Rick Lantgen
Happy New Year and happy golfing at SunBird! Our course is in good condition and we have plans to turn our attention to crisping up the fairways, bunkers and greens this year. We have accomplished $25,000 worth of major projects including the stone facings on the bridges and the extended tee boxes on 8, 14 and 16. This year funds from our major tournaments will be held over to 2016 so we can attend to small items around the course.
The CRAB Tournament, led by Wes Akerman, Kenly Matheson, Canadians; Jack Cooper, Americans; Norm Ott, Bill Johnson, Roadrunners; and John Kane and Dean Huyghebaert, Bandits; raised $5,188 for a 2016 project. Best of all, players got to mix it up with other golf groups.
The SunBird Open raised an amazing $8,802 for special projects. Thanks go to organizers Connie Dreyer, Jim Dolwick, Gary Metzger, George Richardson, Jack Cooper, Eileen Strohman and all the volunteers and sponsors for another very successful tournament.
Annuals, punch cards and three month passes (flex pass) offer golfers very good savings and are on sale now in the Pro Shop. Punch cards no longer have an expiration date so feel free to use them into the next year. Flex passes can be applied to any consecutive three month period and prices are pro-rated to reflect seasonal rates. A December to February pass costs less than a January to March pass.
Your best value is our nine hole walking fee of $10 for tee times starting after the shotguns, around 3:00 p.m.
The Lady Niners have added a new dimension to our course for those wishing to play a shorter game. They have worked with AWGA to develop a sanctioned course (yellow tees) on our front nine, turning Hole No. 7 into a Par 3 and moving many tees forward. So now, on Tuesday mornings, half the Lady Niners play a nine hole round on the front and the other half play a nine hole round on the back starting at 8:30 a.m.
Thank you to over 50 volunteers who look after the course at the end of each day. They fill divots, repair ball marks, rake fairways and make our course shine. You can help by filling your divot and a couple of others too. If you are able to take sand from the clubhouse barrels we won’t have to refill the tee box containers as often.
Operations for the 2014 year are on budget with a total income of $752,500 and total spending of $732,500 for a positive variance of $20,000.