Happy October Everyone!

As you read this sandblaster article, we will be finishing up our fall aerification.  It was a different program than in the past few years.  Thank you all for your patience with having the golf course closed Sunday late afternoon into all day Monday. The greens, tees, and approaches should heal up nicely with the weather pattern that we had during this process. On behalf of the golf operations, I would like to thank all of you in advance for continuing to fix your ball marks and replace your divots in the fairways and rough areas.  I understand that many of you don’t believe that you make a pitch mark on the greens, but if you walk across one, please take the time to help fix it.  Also, we have plenty of sand bottles for everyone to use as they play the course.  If you take some turf while making your shot, please replace it and use the sand bottles.  If you come across a divot not replaced, if you could please help put it back for the healing process.  This preventive maintenance that we ask you to do regularly will help John and his crew to keep their hard work intact.

Speaking of hard work on the golf course, Kevin Isherwood and his Monday maintenance volunteers have done a tremendous job these past few months with the areas that our maintenance crew couldn’t get to. Please take the time to notice the tunnel entrances on both sides as the ivy is cut back and looks very inviting to go in and out of. The time and enthusiasm that these volunteers warrant many thank you’s from us all. Of the many crew members: Scott Kawahara, Allan Smith, Paul Ishii, Bob Middleton, Doug Skinner, Red Elder, Sara Isherwood, and Kevin, thank you for all your hard work. You are all recognized as this month’s “Sandie Award” nominees.

Also, we have a couple of more thank you’s to hand out: Jerry Burbank for his continued service to the maintaining the boxes that we throw broken tees in as well as the hole signs throughout the course. To Bob Rawlings for his continued service to maintaining the woodwork throughout the clubhouse. To Murray Riggio for pruning back the black berry bushes on #3.  Finally, to Marv Osterhout for volunteering his spare hours painting the graffiti off the tunnel and the on-course bathrooms. 

Congratulations to our 2024 “Winward Cup” Champion – Ramon Dzubay. Our men’s league season long program recognized weekly winners along with major championship winners with participation points as well as points weighted on how the players finished. Last Sunday, we had our final event to crown this year’s champion. A “end of season” dinner followed play with Herb Winward, along with his two sons and son-in-law joining us. Men, mark your calendars for the start of 2025 season. We will kick off April 9th with our Master’s Par 3 Challenge.

Coming up this month, we start out with our Friday, Oct 11 “Glow Ball” tournament that will begin soon after the member drawing in the lounge at 6:30pm. That weekend is the Twin Lakes Amateur on Oct 12 & 13. Right after is our Twin Lakes Ryder Cup on Oct 19 & 20 with the matching up of drawn teams on Friday night prior. We end the month with the Women’s Division hosting their annual horse race on Saturday, Oct 26 at 2pm.

As we enter November, it is predicted that we will not have that many nice days left before the winter weather settles in on us, so make sure to make the most of the nice days we have left and head out to the club and squeeze in as many rounds as you can before the rains become the norm.

“Preferred Lies” aka Winter Rules now in effect.  We are returning to Winter Rules, or sometimes referred to as “Preferred Lies”.

A player may mark, lift, clean, and replace their ball within one club length of the original location, no closer to the hole in the closely mown areas and fringe. In the rough, a player may place the ball within 6 inches from the original location. This excludes all penalty areas and bunkers.  We will start top dressing approaches tomorrow and tees on Monday following up with solid tine aerating next Wednesday.

We will also begin our Winter Tour series in November. A reminder to those returning diehards and those new to the winter play – there is no commitment to play until the day of the event so do not be shy in signing up ahead of time.

For those new to the club, our Winter Tour events are extremely popular so please consider participating. They are unique in that we do not have any sign-up for the events. If you wake up and it is pouring down rain you just do not have to show, BUT if you wake up and it is a nice day, you can come to the club and enjoy breakfast and a round of golf with your friends.

These events are designed for our members to also bring out guests to enjoy the club. We have four events each winter. The dates for the 1st half of these winter events will be November 9th and December 14th. There will be individual and team competitions for each event. The team competitions will be different for each event. So, make sure to mark your calendar for these dates and line up your teams/guests in advance. Members pay $35 and the guests pay $60 which includes green fees, competition, and breakfast.

Mark your calendars that the handicap posting season will stop in early November. This is for those playing in the Pacific Northwest. If you play outside the area, for instance, in Arizona, Hawaii, California, you still must post your scores. Your 2025 USGA Handicap fees will be charged to your accounts mid-December. If you already have an established GHIN # and want to transfer it over to Twin Lakes, please contact the golf shop.

For those members staying in the area and still planning on playing and working on their swings this winter, there should still be a few good days of weather to get a quick lesson, tune up giving yourself some things to work on through the winter months. It is sometimes difficult to find enough time in between rain to get a round of golf in during the winter months but you can usually find an hour or so for some short game/driving range time to work on the new golf swing for next year. We are here to assist with any questions/tips to help you with your golf swing/game all year round.

A reminder with the Driving Range hours – we are still closing the range 1 hour prior to dusk so that we can get the balls picked up and ready for the next day. We ask that you call ahead as usual to make sure that the range will open before driving to the club, especially with any inclement weather in the forecast. We also want to thank all the range users for returning the unused golf balls and buckets after using the range. This procedure has helped us not lose as many balls daily.

Have you noticed fresh new faces in the golf operations? We have new additions to your golf operational staff, Brighton Brown, Logan Rutledge, and Miguel Chupa. All three join our team with enthusiasm and excitement in helping to make sure that each member is getting the most from their membership. If you haven’t them yet, please come into the golf shop and introduce yourself the next time you are around the club.

Lastly, I know it is early to be thinking this way, but if you are thinking about golf items for Christmas (yes, Christmas gifts) it is never too early to plan, especially if we need to order the item. The more time we have for ordering the better the chances it will be here for Christmas morning. Also, our “End of Year” Pro Shop party is scheduled for December 7th between the hours of 5:00-8:00. We will have the wheel of fortune in play again this year in addition to our appetizers and beverages. If you have credit book money to spend…… Do not forget as this money needs to be spent. The golf shop is stocked with a lot of choices this year with the merchandise selection and the vendors are in a good position to ship products. No Excuses this year on the ability to spend your winnings…

Enjoy what great weather we have left; stay safe and warm. We look forward to a great October and the activities that we have planned. Weather permitting.

See you around the club!

Kathy, Ben, and the Golf Operations Staff