Rancho Sierra Golf Course February 2008Newsletter   

Hi Everyone,

We had some nice weather the last couple of weekends, in fact ideal for golf.  Although we may get some rain this weekend, often times we don’t get nearly as much rain out at the golf course as falls in Lancaster and Palmdale. So if you want to play and it looks like rain, you can always call the course and ask them how the weather looks.

I was out at the golf course Wednesday and Thursday this week helping the staff. I took a break from work Thursday morning to play 18 holes with the Men’s club. The weather started out a little cool, and the wind was blowing a bit by the time we finished. I still had a great time.  The Men’s Club is a fine group of individuals, so if you want to have a great time playing golf and have a Tuesday or Thursday morning available, by all means come out and give it a try. I don’t have an established handicap and thus I don’t participate in the handicap tournament part of the Men’s Club (drawback, since I am not eligible to win).  I do participate is the closest to the pin contests. They are fun, and for a $2 buy-in, it’s very economical.


New Golf Clubs 

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, we have received some super cool putters and wedges and we are selling them at very low prices. Maybe you’re not happy with the way you are currently putting. As most of you probably know, the putter is by far the most used club in the golf bag.  In fact, according to research, 43% of strokes taken are putts. If you can keep the number of putts at 30 or less per 18-hole round, you’re doing very well.  Because of this, a new putter can make a huge difference in your golf score.

Come try out a few of our new putters. Your golf score will benefit.

Results of Valentine’s Day Promotion  

Starting last month, many of you probably remember that, as a Valentine’s Day promotion, we dropped the price of a full ladies set of clubs including bag by $1 each day until it was purchased.  The price started at $249, which was a great deal. For those of you who were tracking the price or who are curious as to the outcome, the set ending up going for $219. Congratulations to the winner!

Since it was a fun promotion, we’ll do this again in conjunction with other holidays.

Rancho Sierra e-Giveaway

Reminder: For all of you that are subscribed on our web site and receive these newsletters, we’re going to have a drawing just for you in March.  As a way to say thank you, we’re going to draw one or more names from our email subscriber list. Each person drawn will win a free month of golf at Rancho Sierra.  The winners will be contacted by email.  Good Luck!!!

Shirley Says … 

Shirley Pfund is our Director of Operations and Head Starter at Rancho Sierra Golf Course. She has worked at Rancho Sierra for almost ten years, so she knows course operations as well as anyone. If you come out to Rancho Sierra and don’t see Shirley there, then you probably just missed her.  I suspect she spends more time at the golf course than anywhere else.

Because of her longevity with Rancho Sierra, she has great wisdom about the golf course. As a relative new golf course owner, I am always asking her for her perspective on things, such as carrying new items in the pro shop, starting new golf leagues, planning tournaments, etc. If you have an idea, suggestion, or complaint, you are encouraged to talk to any person on our staff. Shirley (and Steve, if it has to do with the course playability, maintenance, or safety) will take care of it.

Shirley asked me to remind everyone about our new dress code: Shirts and blouses must have either a collar or sleeves. In other words, we’d really, really like to discourage wearing tank tops.  If you forget and come out to play golf in a tank top, don’t worry. All is not lost. We have shirts that we will sell you or in some cases give you to wear.  They are not Nike Tiger Woods brand shirts but they are clean, new, not-too-ugly shirts.

Men’s Club News     

I’m not completely in the loop as to Men’s Club news, but I’m working on getting better informed. One Men’s Club news item was brought to my attention that is very newsworthy and I just had to pass it along.

Tony Abrams set a course record of 29 strokes on January 3, 2008.  This was during a stipulated round, also during a tournament.  Tony happens to also be the Men's Club president.

Congratulations Tony Abrams!!!!

Schedule Your Event Today   

Now is the time to book your spring and summer golfing events – tournaments, fundraisers, golf parties, or group outings. We have great group rates and can accommodate from 10 to 100 people.  Call the golf course for more details.

Superintendent’s Corner

There continues to be a lot going on in the area of golf course improvements and maintenance. As those of you who have been out to the golf course lately may have noticed, we are installing fencing down the east side of #9 fairway. (See the picture of the fencing on page 1 of this newsletter). Once completed, the fencing will be the new out-of-bounds marker. 

The course is in very good shape for the winter.  Normally, with the winter freezes, the grass turns dormant and gray. However, our course is the greenest it has been for this time of year in the past five years.

With the recent rains and tender loving care by the staff, the grass hitting area of the driving range is growing in nicely. Our superintendent, Steve Whitson is hoping to open this area in early March. Also, if we get some warm weather in the next few weeks, we’ll start aerating (punching) the greens in mid-March.  Call the course for an up-to-date schedule on this.

Our irrigation specialist Rick is busy relocating sprinkler pipes and sprinkler heads to better cover the course with water. It will make a big difference when the summer comes.

More from the super …

Hi everyone. My name is Steve Whitson and I am the course superintendent here at Rancho Sierra.

This month I would like to make you aware of some new trees along the left side of #1 fairway.  These trees are "staked" meaning they are tied to two wooded stakes pounded into the ground to support the trees until they grow stronger.

Now the good news, you get full relief from any staked tree on a golf course.  This means that if your golf ball is close enough to the tree so as to interfere with your stance or swing, you locate the nearest point of full relief for your stance and swing (no closer to the hole), pick up your ball and drop it within one club length of that point of relief.  NO PENALTY

This only applies to trees that are staked.

Thanks, and have fun on the course.

                                        -           Steve

Rules Corner    

Q.  You play a tee shot off the tee box. You go forward to look for your ball.  You cannot find your ball.  You declare a "provisional ball" and play a shot from there. Is this permissible?

A.  No. You must declare a provisional ball "before" going forward to look for your ball. In the above situation, the ball becomes "lost" after 5 minutes and you must return to the tee and play another ball under penalty of one stroke.

Have fun out there.                                        

                                                -        Steve

Thanks for reading this newsletter and for coming out to our course. As always, let us know how we can better serve you.

Sincerely,