Last year we booked Foxtail for our opening tournament and awards banquet. If you attended the event, it was rained out on the only day of rain in the entire month of March. This year leading up to the tournament, it looked like we would have more of the same. For some reason ... maybe the golf gods owed us one, the skies parted and the sun came out for one of the few days in a very rainy month. We had one of our largest turnouts, for a tournament not at Silverado, in years and they were ready to tee it up.

Chris Zaczek has been one of our most consistent players regularly posting solid scores whenever he played. This is especially remarkable, because Chris plays only six or seven rounds a year and still maintains a single digit handicap. Now having a seven handicap is pretty impressive, but at Foxtail Chris shot the best round by one of our club members that I can recall. Maybe someone has shot under par somewhere in the last fifteen years, but Chris shot four under par 68 for a net 62 to take first place. WOW!!!! Great game. I wish that I could have witnessed his round.

Several years ago, Tom Kiernan came out of the gates looking like he would run away with the title. Winning two of the first three tournaments, but several missed tournaments allowed other players to overtake him during the summer months. Maybe Tom is a spring player, his score at Foxtail was pretty good also and normally I would be talking about his round of one over par 73 net 65, but he happened to be in the same tournament as Chris. Tom, we know that you would not throw back that great round and second place is not to shabby, nice round!!

Since we have been running the golf club, one of our members has made steady improvement in his game. As a result, Kevin Burke has been a solid contender in the B flight. Kevin shot an 88 net 66 that last year, would have won the B flight, but this year we have gone to a single flight and he has to settle for third place points. Still that is a good start to his drive for the Club Champions trophy. Two other former A flight players rounded out the top four with solid scores.

Ray Zanini took time out from his busy schedule to record an 81 net 67. It is good to see some of the retired firefighters still come out to our tournaments and play with us youngsters. Ray, it is always good to see you.

Harry Yee is one of our youngsters and his 83 net 67 earned him a tie with Mr. Zanini. Harry is one of our golfers who play like he is a professional. He has a very nice game, but we have had complaints about his slow play. Pick it up Harry, you are not a pro. Harry, I am not picking on you, the rest of the slow players know who you are and all of you need to pick it up. My group finished over one hour before the next group arrived at the Clubhouse. It is up to everyone in the club to battle this problem. The golf committee is at the course for many hours and it is frustrating to spend unneeded time waiting.

After the round we all gathered at the banquet room for the Clubs awards dinner. The food was very good and every one had a good time. I was impressed by the facility and the staff did a great job. Frank Bonal once again did an outstanding job of organizing everything. Things ran smoothly and we presented the trophies to all the winners. Bobby Jackson accepted Club Cup and his name would be on it for the second time. He is the first two times Club Champion and has high hopes to defend his title. With only one flight this year it is going to be a little more difficult to accomplish. Good luck to every one!!!!

Monterey Golf Trip
Poppy Hills and Black Horse at Fort Ord
April 27th and 28th 2005

Every year our golf club has planned a trip to the Monterey Peninsula. It has become the event of the year. We always have a good turnout and sell out well in advance. This year was no different and we even had a waiting list. Unfortunately we had some miscommunications and we apologize about that. Please call us at the firehouse or the golf line if we don’t call you with your starting times several days in advance. We sometimes make mistakes and can forget to call someone. Again we are sorry!!!!

One thing about springtime in California is the weather is unpredictable to say the least. And this year the weatherman was predicting rain, rain, and more rain with some thunder and lightning thrown in to boot. We were for-warned and we all loaded up our rain gear and umbrellas. At the course it was cloudy and overcast, but it wasn’t raining. Most of us started the day wearing rain jackets, but soon discovered that it was too warm and many were in short sleeves for much of the round.

Poppy Hills is a world-class course and it is always a tough test for all handicaps. This year the course was in perfect condition and all the rain softened the greens. A big plus was with the storm coming in there was very little wind, unlike last year, which had us playing in gusty winds. We had some solid scores by the lower handicaps, but the former B flight golfers seemed to have the course in the palm of their hands. Al Bronson is fairly new to our club and last year I played with him in Reno. Al has a nice game, but can be a bit wild off the tee. He must have tamed that wild driver as his net 62 put him in the first day lead in this two-day event. One shot behind was Larry Yup with net 63. Larry has conquered bowling so I guess he is looking for new challenges. One of our players came off the course with a big smile on his face. Gerry Sullivan was very proud of his round and he should be, his net 65 was a very good round and left him in third after day one.

Black Horse

Fort Ord has two wonderful golf courses and we have been fortunate to be able to book the facility the last four years. The Black Horse is a beautiful tree lined course with small greens. The course is not very long but every hole is a dogleg. The greens there were hard to read and our group had a tough day putting.And considering that they were just plugged three weeks before, they were in great shape and fast.

Again the B flight leads the way in the scoring. Al Bronson followed up his great round at Poppy with another at the Black Horse. His second day net 64 gave him a two day total of 126. That was good for a two-stroke advantage over Larry Yup who shot an outstanding net 65 and a two-day score of 128. These scores are going to drop their handicaps quite a bit so they will have to play even better next time. Great week playing to both of you, those were great scores on two very tough courses. It always feels great to put together a great round much less two consecutive rounds. Gerry Sullivan also had a great week putting together two rounds solidly under his handicap. His net 68 and two day total 133 was worthy of better but only mustered third place.

It seems that the players who are the medallists in our tournaments often go unheralded. Sometimes, such as last month, they play well enough to win, but often they see their name at the bottom of the page with the word medallist. What that means is that is the score they shot before their handicap is applied. The Medallist at the Monterey trip was Chris Pratt with rounds of 80 and 76 for a total score over two days of 156. Nice rounds Chris!!

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