March 2010

VOL XIII No. 9

AND THE WINNERS WERE
BUENAVENTURA G.C.-02/0/10: Six groups sallied forth to open the 2nd stanza of "Twenty-Ten"

Mr. Tamburro

on a surprisingly pleasant early February day. While wintering in So.Calif. with a slew of aerial filming assignments booked, Chuck Tamburro is exhibiting some mighty fine golf and none better than on this day when he fired a sensational 72 Gross score that dramatically captured FIRSTS in every wager category including the designated birdie on that over-the-pond Hole#5. All of which tallied a hefty $94 in awards! A blind-drawn bird on the lengthy Par 3, Hole#7 boosted Bruce Simon's earnings to the runner up spot at $53 after he had tacked on 2nds in both Porter Gross & Partners. Bob Stone claimed the Porter Gross title and placed in Net & Partners, but without a birdie on his card Stoney settled for $39 take-home. That irascible rascal Dick Raguse (host of those annual "super" Super Bowl parties) snared the final designated tweeter on that dastardly Par 3, Hole #17 worth some 38 bucks. The gang also extended kudos and welcome hugs to former member Bill Hargrave, visiting from his new Prescott, Arizona digs, for showing off his undiminished golfing skills with a solid 75 gross score. ELKINS RANCH G.C.-02/11/10: Total dominance--that's Chuck Tamburro's record this year with 3 wins in 3 starts after posting another terrific 72 Gross score amid the abundant orange groves of Elkins Ranch. That effort gave Chuck $53 in award monies as once again he nabbed FIRSTS in Super Gross, Low Net, & Partners, the runner up spot in Low Putts to Gordon Crook's remarkable 26 pops, and a blind-drawn birdie on Hole#13 as shared with Jim Dodds. Next in line was Rich Marzella whose chip-in designated deuce on Hole#4 along with a Partners 2nd gave him $44. Rich was followed by Teddy Winship with a $42 take for the remaining designated on Hole#16 and some other stuff. Soaring scores sent statistics skyrocketing this day as 9 of the 21- player field posted 90+ totals and another 8 exceeded the century mark making Mr. Tamburro's round even more commendable. CAMARILLO SPRINGS G.C.-02/18/10: Make it FOUR in a row for Chuck Tamburro who continues to tear up our tour! This day firing a fine 77 Gross score that earned him the Super Gross title along with a designated deuce on the over-the-big-pond Hole#12 and 44 bucks in payouts. But that wasn't good enough to claim the money title, in fact it only placed Chopper Chuck third on the list. Numero Uno this day was Dick Harwood's $81, matching dollar for dollar his 81 gross score. Sporting a laser-sighting side-saddle putting stroke Mr. Harwood accounted for a mere 28 putts and across-the-board wins in Porter Gross, Low Net, Partners & Putts and a piece of the designated birdie on Hole#8 as shared with an ecstatic Mike Belson and our permanent-plucker, Ted Winship, whose deft duties were then ably assumed by Marilou Miller. Tied with Mr. Harwood entering the 18th Hole was his foursome partner, Jim Jacobs, who proceeded to fashion an inept bogie that relegated him to 2nd Gross. However JJ still collected a healthy 64 clams, bolstered by the good fortune of a blind-drawn birdie from among the 7 numbers in the hat for his quattro on the Par 5, Hole#10. SIMI HILLS G.C.-02/25/10: This headline should read "Chuck Tamburro Wins Fifth In A Row", which he did, but the big bold banner this week touts Bob Stone whose premiere performance produced a humongous $105 in award monies for FIRST PLACES all across the board and punctuated with 1 + 1/2 birdie monies. In a distant 2nd spot came Val Mayer whose solo birdie on the very first hole provided a $36 award. Then came the aforementioned Mr. Tamburro at a paltry $26 for his Super Low Gross win and a share of Mr. Stone's birdie on Hole#15, that over-the-huge-pond Par 3 so legendary in Thursday Group lore as the site of Jim Jacobs' consecutive Holes-In-One back in '07 & '08. The remainder of the diluted wager pots was dribbled out to a passel of nine other players that would take too much ink to name.

Continue

GIGS 'N STUFF
GOOD GUY OF THE YEAR AWARD… Surprise, it’s Dick Raguse.

Mr. Raguse

On the way to Elkins Ranch, Ted Winship’s old gray workhorse Cadillac that had ferried he, John Moskoff & Mike Belson to Thursday competitions for years gave up the ghost, right in the middle of Valencia. After frantic calls to AAA, and several member’s cell phones to warn of their travails, Raguse volunteered to drive back and bring them to the golf course, arriving just in time to be in the last group. What a guy. We now believe just about anything he says. Almost anything. Jim Dodds brought the boys back to the valley. Now for the rest of the story. George Spicer having just treated himself to a new car, had a honey of a low mileage Avalon for sale. Ted snapped it up in time for the next Thursday. -- Ted White made his long awaited return to the tour at Simi Hills to close out February, and Richard Neilson is braving the bitter California winter to join us at Encino on the 4th, which happens to be Belson’s birthday. Cruises in the month include the Belson’s to Mexico and the Ted W's will do 31 days around South America. Bill Lewis is at home recovering from surgery and will be back ASAP. -- Strangis & Ballou are still looking for the lead in their new TV series. Several members of the group have active SAG cards but are not yet being considered. Better hurry before they are snatched up, pilot season is getting short.

RULES GUY
And so we set sail into Rule 26. Water Hazards (Including Lateral Water Hazards) (honestly, that's how the Rule is titled, as if we expected a completely different rule for lateral water hazards, now really). We all know that if we find our ball in a water hazard we can play it, or under penalty of one stroke, hit from a spot as near as possible to where the shot originated or as far back from the spot where the ball crossed the water hazard, keeping that spot directly between where we drop and the hole. Of course, most hazards we encounter are lateral hazards, which offer the additional remedy of dropping within two club lengths of the same spot that the ball crossed the margin of the water hazard. The second part of the rule deals with when we choose to play a ball out of a hazard, and all the things that can, and probably will, go wrong. But seeing as we are all dapper gents and ladies who wouldn't think of soiling our bloomer to save a stroke, I needn't go into that here. The Decisions provide 6 different illustrations of water hazard situations, which can be found at http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Decision-26/#26-1/15, just in case you need to understand the ramifications of a ball landing in a river out of bounds, that is subsequently swept back inbounds by the current (Decision 26-1/8) or, what is often referred to as THE most pressing question presented in the whole of golf, the "Meaning of 'behind' in Rule 26" (Decision 26-1/1.5). Bon voyage.