Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the May newsletter. It’s been heating up in the Antelope Valley the last few of days.  I was out at the golf course earlier this week and, except for Monday, we had some great golf weather. I always make a point to take pictures during my visits to the course, and I almost always get a few of them into the newsletter. You'll see a few of them further down.

There is a lot going on at the golf course these days.  Steve finished punching the greens on holes 1-9 last week end, and he punched the practice putting green earlier this week.  The greens are growing back nicely, and the warm weather will speed up their recovery.

It’s going to be beautiful at the golf course this week end, although it will be in the 90’s.  Come out  early and enjoy a great round of golf.  Even though it’s warm, it’s still very nice.

Just for fun, consider the people that place ice golf. In Greenland, where the world ice golf championships are held, the average temperature during the event is 7 degrees, but can be as low as -14 degrees.

Ice golf is interesting. The “greens” are white (and fast!) and the golf balls are red, but the rules are very similar. Also, the golf course changes during the season due to shifts in the ice.

In case some of you want to try it out, there’s the Pillar Mountain Golf Classic in Kodiak, Alaska every April. See http://www.2camels.com/pillar-mountain-golf-classic.php. Another great ice golf web site is http://www.icegolfgreenland.com/ which describes the World Ice Golf Championship, held every March in the Uummannaq area of Greenland, within 300 miles of the Arctic Circle.

And if your golf ball gets eaten by a polar bear, don’t blame me! 

Rancho Sierra 1st Annual Golf Club Swap Meet  

I know several golfers at the course who have more than 10 sets of old clubs! A lot of golfers collect vintage golf clubs. I have a set myself. So what better way to show off your collection as well as to buy or sell used clubs than at a golf club swap meet!!! It sounds cool, so we’re going to have one.  Announcing the 1^st Annual Rancho Sierra Golf Course Golf Club Swap Meet.  Bring in old or new clubs to sell or swap with someone else.

Note: There is NO CHARGE for selling clubs and Rancho Sierra will not charge any commission at this event!  The details are as follows:

Rancho Sierra 1st Annual Golf Club Swap Meet

• Date: Saturday, June 28^th 
• Time: 8 AM – Noon
• Location: Rancho Sierra Golf Course parking lot (In case of bad weather, we’ll move it into the clubhouse)
• What to Bring: Your old or new golf sets, bags, and other golf stuff
•  

There will be food, a raffle, and other interesting things happening.  Come out and enjoy the fun.  Bring out golf clubs that you want to sell, trade, or just display. You can bring out other golf stuff too, such as golf bags, but please do not bring non-golf merchandise to sell, trade, or display. We’ll supply some chairs and a few tables, and you can also bring your own.

Introducing the Rancho Sierra Golf Course Golf Card Program

Rancho Sierra Golf Course has implemented a new Golf Card Program.  You may have used loyalty programs in the past, such as frequent flier programs given by airlines or frequent diner programs offered by restaurants. You may have also used gift cards in the past, sold by Starbucks, Best Buy, and other retailers. And surely you have used coupons.

The Rancho Sierra Golf Course Golf Card Program is all of these programs wrapped into one, and more. The Rancho Sierra Golf Card is:

• A Frequent Golfer Card – Earn Rancho Rewards points with any purchase at the golf course. The more you spend, the higher percentage in Rancho Rewards points you get, from 1% to 5% of the total purchase price. We will periodically also have specials in which you can earn double Rancho Rewards points.

• A Promotional Golf Card – Through Rancho Sierra web-based promotions (think “giveaways”) you may automatically be awarded free rounds of golf, promotional dollars, or Rancho Rewards points to your card.  We don’t even have to have your card to add to it.

• A Gift Card – You can also give Rancho Sierra Golf Cards as gifts. Cash can be put on the card. The cash can be used to purchase golf, merchandise, or food that Rancho Sierra sells. Also, by giving a gift card, you get Rancho Rewards points put on your own card!

The Rancho Sierra Golf Card is Better than Cash!  

Another Neat Thing about the Golf Card 

This card is available to all of our golfers, even if they are not e-club members.  But since you are receiving this email (and reading it!), when you come in and get your card, tell our starters that you are an online subscriber (Rancho Sierra E-club member) and we will give you a card from the special E-club box. The reason it is special is that the cards in this box are preload with more than the standard Rancho Rewards points.  Because you are an E-club member, the minimum number of points you will automatically get on your card is 500.  But there are several cards with 1000 and 2500 Rancho Rewards points on them.  Since each point is worth 1 penny, you automatically get five bucks for free, and a few e-club members will instantly get $25.00 – 2500 points – on their card.  We do this because we like to reward our loyal customers, and e-club members are among our most loyal.  So come out and get your card. If you have time, take the Rancho Sierra 2008 Spring Survey (at http://s-8kvq0-41855.sgizmo.com) and pick up a free golf mug while you’re at the course.  

Juniors Golf Clinics Coming This Summer

I get requests all the time about Juniors Clinics or a Juniors Program at Rancho Sierra.  It really makes a lot of sense, since our course is step up perfectly for juniors once they master the basics of golf.  Juniors Clinics help promote the sport of golf and all of its benefits, and thus keeps our sport vibrant and modern.

John Chopp, our licensed Juniors Teaching Pro who just completed his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Cal State Bakersfield (Congratulations John!), is excited about starting clinics and programs for juniors. We are planning three events for juniors this summer:

1. Free Juniors Clinics – these are essentially mini group lessons, typically 30 minutes in length, geared towards beginning and novice junior golfers.  This ranges from kids that have never picked up a golf club to kids that have had one or two lessons and are interested in learning more about golf.  Some of these kids or their parents probably want to determine if this is something the kid will like. 

The Rancho Sierra 2008 Juniors Golf Clinic schedule is Saturday mornings at 9 AM, starting May 31, on the Rancho Sierra driving range.  The age range is 8 to 17, and all that we ask is that the kids show some interest in learning golf. The course has juniors golf clubs for kids to borrow, but if they have golf clubs, they are encouraged to bring them. Clinics are completely free, including range balls. There will be four clinics in all. The schedule is:

• Clinic #1:    Saturday – May 31 – 9:00 AM
•        Saturday – June  7 – NO CLINIC
• Clinic #2:    Saturday – June 14 – 9:00 AM
• Clinic #3:    Saturday – June 21 – 9:00 AM
• Clinic #4:    Saturday – June 28 – 9:00 AM

Unless otherwise noted, all clinics will start on the driving range.  We ask that all the parents of all participants to check in at the clubhouse 10-15 minutes early.

If the clinic participants find that they like golf, then they can advance to the next step, which is:

2. The Rancho Sierra Juniors Program – This will be a 10 week golf program for beginning to intermediate golfers, age 8 to 17.  Classes will meet for one hour every Saturday morning at 9:30 AM, starting June 28. The cost for this program is $99, which will include a Rancho Sierra hat, towel and other stuff.  After the third lesson and before the last lesson, children enrolled in the program will also be able to play the golf course for free with their parents on any afternoon (there is a charge for parents).

More details on the Rancho Sierra Juniors Program, including the curriculum will be available soon. Please sign up early for this program, so we can ensure that we have the right number of instructors available.

3. Rancho Sierra 1st Annual Juniors Tournament – – As a finale, Rancho Sierra will host the First Annual Rancho Sierra Juniors Tournament. It is not required that participants in this tournament be enrolled in the juniors program, but if they are, they will get a discount off the tournament entry fee. For this tournament, we will take into account ages of the participants by have three sets of tees.  This event will be a fun event to encourage juniors to keep learning and playing the game of golf. As it currently stands, we’re considering either Saturday, August 23^rd or Saturday, August 30^th for the event.

    

    

Survey Says … 

As many of you remember, last month I encouraged all Rancho Sierra E-club members to fill out a survey asking about their about golfing habits, such as what kind of golf balls our players use, and asking them to rate Rancho Sierra on certain criteria, such as quality of the course, helpfulness of the staff, etc. The purpose of the survey was to let us know how we are doing, what we need to improve upon, etc. 

Everyone that filled out the survey was automatically awarded a free Golf Magazine mug with a picture of the Masters course at Augusta on it. We had 22 people complete the survey. The survey had about 40 questions. Thank you very much for those who took the time to fill out the survey. I really, really appreciate it. The results were very interesting, and I am going to share them with you in the next newsletter.

If you filled out the survey and didn’t receive your mug yet, it’s at the golf course waiting for you.  When you get a chance, please come and pick it up. While you’re there, you can also pick up your free Rancho Sierra Golf Card, as I described earlier in the newsletter.

If you would still like to fill out the survey but haven’t had the chance, it is an online survey that takes about 10 minutes to complete (just a few mouse clicks).  I would love to hear from you.  To fill out the survey, go to http://s-8kvq0-41855.sgizmo.com. We still have number of mugs, so you get a free mug just for taking the survey. The information is extremely valuable to us and it helps us determine how we’re doing and what improvements to put our money into.

BTW, I promised to have a drawing for 18 holes for 4 golfers for four people from among the survey participants.  I have a random number generator in Excel that picks a winner from all the people that completed a survey.  Here we go ... And the winner is …

Peter Chase

Congratulations Peter!  I’ll email you very soon with the winning information.
 

Tournament Update

Within the past few months, we have hosted several tournaments, including the Little Rock High School Tournament, held Sunday, May 4th. This was a smaller tournament with 17 golfers, but they had a great time. Thank you to all of you that participated in the event.

Tournaments are great ways to publicize your business or organization, or just to have fun.  They don’t have to be large, complicated or expensive, and they can be any day of the week. We have three levels of tournament packages, or you can customize your own. Best of all, we help you do everything. If you’re interested in learning more, call Shirley at the golf course - (661) 946-1080 or send email to me taiken@ranchosierragolf.com or Shirley,shirley@ranchosierragolf.com.

Superintendents Corner

Hi everyone. Steve Whitson here again. Good News!  The greens aeration is complete.  It took a little longer than we would have liked, but we did a very thorough, careful job and it was a successful operation. We have already started mowing some of the greens and they are doing great.  There is still some sand to deal with on your putts but in a week or so our greens will be "The best in town."  Thank you for your patience during the aeration.

 

Tips from the Pro    

Here is a tip that will help all you slicers out there.  The main cause of a slice is an open club face at impact (open in relation to target line).

The club contacts the ball at an angle imparting side spin and the spin causes the ball to turn in flight.

Here is a good tip..."thumbs up"  As you swing the club up to the top of the back swing have your thumb on your left hand (right hand for lefties) pointing up as the hand passes the waistline.  Then as you swing down and through to the target, the same thumb point up again as it passes the waist on the target side.  Thumb up to thumb up.  This causes the club face to close as it passes through the ball and "presto" NO SLICE!

Play well.                                                       -Steve

Rules Corner: The “wiff”   

A wiff occurs when you miss the ball completely as you swing. The question is: Does it count as a stroke on the score card?

YES it does.  If your intent was to hit the ball, and you know it was, the wiff counts as one stroke. 

Have fun and remember, if you are not playing by the rules, it is not golf.

Steve - United States Golf Teachers Federation #4596

 

Father’s Day and Graduation Coming

June is the month of Father’s Day and Graduation ceremonies.  What better gift to give than golf at Rancho Sierra.  Give a Rancho Sierra Gift Card of any amount.  It is good for golf, merchandise, and food.  Money on the card never expires, and if the card is lost or stolen, we’ll replace it with a new one (you need to register it at the golf course, so we know which card you have).

You can buy Gift Cards online at www.ranchosierragolf.com or come to the golf course. While you’re there, check out everything else we have on sale for Father’s Day.
 

Online Features  

Since all of you have registered on the Rancho Sierra web site, you can all take advantage of booking your tee times online.  We'll email you back confirmation. Of course, you can also book tee times the old fashioned way – by telephone.  It’s really what's most convenient for you.

Thanks for Reading    

Well, there was a lot to talk about this month.  Sorry about the length of the newsletter. I hope you enjoyed reading about the things going on at the Rancho Sierra. Actually I could have added in a lot more, but I'll save other topics for next month.

In closing, I will mention that the Men’s Club Classic is this Sunday, so if you are a member of the Men’s Club, it should be a lot of fun. If you’re not, these guys play golf every Sunday morning, but four times a year they play a Men’s Club Classic where the side games are much more “interesting.” Contact the golf course if you would like to learn more.

I hope to see you out at the course soon. Thanks for reading, and have fun golfing!