ago. She received several more each time a relative came south to visit. Last winter I asked Eric to send me some Canuckian head covers. They arrived with several Crunchie Bars included. Several years ago, Pete McNamara discovered a shared fondness with Jim for Montreal-style bagels and now Jim brings him a few every year.
But I digress.
I have noted the moment when Jim gave in to his obsession but I also know when the seed was planted. It was a warm July day in 1960 at Thames Valley Municipal Golf Course in London. I was 13, Jim was 9 and he was my caddie in the first tournament I played in, the first time young James had been on a golf course. It was my second year of golf and I came in second in the Junior Tournament, winning a 24 pack of 8 ounce Pepsi-Colas. I believe I might have given him ten percent of my winnings, rounding down.
And now, 58 years later, I prepare to do battle once more alongside Cousin Jim. I look forward to the week with a high degree of anticipation and joy, knowing we'll have more stories to tell and lots of laughs. I also look forward (no offense intended), to the moment he leaves and I can have a couple of golf-free days. The man's a whirling dervish of golf intensity.
He's a Golf Nut.
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