The annual Milan Murry Ham Hunt, 4-Man, 2-Best-Ball (one gross score and one net score) shamble format tournament, hosted by the El Rancho Chico Golf Club, was recently held at the Bidwell Park Golf Course. For those of you who may not remember, Milan was a long time sports editor of the Chico Enterprise Record, and later, after his retirement, he wrote the local golf column for many years. Milan’s column was entitled, “Chips-N-Putts”, which he inherited from his predecessor, Ted Blofsky. Blofsky wrote the golf column for many years under the same title, before moving on to bigger and better things with the Northern California Golf Association. Milan was a staunch supporter of the Bidwell Park Golf Course, and, I might add, a wonderful friend to many, including to me.
The field was one of the largest for an El Rancho Chico Golf Club tournament in a long time, with 76 players participating, enabling the club to increase the number of payouts. The highlight of the tournament was a hole-in-one by Roy Peters on No. 4. Peters’ ace entitled all of the team members to post a one on their scorecard. Peters was also able to put some cash in his pocket for his feat, thanks to the generosity of the ERCGC board of directors. Not sure if he spread the stipend around among his teammates. The shamble format meant that low gross was a 1 and low net was also a 1, for a total of 2 on the scorecard. However, if one of the team members got a stroke on the hole, that person would have taken a net zero. Fortunately for the winning team in the yellow flight, that wasn’t the case.
Yellow tee flight: 1, Art Gausemel, Pat Goodwin, Rich Lash and Phil Jones, 125 via a card-off; 2, Bill Allen, A J Haggard, Jim Marler and “Ace” Peters, 125; 3, Ed Anderson, Craig Fellner, Craig Herman and Eric Sargent, 126; 4, Jeff Hemmingsen, Mike Higgenson, Dennis Lundy and Tim Markey, 128.
White tee flight: 1, Tony Allspaugh, Cecil Braswell, Ben Heerema and Jeff Nedved, 122: 2, Brian Bowen, Chas Gower, Tyler Newton and Ron Serna, 123; 3, Ryan Chandler, Robert Dunlap, Orval Hughes and Jon Stratts, 129; 4, Rio Gates, Jon Rettig, Travis Shute and Jeff Watts, 130; 5, card-off, Dan Davis, Tom O’Donoghue, Jen O’Donoghue and Jake Smith, along with the team of Shawn Anderson, Drew Costa, Matt Odman and Jason Roberts,131.
Closest to the pin winners: Hole No. 2: Dunlap; No. 4, Peters (no kidding); No. 12, Lundy; No. 16, Fellner.
While we’re on the subject of the El Rancho Chico Golf Club, its Player-of-the-Year finale is coming up soon. The top of the leader board is fairly close with Rio Gates on top with 3,225 points, followed by Josh Woolf with 3,075 points. Others still in the hunt are Barry Woolf (runner up last year), 2,925 points; Travis Shute, 2,875 points; Ben Heerema at 2,800 points and Craig Fellner with 2,700 points. The top 20 point leaders are eligible for the final tournament to determine the player of the year. Last year’s POY, Rich Lash, is sitting back in 7th place with 2,650 points, but, “It ain’t over, till it’s over.”
The Bidwell Park Women’s Golf Club held its annual Turkey Tournament last week. The members brought food to donate to the Chico State Hungry Wildcat Food Pantry. As usual, the generosity of the members was nothing short of fantastic, collecting literally a truck load of food.
The tournament format was a two-player, alternate shot. Kelly MacKinnon and Karla Dreiss took overall low gross with a score of 86. First flight net: 1, Debi McDermont and Susan Pease, 72; 2, tie, Sandy Sample and Cindy Bell, along with the team of Betty Linzy and Sheila McMurphy, 74; 3, Molly Barnum and Jolene Nixon, 77. Second flight: 1, tie, Rachael Graham and Linda Mowell, along with the team of Donna Ensele and Sue Blizman, 75; 2, Eleanor Calvert and Barbara Lutz, 78.5; 3, Theresa Martinez and Flo Herrera, 85.
Table Mountain Golf Course
The Table Mountain Men’s Golf Club held a 2-Man, Combined Net Best-Ball Tournament last week, playing from the blue tees.
First flight: 1, Peter Davis and Josh Freitas; 2, Darrin Diver and Kevin Kelly. Second flight: 1, Dave Dashler and Bud Willett; 2, Erik Ricketts and Will Slavin. Third flight: 1, Rodney Amburn and Pete Cammesso; 2, Jeff House and Mike McLogan; Fourth flight: 1, Tony Baptista and Fred Abella; 2, Matthew Kopacz and Jason Newton.
Tournament chair, Peter Davis, also informed me that Tony Baptista recently won the 2023 Table Mountain Players Cup Tournament.
The Table Mountain Women’s Golf Club held an individual stroke play “Turkey Shoot” for its weekly tournament. Sally Stemen was low gross on the day with a score of 85. Deb Lerner was low net at 75.
First flight net: 1, Sherry Sue, 76; 2, Tracie Cvitkovich, 78; 3, Dana Blanton, 79, card-off; 4, Janett Ott, 79. Second flight: 1, Judy Rossi, 75, card-off; 2, Jody Thompson, 75; 3 Liz Coleman, 77; 4, Mary Haloski, 82. Closest to the pin on No. 3: Stemen.
Butte Creek Country Club
The Butte Creek Senior Men’s Golf Club held its annual Thanksgiving Goodie Tournament this past week. Those taking home a goodie, i.e. a pie, cake, or cookies, went a long way down the list. Jim Westcott was low net with a score of 72. Rob Sylvester took low gross with a score of 75.
Others taking home a “goodie” were: 2, Greg Martin, 73; 3, John Olsen, 74; 4, tie, Ed Anderson and Don Krysakowski, 75; 6, tie, Bruce Whitegiver and Mike Lim, 77; 8, tie, Jim Sands, Dave Smith and Mike Rutledge 85.
The Butte Creek Women’s Golf Club enjoyed a good turnout of its members for a Four Player, Two Net Best-Ball Shamble format tournament.
Taking first, and leaving a trail of dust behind them, with a score of 125 was the team of Karen Beckman, Sheri Kimmelshue, Kay Kurdziel and Suzy Mann. The team of Joan Bequette, Val Gregory, Pam Miller and Darlene Thomasson finished second at 130. Rounding out the payouts in third place was the team of Cilla Hauer, Joye Smith, Jeannie Stone and Carol Varley with a score of 134.
Canyon Oaks Country Club
The Canyon Oaks Senior Men’s Golf Club held its monthly “Senior Sweeps” last week. The format was a 4-Man, 2 Net Best-Ball Shamble, requiring each player to hit at least 2 drives, but played their own ball on the par 3 holes.
No. 1, Emmett Lazaro, Tim Lehor, Paul McIntosh and Greg Smith, 122; 2, Scott Borges, Bob Kromer, Tom Peppas and Steve Simpson, 125, card-off; 3, Mark Block, Bob Mabrey, Dennis McNamara and Dave Wood, 125. Closest to the pin winners: Hole No. 3, Lee Watrous; No. 6, Art Schreiber; No. 11, McNamara (a mere 3” from an ace); No. 14, McNamara (again, but not quite as close.)
The Canyon Oaks Women’s Golf Club played a game of “Middle 9” for its weekly tournament, counting holes 6 through 14. Robin Smith was low gross on the day with an 82. Joan Wagoner shot 3-under her handicap for a 69 and won low net.
Game: 1, Pat Radisich, 29; 2, Wagoner, 30.5; 3, Linda Alworth, 32; 4, tie, Evie Spring and Sue Osterholt, 33.5. Closest to pin on No. 11: 1, Spring; 2, Vickie Spelts; 3, Smith.
Junior golf
The U.S. Kids Sacramento Fall Tour was played at Ancil Hoffman GC in Sacramento the previous weekend. Livy Woodward and Alex Baca started the season off in fine fashion. Woodward won the girls’ 8-and-under division going away with a 3-under par score of 33, besting the second place finisher by 5 strokes. Baca, competing in the boys’ 9-year-old division, tied for second place with a score of 40. This past Sunday Woodward tied for first at Bartley Cavanaugh in the Tour Championship shooting an even par 36, and Baca finished third with a score of 43.
Spectacular shots
As noted above, Roy Peters caused his partners to jump for joy when he aced the 4th hole at Bidwell during the Milan Murry Ham Hunt tournament, albeit no one actually saw the ball disappear into the bottom of the cup from the tee because the pin was tucked at the back of the green behind the mound. Regardless, Peter’s playing partners, Bill Allen, A.J. Haggard and Jim Marler were delighted to each put a 1 on their scorecard, no kidding.
Mike Lopez recorded a hole-in-one on the No. 6 hole at Canyon Oaks last week. Lopez’s perfect 136 yard, pitching wedge tee shot found nothing but net as it disappeared into the cup on the fly. Paul McIntosh and Art Schreiber attested to Lopez’s amazing shot.
Gary Green made a hole-in-one last Sunday on the 12th hole at Butte Creek. Green hit a perfect 144-yard, 6 Hybrid tee shot into the cup, as witnessed by his playing companions Mike Fortino, Bill McGowan and Craig Warnick. Good time of the year to earn $500 credit at the golf shop.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Ed Anderson’s local golf column appears Tuesdays. He can be reached at edanderson1936@gmail.com.
