From our Club President
Erika Sheffield-Stull
President, Twin Lakes Board of Trustees
January has come and gone, and we’ve had a mixed bag of weather; rain, snow, and cold temps, but one thing has remained consistent – the golf course is in great shape. Make sure if you see the grounds crew out on the course to compliment them on their efforts. I’m personally looking forward to more daylight and some after-work golf!
The 2023 golf and social calendars are finalized and posted on the Twin Lakes website. Events are being posted in a different format – you’re now able to sign up for tournaments through the calendar link so please check that out when you can. The Super Bowl Scramble is back on February 12th and the Winter Two Person tournament will be March 4th. The end of February signals the start of the Twin Lakes Women’s Division season. Their kickoff dinner is February 28 with the season starting the following Tuesday, March 7th. Women of all golfing abilities are welcome to join- if interested, please call the Twin Lakes office to be put in touch with the Women’s Division leadership.
The Valentine’s Dinner event will happen February 14th, the menu looks fantastic and there are still a few spots left, so book a reservation soon. The upper lounge will remain open to families on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in February. Tuesday pizza night, Wednesday burger night and Thursday family dinners will continue throughout February. The House Committee has been working with John on a new wine menu, so look for that to come out near the end of the month.
I’d like to remind all members to pay their bills on time – they are due first of the month. If your account isn’t on credit card payments or automatic checking withdrawal, please consider setting that up to ensure the club’s financial health. Per our Policies, if an account goes 45 days past due, charging privileges will be suspended, and the account owner will be required to set up ACH or credit card payments to resume charging. Your attention to prompt payments are appreciated.
I’m feeling optimistic about 2023 at Twin Lakes! We are getting close to having information to share with the membership on our capital projects and there are many small improvements already in process or on deck. We don’t say it enough, but thanks to all the volunteers who are working hard to make Twin Lakes a great place, your efforts are so appreciated.
Warmest Regards,
Erika Sheffield-Stull
President
2023 Board Members
Erika Sheffield-Stull
President
Denise Harrell
Trustee
Issac Henry-Cano
Trustee
Bryce Landrud
Vice President
Dan Smith
Trustee
Tim Scheuffele
Trustee
Trace Harrell
Secretary
Rich Price
Trustee
Jeff Eberle
Trustee
Welcome New Members!
Individual Proprietary:
Lorna Pack
From our General Manager
DAVID HOBSON
General Manager
February is here and if you haven’t been out to play – I want to tell you the golf course is in awesome shape. Dave Milligan and his crew have done a great job in keeping the course in great shape during the winter. I am looking forward to the 2023 season and the vision of seeing this golf course in tremendous shape. Kathy Wake and her staff has put together and extensive list of golf club fitting days for 2023. These events allow you to get fitted, hit the newest clubs and gives you the ability to buy clubs with all the questions answered.
The social committee has scheduled a lot of great events this year. They look fun & exciting. Make sure to mark them in your calendar and come out and enjoy the fun, meet some new friends and catch up some old friends. This club has more energy in it when members come out and enjoy these great events.
I was reading an article the other day – The top ten reasons people join a country club:
- Regular Golfing – Open availability to play golf
- Historic Course
- Professional Staff
- Impeccable Maintenance
- Clubhouse Facilities
- Classy Environment
- Family Atmosphere
- Social Events
- New Friends
- Guest Opportunities
This Is a great article and keeping these main reason in our decision making will help the future of this club.
The website is getting an upgrade:
- Making the calendar of events (social & golf) easier to view
- Giving the opportunities to sign up for golf tournaments and events
- Giving us the ability to be more consistent in content sent out to our members.
It would really help management & our marketing team if our members would utilize the website more. The information is there and should be formatted for easy access.
Upcoming Events:
- Winter Tour #4 – Saturday February 4th
- Superbowl Scramble – Sunday February 12th
- Valentines Dinner – RSVP Required – Tuesday February 14th
- Winter Two Person – Saturday March 4th
MEMBERSHIP CONNECT
We want to celebrate you each month in the Sandblaster! Email your name and birth month, or your Anniversary month to Janel!
February Birthdays & Anniversaries
- Maribel Harrell
- Adam Zelt
- Rita Keough
- Marco Hernando
- Lukas Harrington
- Scott Dornan
- Carolyn Hartman
- Jane Hill
- Anniversary- Janet Bales & Tim Erickson
From our Head Golf Professional
KATHY WAKE
HEAD GOLF PROFESSIONAL
February looks to be starting out cold and rainy but my hope is that Punxsutawney Phil is wrong with his weather predictions going forward and Buckeye Chuck is the one to listen to.
We were able to complete our final Winter Tour Series event yesterday with 54 participants. The forecast at the beginning of the week was 30% chance of rain and the golf gods helped us out with only a sprinkle of raindrops throughout the morning. The format for this event was 1 Gross + 1 Net of the 4-some. Our Winter Series #4 winners were Randy Russell, Brandon McCann, Issac Henry-Cano, Kent Schwartzenberger with a Stableford score of 90. Our Canadian Skin winners were Tyler Pac, Matt Howland, Ilima Brainard, Tim Scheuffele, John Theofelis, Dan McNeil, Erika Sheffield, each receiving $20 per skin. Our KP on #3 winner was Issac Henry-Cano receiving $30 for his 8“ shot onto #3 green with the pin positioned front left. To view all the results, use GGID tlwinter223 on the Golf Genius app.
Our next event is this weekend on Sunday, Feb 12, our 2nd Annual Super Bowl Scramble. We still have room for sign ups and should be lots of fun prior to watching the Superbowl. Entry fee for this event is $50 which includes “Kick Off” breakfast, tournament competition, and “Nacho Bar” afterwards. Guests are invited to play for an additional $25 green fee. Carts are optional at $15 per rider.
We will be having our annual Pro Am Draw evening planned for late February/early March. We are waiting on our selections to come back from the PGA section office. Once we get our allocations, we will send out the notification so that you can plan your Pro Am. For those members new to this program, this Pro-Am allocation draw is an opportunity for our members to travel to local area golf clubs with one of your club professionals and compete against golfers from other clubs. Keep your eye open for an e-blast with the date and specifics concerning the Pro-am draw. The email blast will contain a link so that you can see the dates/times/courses.
Our 2023 calendar of events are geared towards a busy and fun season of golf at Twin Lakes Country Club. We are currently working with vendors to provide you with individual Fitting Experiences. This year on the range, we will be having Cobra, Mizuno, PXG, XXIO/Cleveland and TaylorMade. For those of you who want the latest and greatest, our inventory for the coming golf season will start arriving throughout the month of March and into April. If you are planning on attending the Seattle Golf Show in March, make sure to get a head start taking advantage of the hitting bays to try out the 2023 equipment line. Make sure that you take notes (or pictures) on the product that you are interested in purchasing. We can special order the product for you if it is not in the shop. Our hope is that you make your golf shop your first stop when looking for golf equipment. We will have demos in the shop as well. Try before you buy is always what you want to do.
Cobra Fitting Experience is scheduled for Friday, Feb 17 on the Driving Range 12-4pm. Click Here to let Kathy know that you are interested in an appointment and what equipment that you would like to try (i.e. irons, driver, fairway woods, hybrids).
Every year with the buzz of new equipment, comes the golfing fever. So, when you have a moment, let us look at your equipment to see if you need new grips and/or let us check to make sure that you have the proper grip size on your clubs. This goes for your putter as well. For those members with Scotty Cameron Putters, we have a couple of replacement grips that just arrived. Need to replace the spikes on your shoes? Bring them in as well. If you need a new pair of golf shoes, we have a 25% shoe sale going on with PUMA that you can check out. Looking for an MGI electric push cart? We have a few coming in along with new apparel from Under Armour, Adidas, and Cutter & Buck.
We are also starting to put together our spring lesson schedule. Many have come into the golf shop asking about our lesson services. Steve and Kathy’s 45-minute rate for golf lessons is $75. We are here to help you with your putting, short game, as well as your driver, fairway woods, and hybrids. Have a question or clarification with something you read or watched on the television? Come on in and ask away…. We want to help you understand your swing better.
For the ladies, Kathy is working on “Swing into Summer” 4–5-person group lessons. Click Here to let Kathy know that you are interested in more information regarding these clinics. For the juniors, we are in the process of finalizing the PGA Jr. League (13yrs & under) information for sign-ups. Click Here to let Kathy know that your junior is planning to participate this year and we will get more information to you regarding dates and registration fee. Shortly, we will have information sent out regarding our junior program “Kick Off” and camp dates for 2023.
A friendly reminder for those that still have credit book money to spend – the credit book money expires on March 31st. We don’t want you to lose out on the opportunity to get it spent so if you need help spending your credit book money and possibly something special ordered, please stop by and have a conversation with us.
Lastly, reminding everyone once again that during the cold mornings to call the golf shop to make sure that the course, driving range, putting/chipping area are open for use. We still have an opportunity of frost delays during this month. Upon checking into the golf shop prior to starting off, the team will keep you informed of the course conditions and any/all cart restrictions as well as if it is a #1 or #10 tee start.
Stay safe and warm – See you around the club!
Kathy, Steve, Derek, Gabriel, Miles, Kaleb, Mike, Joe
Greens Committee
It has been a busy couple of months for the Green Committee. The subcommittee developing the plan for removal of the poplar trees between hole #6 and hole #7 has concluded with a solid interim plan. The subcommittee determined an interim plan was necessary prior to removal of all of the poplar trees. This plan will add new directional evergreen trees near the tee on hole #6 and near the tee on hole #7. The directional trees will prevent the intentional use of the adjacent fairways. The plan also includes removal of the three poplar trees closest to hole #6 green. Once these trees are removed a new evergreen tree will be planted in this location to prevent a clear shot to the #6 green from the #7 fairway when the remaining poplar trees are removed. Of course, stump grinding and cleanup is included. In the future, a final plan will be developed for removal of all poplar trees in this area. The final plan will account for the trees added by the interim plan and design of the new irrigation system. The interim plan has been submitted to the Board of Trustees for approval and go ahead. I would like to thank Eric Marshall for chairing this subcommittee which was supported by Paul Richter, Taylor Ruecking, Marv Osterhout, and myself.
The Green Committee has also approved a project to add a gravel path in place of the dirt path in front of hole #10 white tee box. This project has also been submitted the Board of Trustees for final approval and go ahead.
There are several projects currently planned where work will start soon. These projects are:
- Hole #11 – The back right green side bunker being reworked into a grass bunker
- Hole #12 – The forward (yellow) tee box will be lengthened front to back
- Hole #16 – The right green side bunker will be reworked into a grass bunker
As always, a big thank you to Dave Milligan and his team. They are doing a great job maintaining the course. Playability of the course through these winter months has been fantastic. Personally, I have found the greens to be great and have found far less mushy spots around the course. Really, the course is in great condition.
In closing, please utilize the sand bottles and fill your divots and please remember to fix your ball marks on the green. Additionally, it is important to follow the cart path rules. Considerable damage can be done by driving on the course impacting maintenance hours and tasks. This is your course, and these are very easy things to do that really help with maintenance of the course. Enjoy yourselves and here’s to keeping the scores low.
Tom Brainard
Green Committee Chair
Women’s Division
It’s finally February, and the 2023 golfing season will begin on February 28th with a Kick-Off dinner. Dinner will start at 5:00, and appetizers at 5:15 followed by dinner. The 1st day of the competition is Tuesday, March 7th. If you are thinking about joining either the 18 or 9 Hole Ladies Divisions, now is the best time. The Kick-Off dinner is always a fun event!
Ladies - Captain's Corner
It’s February and Kick Off is right around the corner! We are excited to get the 2023 golf season started! Kick Off is open to all women golfers so if you are not a Women’s Division member yet, please do think about coming to Kick Off and checking us out! Kick Off is February 28 at 5:00 in the Ballroom. If you are interested in joining, please contact me by email at sherrybutz@q.com or Suzy Eberle at suzyb@icloud.com to sign up!
Kick Off Dinner Menu
- Build Your Own Buffet
- Pork Chop
- Chicken Marsala
- Chicken Cordon Bleu
- Spinach Salad
- Caesar Salad
- Scalloped Potatoes
- Rolls
- Chocolate Mouse with Raspberries
$40.00 per person – alcohol not included
RSVP to sherrybutz@q.com
18 Hole Ladies Captain Sherry Butz
Sherry started golfing about 50 years ago at Grays Harbor C.C. Sherry started golfing in order to spend more time with her husband who was an avid golfer. Sherry has had two hole-in-ones at Twin Lakes. One on #3 and one on #16. Best thing about golf….The friendships you make!!
18 Hole Ladies Assistant Captain Jennifer Dzubay.
Jennifer played Soft Ball for many years, then in 2016 she took up golf because Soft Ball was becoming too strenuous. Jennifer started golf at High Cedars G.C., and Spanaway G.C. Jennifer is still waiting to make a Hole-In-One but has come very close several times. The best thing about golf….Handicap level because it is high enough to make a difference in competitions and low enough that people want you on their teams.
SOCIAL COMMITTEE
We are working on defrosting our activities for the year, so check out the list below of everything we have cooking for the year to come. If you have any feedback on events, please feel free to reach out to a member of the social club so we can make sure we are serving the club effectively.
If you would like to volunteer for the social club committee, please reach out to Christina Witmer. We are always looking for a fresh set of hands to help us have successful events.
Committees
House Committee
Meeting: Second Thursday - 5:30pm
- Terri LaRock-Stewart (Chair)
- Jill McBroom
- Sue Stevens
- Beccy Scheuffele
- Coralee Owsley
- Kim Crahan
- Lori DeVore
- Ann Marie Uhlman
- Issac Cano (Board Liaison)
- David Hobson (Staff)
Golf Committee
Meeting: When Needed
- Frankie Stephens (Chair)
- Sherry Butz (Women’s Division Captain)
- Jeff Eberle (Men’s and Senior’s Golf)
- Diane Meyers (Jr. Golf)
- Ilima Brainard (Women’s Nine Hole Golf)
- Ramon Dzubay (Couple’s Golf)
- Rich Price (Men’s Handicap)
- Erika Sheffield-Stull (Women’s Handicap)
- Rich Price (Board Liaison)
- Kathy Wake (Staff)
Finance Committee
Meeting: Third Wednesday - 5:30pm
- Randy Russell (Chair)
- Tim Scheuffele
- Erika Sheffield-Stull
- Paul Richter
- Robert Simmons
- Christina Witmer
- Dan Smith (Board Liaison)
- David Hobson (Staff)
Long Range Committee
Meeting: Every Other Month
- Paul Ishii (Chair)
- Tom Brainard
- Suzy Eberle
- Robert Simmons
- Clint Smith
- Terri LaRock-Stewart
- Bryce Landrud (Board Liaison)
- David Hobson (Staff)
Membership/Marketing Committee
Meeting: Third Thursday
- Suzy Eberle (Chair)
- Trace Harrell
- Dave Cox
- Sherry Butz
- Brandon McCann
- Stephanie Papke
- Andrew Johnson
- Denise Harrell (Board Liaison)
- Janel Metcalf (Staff)
- David Hobson (Staff)
Social Committee
Meeting: Wednesday - 6:00 pm
- Christina Witmer (Chair)
- Sara Cook
- Jennifer Tarica
- Karey Wolber
- Suzy Eberle
- Alyssa Johnson
- Nora Dornan
- Michelle McCann
- Mary Malhoit
- Krisie Santacruz
- Tim Scheuffele (Board Liaison)
- David Hobson (Staff)
Greens Committee
Meeting: First Tuesday—5:30 pm
- Tom Brainard (Chair)
- Tyler Pac
- Bryce Landrud
- Marv Osterhout
- Eric Marshall
- Taylor Ruecking
- Paul Richter
- Jeff Eberle (Board Liaison)
- Dave Milligan (Staff)
- Kathy Wake (Staff)
Pool Committee
Meeting: Wednesday - 6:00 pm
- Michael Gintz (Chair)
- Andrew Johnson
- Trace Harrell (Board Liaison)
- David Hobson (Staff)
Twin Lakes Vision Statement
To help promote the game of golf by offering a challenging and beautiful course and other complementary facilities that are affordable, inclusive, and inviting. Provide a thriving comprehensive recreational and social venue offering its members, guests, and community partners exceptional experiences to play, relax and socialize in a tranquil and peaceful environment.