Rancho Sierra Golf Course

• Shirley's Corner - News from the Clubhouse
• Men's Club News
• Tips from the Pro
• Rules Corner
• Superintendent's Corner

Shirley's Corner - News From the Clubhouse

Hi Everyone,

I am so proud of all our golfers here at Rancho Sierra! We have been working on our greens, punching, sanding, and seeding for the past two weeks and everyone has been so patient. Not a single complaint from anyone. I’m hoping it’s because our course is looking the best it has in a long time and everyone knows how much better it will look and play in the next couple of weeks. When you see Rick and Pedro out there working, please give them a big Thank You  for working so hard and fast to get the course back up and playing, no more temporary greens. Hurray!! It is looking great out there.

The weather has changed so fast and for the better I must say. Out here we go from 20 degrees to the upper 80’s in a matter of weeks.

Now is the time to start booking your tournaments, the weekends fill up fast with tee times.

Speaking of tee times, we are requesting that anyone who wants to golf on Sunday please call in for a tee time. If you can’t make it you can always cancel. Also you can visit the web site and book a time. We get so many walk-ins that the wait to get a tee time and play could be up to 45 minutes. We want to make sure everyone has a great time when they come out to Rancho Sierra, and that means no surprises, at least no bad ones!

The Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday men’s club will be changing their tee times starting May 1st. Sunday men’s club will start at 7:00am and Tuesday and Thursday will be starting at 8:00am.

Have a great golf outing and don’t forget to repair all ball marks and divots.

Shirley

Men's Club News

Tee Time Change and Mens Club Meeting

SPRING CLASSIC TOURNAMENT!

The Ultimate Bad Round Results

Have fun, enjoy yourself, respect the course, your fellow players, and the game of golf.

Bob Gonzales

Tips from The Pro - Putting from off the Green 

If you perfect the off green putt, you will shave several strokes from your game.

Now go out there and play great golf!

Rules Corner - Hitting the Wrong Ball 

Have you ever hit your ball, then gone to whether your ball landed, and then hit it again. Then you walk down the fairway a little further and you find your ball again - your REAL ball.  In this case, do you just say "whoops" and hit your real ball again or is there a penalty? What do you do?

Here's the rule ...

Rule 15-3

a. Match Play

b. Stroke Play

If a competitor makes a stroke or strokes at a wrong ball, he incurs a penalty of two strokes.

The competitor must correct his mistake by playing the correct ball or by proceeding under the Rules. If he fails to correct his mistake before making a stroke on the next teeing ground or, in the case of the last hole of the round, fails to declare his intention to correct his mistake before leaving the putting green, he is disqualified.

Strokes made by a competitor with a wrong ball do not count in his score. If the wrong ball belongs to another competitor, its owner must place a ball on the spot from which the wrong ball was first played.

So, you get to hit your real ball, but you have a two stroke penalty (stroke play) or lose the hole (match play).  If you hit your friend's ball, he doesn't incur a penalty and must hit from where you hit his ball; that is, whether his ball was before you goofed up.  If he's upset about this, buy him a beer or a gatorade and he'll forgive you. You'll laugh about this later on.

Have fun out there.

Superintendent's Corner 

As we all felt, last weekend was unexpectedly warm.  We're settling back down to normal spring weather now, but the hot weather really makes the grass grow quickly. Rick and Pedro finished punching the greens last week, and they are growing in very nicely.

Over the next weeks or so, the guys will be punching the fairways, as well as stepping up mowing and irrigation. There is a list of neverending things to do on a golf course, but they are up to the task. If you see anything that needs attention, do not hesitate to tell the staff, inside or out. They are a great bunch of people, extremely hard working, and they really care about the condition of the course. You can also email me at taiken@ranchosierragolf.com.

Ongoing tasks include cleaning out the lakes and canals, fertilizing the fairways, and planting and pruning trees.

Erotic Golf Course

I saw this article and I just had to include it here. It is not meant to offend anyone. Don't worry ladies, Shirley and I are working on equal treatment!

Reproduced from "Extreme Golf, The World's Most Unusual, Fantastic, and Bizarre Golf Courses," by Duncan Lennard.

Macon la Salle Golf Club

Nestling Among the juicy vines of Burgundy is the world’s first and only erotic golf course. Viewed from the air, the holes of Macon la Salle, laid out in 1987, portray a writhing mass of female bodies in assorted compromising positions. Perhaps the course’s signature hole is the par-t 11th, a dogleg featuring the silhouette of a naked woman on a chair. Golfers attempting to cut the corner face the unlikely prospect of getting their ball struck in her vagina, represented by a gaping triangular bunker. In addition, two heaving breastlike mounds wait to kick a slovenly approach into the rough 80 yards short of the green, which represents her head.

Each hole is reckoned to teach you a lesson about golf and women. The 6th drums into you the need for length, while the 9th preaches the need for application and concentration. The members describe the course as behaving exactly like a women. “Sometimes she is meek and submissive, and present herself for your enjoyment.” Says Florian Treves. “At others she will grab your balls if you don’t pay here enough attention!”

Macon la Salle’s holes may resemble body parts, but their anatomy is not immediately apparent to the golfer. The design works on the same principle as the ancient Nazca Lines of Peru –confusing at ground level, but get up high and dazzling shapes emerge. The 10th hole is a great example. The tee seems fairly unremarkable but is, in fact located in the navel of a reclining mademoiselle. The hole leads you past voluptuous hips and down a sinuous leg to reach the green – which is, of course, shaped like a foot.

“It’s hard to understand while you are playing,” says course manager Francois Terard. “The design is difficult to see. It is only really evident on the 11th, where you can see the two mounds in front of the green.

The man responsible is course architect Robert Berther. “Too often golfers are interested only in their own score,” he sighs. “My hope is to make players realize that a golf course is not just a golf course, it is also a landscape, a piece of land with a history. Burgundy is a country of pleasure, of sensuality. I couldn’t have build this just anywhere.”

Berthet believes passionately that golf courses risk being monotonous unless they have a unique theme. Hi current project, a course near Dunkirk, is designed on the principles of a seventeenth-center fortification laid out by Vauban, King Louis XIV’s military engineer. “I want my course to make golfers more poetic.” he says.

Berthet chose the female form over the male because he felt that smooth, feminine curves and contours would be more in harmony with a golfing landscape. His own favorite is the 14th: “This is a womanleg, as opposed to a dogleg. I couldn’t have designed this course without a very special lady to inspire me. I had a muse in mind when I designed the course – she’s called Nicole – and the leg is a perfect representation of hers.”

The course was opened in 1990 by the British Ryder Cup player Paul Way – and immediately provoked accusations of sexism. As a response, former course director Patric de la Chesnais saw to it that a “male” hole, ramrod straight, was added to Macon’s sister course, a nine-holer. This is 180-yard par-3, but for some reason the club’s male members tend to exaggerate its length.

“The male hole is not really that apparent anymore,” smiles Francios Terard. “Or at least, it really depends on how we mow the grass.”

"Extreme Golf Courses" is a great book.  You can buy the book online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Come Out For a Round of Golf

At Rancho Sierra, we pride ourselves on being the friendliest and most affordable course in the Antelope Valley. We welcome golfers of all abilities and all ages, from beginner to advanced. Our course offers something for everyone - it is not too hard for the beginner nor is it too easy for most low handicappers. Come out and meet Shirley, Tracy and the rest of the staff. And when it comes time for planning your golf outing or tournament, give us a call at 661-946-1080. We can help you throw a great party.

If there is anything we can do to make your golf experience better, or if you have any suggestions, please don't hesitate to email me at taiken@ranchosierragolf.com.