OVGA Amateur Golf Tour

Nicklaus Flight

Mark Borngrebe returned to the top of the leaderboard for the first time since August 26, 2006 with a 2 shot victory with a 2-under 69 (net).  Borngrebe also had the low gross of the day with a 75.

Palmer Flight

Michael Frank and Dan Furlong ended the day at -7, 64 (net), but it was Frank prevailing in a scorecard playoff to capture his first career OVGA victory.

Hogan Flight

Bill Gabriel won his second career OVGA tournament with a -5, 66 (net) to finish three shots ahead of Bob Stewart and Eli Rendon.  Gabriel’s other win came on July 28, 2007 at Sugar Ridge in the Miller Lite Championship.

Lopez Flight

Phyllis Bare (74) managed to hold off Heather Bronner by a shot to claim her first Lopez Flight victory.  Bare also carded the low gross in the Lopez Flight with a 99.

Trevino Flight

Dan Furlong captured his 2nd Trevino Flight win of the year.  His 64 (-7) was good enough to finish 5 shots in front of Mark Borngrebe, Jim Cachat, Bob Stewart and Eli Rendon.

CTP Winners - $90

Ron Spencer on #7

Paul Kern on #13

Skins Winners - $50

Michael Frank on #5

Joe Vlachos on #6

Curt Wuellner on #12

Tom Camacho on #14

From GCGA.org: “The GCGA is going to conduct member appreciation days. These appreciation days will only be held for GCGA members (golfers with active GHIN handicaps at GCGA member courses). Registration will be done online on a first come first serve basis. You may only register yourself but you may call or email to request a certain tee time or pairing group.

This is an opportunity for members of the GCGA to play a private country club without being accompanied by a member of that club. Since this is a new program there are a limited number of spots (84) you must be at least 18 years of age to participate. This event is open to men, women, and seniors and you may play any set of tees you like. If you have any questions please contact Todd Johnson at (513) 522-4444 or tjohnson@gcga.org.”

Dues paying members of the OVGA are elligble for these events as we are a GCGA Club Without Real Estate. The field is already set for Monday, May 12th at Clovernook Country Club. OVGA members participating in this event include Phyllis Bare, Michael Gaines, Bryson Mullins, and Criss Titschinger.

The next open day is schedule for Monday, June 30th at Western Hills Country Club. Phyllis Bare and Criss Titschinger will also participate in this event, but there appear to be plenty of spots open.

If these events are successful, there will likely be two more events this year. The cost for each event is $50 and includes green fees and cart. Players must be over 18 on the date of the event and be an Amateur. There is no handicap limit.

As stated above, you can register online at GCGA.org for the events. You can also contact Todd at GCGA with any questions. I hope more can join at Western Hills and represent the OVGA proudly!

As I’m sure you’ve seen, the Vineyard only allotted us 88 spots after telling me I had until 12:00 on Tuesday to get final numbers to them.  I don’t think they anticipated 104 would be turning out.  So as a result we had to rework things to get down to 88 players.  For those of you who were left out of the event, I apologize and it was not my intention in any way to leave any golfers out.  This is what happens on occasion and those of you who paid and were left out will have rollovers to another event on the schedule.

Also, the tee times are moving up.  Instead of 11:45, the first groups will go at 11:20 and every group after will follow in 10 minute intervals.  We are still running in a wave start (off #1 and #10) so our final group will go at 1:00 instead of 1:05.  I will send out the start times and pairings again via email tomorrow along with the Event preview.  If anyone has questions please feel free to fire away.

I also wanted to remind everyone that the deadline for Beckett Ridge (May 10) and Yankee Trace (May 11) is Tuesday, May 6 at 12:00.  Please have your tee times selected and your payments in by this date.  Any matches postponed from Vineyard will be made up on these dates so please get back to me if you haven’t done so already and let me know which date your match will take place.

Lastly, we will soon have trophies to go with the gift certificates for the every event’s flight winners.  These will be retroactive to Opening Day and we should have them hopefully by Beckett Ridge.

Again, thank you for everyone’s understanding concerning Vineyard!

Chad

The first four events of the year are in the books and it’s time to take a look back at a few issues that have arisen.

PACE OF PLAY

While relatively good for the first few events, it’s always good to cover a few simple things that we’ve seen. 

#1 - Always play ready golf.  There is no “honor system” in the OVGA when it comes to hitting your shot.  The old tour saying is, he who’s ready first, hits first. 

#2 - Play your shot before helping someone else look for their ball.  If you delay hitting your shot to help someone look for their lost ball it holds up play.  Go ahead and hit your shot and then go help.  

#3 - Once you leave the tee box or position of your last shot to advance there is no going back should your ball be lost or OB.  This holds up pace of play.  If you think there is a chance that your ball is lost or OB please hit a provisional.  If you leave the tee box and find your ball is lost, you may drop where the group feels the ball is lost and play your shot from there.  But you incur the regular stroke and distance penalty + another stroke.  In other words, your dropped ball would constitute the landing spot of your provisional ball (3rd shot) so you would be hitting 4 from there.

CHEATING - RULES 

Cheating will not be tolerated.  It’s your responsibility to know the rules and to count your strokes correctly.  We’ve already had an instance of incorrect scoring be reported to the scoring table following a round.  There is no reason to cheat or not know the rules concerning balls OB.  If we find that people are cheating to earn skins or CTP we’ll remove both side games thus eliminating the need to fudge scores.  Lord knows we aren’t playing for large checks at the end of the tournament and most of us are out here for the enjoyment of the game…be honest.

ARRIVING AT THE COURSE 

Please try to be at the course 30 minutes before your tee time.  There may be cases were the course lets us out early so be prepared to go within that 30 minute window around your tee time.

A lot of what you see here is preemptive on our part.  I’ve been very impressed with everything to this point.  We’re constantly striving for perfection with our tournaments.  So please help us by doing your part when you can and by passing along any info that could help us do so.