CHIPS & PUTTS
PRESIDENT'S CORNER & VP THOUGHTS
TOURNAMENTS
THE WINNERS CIRCLE
HANDICAP/RULES & GREENS
COURSE SUPERINTENDENT
BOGCAC NOTES
EDITOR'S CORNER
SPONSORS
WALNUT CREEK MEN'S GOLF CLUB

CHIPS & PUTTS

Volume 42 No. 11-12 November - December 2011
ATTENTION! ATTENTION!
This newsletter is a combined newsletter for November - December 2011
Do NOT discard!

Holiday Party and GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING

WEDNESDAY Dec. 7th 2011 at 6:30 PM

Don't miss this meeting! It is the last of the four dinner meetings scheduled for this year. This is also the Annual Holiday Meeting so you will not want to miss it. We will also introduce the new Board of Directors for 2012. We need a good turnout, as a key business issue will be the approval of the 2012 WCMGC Budget. As usual we will be raffling off a free tournament and some very nice golf balls. Be sure to be there.

There will be no General Membership Meetings until June 6th 2012.

Accounting Manager

We want to extend a warm welcome to all of our new members this quarter:

Bill Bice	Emmitt Burk	Jonathan Styrlund	Michael Drew
Bob Duncan	Frank O’Connell	Joseph Casey	Michael Hardy
Bob Krueger	Gregory Desmond	Kam Leung	Patrick Leung
Chris Mills	Ho-Cheol Lee	Kevin Ahaesy	Ray Kozak
Daniel Winterich	Jim Browning	Kevin Clark	Scott Nelson
Dave Swartz	Jim Kissinger	Larry Brunson	Stuart Shicoff
David Machado	Joel Resnich	Leroy Taylor	Sungwon Shin
Doug Murphy	Jonathan Krueg	Matthew Leung	Victor Loreto

Nancy Deal

FRED OEHLER MEMORIAL PLAQUE

Walter Liu reports that a memorial plaque honoring Fred Oehler has been approved by the Board of Directors and will be installed on the 17th tee. Fred served as Business Manager for the club for over 10 years. He passed away on June 20, 2010 after a round of golf and beer at Rocco's. Fred was left-handed and was a member of the National Lefties Golf Association, served as President one year and ran the 50th anniversary golf tournament. Fred played semi-pro baseball for the San Francisco Jefferson's for 15-20 years at centerfield. Fred and his wife were members of the NCPBA and raced powerboats on the bay and in the delta for many years.

PRESIDENT'S CORNER & VP THOUGHTS

Presidents Corner

Hello my fellow golfers,

Where has the year gone?? It’s amazing how quickly time fly's, as we are currently setting up for 2012. We have our Holiday meeting Wednesday December 7, 2011 at the Clubhouse, where we will introduce the new board and positions. Also, we will have the vote on the 2012 budget.

The new Board members have been elected and the new members are Mike Richards and Graham Carter. The resigning board members are Stephen Cherepy and Bill Haish, both of whom did an outstanding job on the Board, once again thanks to both of those gentlemen for all the time and effort.

The Board is working on next year's budget and will review with the new Board in November, then distribute it to the members for approval at the Holiday General Meeting. We will post the proposed budget on line prior to the December 7th meeting but after the BOD meeting on November 30th.

In 2011 we achieved some very outstanding milestones, as most you know we have a new improved scoring program (thanks to Kevin Hofer & Tom Farrell), which calculates and gives us results at the tournament. Along with the Kepler Cup (Major Tournaments), Pace of play and CourseCo's improvements to the condition of Boundary Oak, the golfing has become more of a pleasure at the WCMGC. We had a very successful member-guest tournament last month and signed up several new members. The future goals for year 2012 will be to build the membership. It’s really nice to see the work and effort of this Club come together for all.

Lastly, it has been a pleasure serving you as president this year! I have been reelected by the board to serve as president for 2012. Please feel free to contact me at anytime with suggestions, concerns or ideas by email djhudson@pacbell.net or cell (510) 772-2959

"See you on the Links"

Deane Hudson

P.S.

I want to thank the 17 members who donated their "Turkey Shoot" gift certificates. We as a club donate $340.00 to the Contra Costa Food Bank.

I'm sure your donation brightened someone's Thanksgiving!

Vice President's Thoughts

I would like to wish all of you Happy Holidays and I hope to see you at our Holiday Party on the 7th. While I look forward to the party for social reasons, its primary function is to have the next year's budget approved by the membership. I am writing the following so that our budget might be more easily discussed before and during the party.

At last year's Holiday Party the question about the size of our reserves came up. We had about $60,000, which was carried over from the prior year. It was apparent to me that some members felt that it is too much as that is essentially dues which are paid by the membership and that it should be spent on activities. I fully understand that sentiment; however, I think that $40,000 to $50,000 is a reasonable amount of reserves for the club to have. Having spent 4 fiscal years on the Board, I appreciate how difficult it is to be certain in December of how the club's

finances will look by the following December, which is what our bylaws have us do. I have watched two accounting professionals join the Board and watch the books for a year and have an entirely different opinion after seeing what actually happens during fiscal year. It’s not rocket science, but it ain't easy either. Please also keep in mind that the Board members are all

volunteers. Another item to consider is that the Board's Directors & Officers coverage has a $10,000 deductible. Given all of the above, I would be very concerned for the Club's financial health if the reserves fell much below $30,000, unless the membership falls below 200.

I believe that the reserves, which we currently have, are largely the residue of dues paid over at least the last 10 years, if not longer. At this time, I am reasonably certain that we did spend more in 2011, than we received during the fiscal year. So we have continued to spend down the reserves. I don't believe that it will be wise to continue to do so. We have reduced some of our expenditures and we have the latitude to do more. While we do have some discretion on spending in the middle of the year with our Fall Festival and Holiday Party, I think most would agree that it is important to keep these events as lively as possible.

The factor which ultimately drives most all of the decisions is membership. Membership has declined over the last 5 years or so due to many factors well outside the control of the Board. I will venture to guess that the membership will also decline in 2012; however, in 2013 we may see the trend reverse. I say this because the number of members playing in our tournaments is growing and I expect this to continue.

The reserves give the Board and the Club the certainty we need to plan ahead with confidence.

Peter Kohn

TOURNAMENTS

Tournaments

As one the newbies on the board, I will be working closely with Kevin Hofer, learning the ropes and helping with the tournament coordination and Kepler Cup scoring. I am very excited to be on the board and look forward to working towards growing the club and tournament participation in 2012.

Thanks
Graham Carter

Upcoming Tournaments

TOURNAMENT	DATE	DAY
	2011
Holiday Classic	Dec 3	Sat
	2012
NCGA Four-Ball Net Qualifier	Feb 5	Sun

St. Patrick's Day	Mar 6	Sat

NCGA Net Amateur Qualifier	Apr 1	Sun

Four-Man Shamble	Apr 22	Sun

THE WINNERS CIRCLE

Seniors Championship & 1st Flt Paul Dommes & Dean Leonard (tie)
NCGA Qualifier 2nd Flt Kevin Hofer
3rd Flt Ron Robison & Ron Tatti (tie)
Super Seniors Larry Totten
Grand Masters James Barstow
Fall Festival 1st Flt, Day 1 Adrian Pena and Chris Mason
1st Flt, Day 2 Craig Eller and Olaf Elze
1st Flt, Overall Olaf Elze
2nd Flt, Day 1 Brian Allen and Tom Henderson
2nd Flt, Day 2 Mark Walchirk and Russ Wixon
2nd Flt, Overall Gery Koch
3rd Flt, Day 1 Mike Wenrich and Deane Hudson
3rd Flt, Day 2 Mike Wenrich and Deane Hudson
3rd Flt, Overall Warren Garrison
Four-Man Team Medal Play 1st Flt Stan Janczura. Dean Leonard,
Darrell Webb and Ken Ridings
2nd Flt Victor Loreto, Dave Swartz,
Geoff Horn and Eric Horn
Member Guest Team Skins (First Annual) Gary Koch, Sam Patti, Lee Geoger
and Stuart Shicoff
Turkey Shoot (two-man) 1st Flt Paul Dommes & Steve Hall (tie)
2nd Flt Steve Bees
3rd Flt John Moore

Congratulations to all our Winners!!

HANDICAP/RULES & GREENS

Handicap/Rules & Greens

The following is a list of our Local Rules for our WCMGC tournaments. These will be found on the backside of our tournament scorecards. All of our members should familiarize themselves with these for their own benefit as well as their playing partners. Our thanks to Sam Bozzo for his help getting this done and on the scorecards.

Andy Myhr

General Tournament Rules
USGA Rules of Golf will govern all play except where modified by local rules of Boundary Oak Golf Course.

Boundary Oak Golf Course Local Rules
Out of Bounds: All boundary fences surrounding the golf course define out of bounds. This includes the fence surrounding the golf course maintenance yard. (Rule 27)
Lateral Water Hazards: Lateral Water Hazards are defined by red stakes or lines. (Rule 26)
Water Hazards: Water Hazards are defined by yellow stakes and lines. (Rule 26)
Overhead Power Lines: Any ball striking an overhead power line must be abandoned and the player will play a second ball without penalty. The towers supporting the power lines are defined as immovable obstructions. (Rule 24)
Material Piled for Removal: Trimmings and other maintenance waste periodically stored on the right side of the landing area on hole three will be considered material piled for removal. If the ball is found in this waste area, the player may take relief without penalty within one club-length of the nearest point of relief, no closer to the hole. The berm outside of the Maintenance yard between holes 11 & 12 will also be considered material piled for removal.
Decorative Flower Beds: Any ball coming to rest in a decorative flower bed, or if the flower bed interferes with the player's stance or the area of the intended swing, the ball must be removed and dropped within one club-length of the nearest point of relief, no closer to the hole, no penalty.
Protective Screens: Protective screens on holes 7, 8, 16, 17 & 18 are defined as immovable obstructions. Relief may be obtained by dropping the ball within one club-length of the nearest point of relief that does not interfere with the player's lie, stance or area of intended swing, no penalty. (Rule 24)
Service Road: The service road extending down the entire right side of hole 13 is defined as an immovable obstruction. The areas of light gravel surrounding the ball washers shall be defined as an immovable obstruction as well. (Rule 24)
Continuous Putting Greens: The putting greens on holes 2 & 11 are considered continuous, putting only. Local rules prohibit players from chipping or pitching while on either of these putting greens.
Former Alternate Greens: All former alternate greens are defined as through the green. The ball must be played as it lies.

COURSE SUPERINTENDENT

AUDUBON INTERNATIONAL UPDATE

Boundary Oak Golf Course has received certification in Environmental Planning from the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses (ACSP), an international program administered by Audubon International designed to help landowners preserve and enhance the environmental quality of their property.

Now that our environmental plan has been approved, we will be working towards certification in Wildlife & Habitat Management, Chemical Use Reduction & Safety, Water Conservation, Water Quality Management and Outreach & Education. Certification in these areas will be achieved by meeting minimum requirements for each category.

Eddi Wahlborg

BOGCAC NOTES

Update since the last newsletter.

The Clubhouse at Boundary Oak - Dinner events continue to be scheduled monthly on the last Friday of the month except that there will be no 4th Friday dinner in November. For December, there will be a Prime Rib dinner on the 23rd and a "New York New Years Eve Strolling Dinner Party" on the 31st. (See the website description of the latter.)

The Course has received a Kerr Foundation Grant Award to provide shade covers for the driving range. That work should start in the near future. The work on the bunkers continues albeit slowly.

Barry Slavin advised that the contract for the consultant to bring all the previous studies together and come up with a management plan to accomplish the backlog maintenance, including feasible financing where required, has been awarded to BAR Architects. They will start after Thanksgiving and are scheduled to complete the study in the March/April 2012 time frame. The City Staff is working on the funding plan with a timing target of around 2013 -2014. The study has a two part scope with both renovation and removal/replacement of the clubhouse as options.
Barry also went over the financial results of the past year and projections for the next year. Things look positive. We seem to be doing better than the competition.

As was noted in the last report, November was the last meeting of the BOGCAC. It will be replaced with Quarterly Golf Community Meetings on the fourth Thursday of the first month of the quarter. The first meeting will be on Thursday January 26th 2012. The meetings are run by CourseCo and are to be advisory and educational. Anyone can come. The meeting is expected to last about one hour and, tentatively, will start about 3:00 PM. (The time may change.) I will attend per the BOD direction at the last meeting to take notes but anyone else is welcome.

Carl Kress

EDITOR'S CORNER

FORREST GUMP GOES TO HEAVEN

The day finally arrived. Forrest Gump dies and goes to Heaven. He is at the Pearly Gates, met by St. Peter himself. However, the gates are closed, and Forrest approaches the gatekeeper.

St. Peter said, 'Well, Forrest, it is certainly good to see you. We have heard a lot about you. I must tell you, though, that the place is filling up fast, and we have been administering an entrance examination for everyone. The test is short, but you have to pass it before you can get into Heaven.'Forrest responds, 'It sure is good to be here, St. Peter, sir. But nobody ever told me about any entrance exam. I sure hope that the test ain't too hard. Life was a big enough test as it was.St. Peter continued, 'Yes, I know, Forrest, but the test is only three questions.

First: What two days of the week begin with the letter T?

Second: How many seconds are there in a year?

Third: What is God's first name?'

Forrest leaves to think the questions over. He returns the next day and sees St. Peter, who waves him up, and says, 'Now that you have had a chance to think the questions over, tell me your answers.'

Forrest replied, 'Well, the first one - which two days in the week begins with the letter 'T'? Shucks, that one is easy....That would be Today and Tomorrow.'

The Saint's eyes opened wide and he exclaimed, 'Forrest, that is not what I was thinking, but you do have a point, and I guess I did not specify, so I will give you credit for that answer.

'How about the next one?' asked St. Peter 'How many seconds in a year?'

Now that one is harder,' replied Forrest, 'but I thunk and thunk about that, and I guess the only answer can be twelve.'

Astounded, St. Peter said, 'Twelve? Twelve? Forrest, how in Heaven's name could you come up with twelve seconds in a year?'

Forrest replied, 'Shucks, there's got to be twelve: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd... '

'Hold it,' interrupts St. Peter. 'I see where you are going with this, and I see your point, though that was not quite what I had in mind....but I will have to give you credit for that one, too. Let us go on with the third and final question. Can you tell me God's first name'?

'Sure,' Forrest replied, 'it's Andy.'

'Andy?' exclaimed an exasperated and frustrated St. Peter. 'Ok, I can understand how you came up with your answers to my first two questions, but just how in the world did you come up with the name Andy as the first name of God?'

'Shucks, that was the easiest one of all,' Forrest replied. 'I learnt it from the song,

ANDY WALKS WITH ME, ANDY TALKS WITH ME, ANDY TELLS ME I AM HIS OWN'

St. Peter opened the Pearly Gates, and said: 'Run, Forrest, Run.'

An elderly man in Louisiana had owned a large farm for several years.

He had a large pond in the back. It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with picnic tables, horseshoe courts and some apple and peach trees.

One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while and look it over.

He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.

As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee.

As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond.

He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end.

One of the women shouted to him, 'we're not coming out until you leave!'

The old man frowned, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.'

Holding the bucket up he said,

'I'm here to feed the alligator.'

Some old men can still think fast.

When you drink vodka over ice, it can give you kidney failure.

When you drink rum over ice, it can give you liver failure.