The Maple Ridge Messenger 7-15-09
1/13/2010 9:58:45 AMTHE MAPLE RIDGE MESSENGER
The Official Newsletter of Maple Ridge Golf Club, Columbus, Ga.
JULY 15, 2009 EDITION
GOLF HEATS UP … Tom Kubik, General Manager
Along with the July temperatures, golf activities are heating up at Maple Ridge. The course is coming around from the recent aerification and is in great shape. Be sure to check your calendars for such events as the MGA Tourney, Junior Clinics and Junior Club Championship, Thursday Night Dogfights, and Friday Couples. In addition, the Club will be open for Member play on Tuesday, July 21 and it will also be a special $25 Guest Day. Bring a guest and hopefully he or she will become a Member.
August will feature more of the same with the Match Play Championship and the Chattahoochee Valley Amateur joining the rest of our popular event schedule.
Just an update on Director of Food and Beverage Shawn Robinson -- He is scheduled for his next Doctor’s visit this Friday and hopefully the corrective surgery can be scheduled at that time. Keep him in your thoughts and Prayers.
As always … please let us know your thoughts and ideas to make Your Club the Best it can be. Thank you so much for your continuing support!
TOURNAMENT GOLFER’S HEAVEN Mike Gill and Gene Matthews, PGA Club Pros
Great competition lies ahead for all serious golfers at Maple Ridge! First off, it’s MGA week, with our 9-hole event and prime rib dinner Thursday, July 16 and 18-hole net stroke play tournament Saturday morning. Recently joined men 21 and up: take advantage of your Men’s Golf Association membership! Get involved, meet some great guys -- enjoy the flighted, year-long events and monthly points race for the coveted Maple Ridge Cup!
Ladies, don’t miss “Rally For A Cure” next Monday, July 20. For just $20, enjoy a 9 a.m. shotgun with about 60 gals while raising money for the fight against cancer. Chef Dick Esterson has a refreshing lunch special: chicken salad plate with a bit of fruit, cold beverage and “Kool-Aid Pie”. Sounds cool to us!
We’ve moved the Junior Golf Association’s Club Championship to July 29-30. The original dates overlapped the Chattahoochee Valley Junior Championship we co-hosted with Green Island Country Club the past two days. Congratulations to Boys Age 14-17 “A” Division winner Robert Swift, whose 69-71—140 nipped our own Jimmy Beck by a stroke. Maple Ridge Members Cates Culpepper shot 152, Kevin Meadows 154 and Patrick Steed 183. In the Boys 14-17 “B” Division, Alex Ball took third place (179) and Carter Mauldin shot 213.
Alex Harrell won the Girls 14 & over division (153) with Lena Lemieux at 175. Boys 11 & over: Patrick Edwards (he’s Mick Longstreet’s grandson) won with a 97 and Dalton Frullaney (grandson of Walt Simmons) shot 126. Boys 12-13: Zach Shellnutt finished third (99) – a chip off his dad Tom Shelnutt. Nice going to all! Many played GICC for the first time.
Guys (and competitive ladies), don’t forget to enter the 2nd Annual Chattahoochee Valley Amateur, presented by Jay Buick-Pontiac-GMC and other sponsors to be named. It’ll be Saturday, August 15 at Maple Ridge and Sunday the 16th at Green Island Country Club. Cason Hammock defends his title and our expected field of 120 is already 25% full. Download and print out your entry form at http://www.golfmapleridge.com/, or pick up the green flyer delivered or mailed to two dozen public courses and private clubs within an hour of Columbus.
A SMORGASBORD OF ACTIVITIES! Rick Jacobson, Dir. of Sales & Marketing
So much to report! Where to begin? Ah, yes, let’s first welcome our newest members, Daren Moreno, a Houston native enrolled in the Army’s Captain Career Course at Ft. Benning; Henry Parker and his wife Chong Kim, owners of American Deli on Auburn Ave. in Columbus. All have jumped right into Maple Ridge golf and social life. It’s great to have you all with us!!
While we have no “Potential Member Day” scheduled for July, why not bring an interested guest next Tuesday the 21st? Forms will be distributed letting guests know that if more than one of them join by week’s end, all will get a group discount off their initiation fee, plus “gimme” incentives from our “Hit the Pin, Tap it In, Win-Win!” membership drive! Not to mention $75-125 credited to your account as the referring member – so why not invite a really good prospect (or two or three) on the 21st?
Exciting event here Saturday afternoon the 25th! The Odis Spencer Scholarship Celebrity Golf Tournament, held by the Spencer High School Athletic Appreciation Association, will feature a host of former professional athletes including NFL’ers Joe Cribbs, Ted Hendricks, Stanley Morgan, Phil Villapiano, Paul Warfield, Otis Sistrunk, Chris Doleman, Eddie Payton, Alphonso Carraker, Terrance Mathis, Gary Downs, Randy Fuller and Columbus’ D.J. Jones; NBA stars Truck Robinson, Otis Birdsong and Charlie Criss; PGA Masters pioneer Lee Elder; Olympic Gold Medalist Ralph Boston and more! Members are welcome to come by and chat or get autographs (for the kids, of course!) before the fundraising scramble starts at 1 p.m. Our MGA winning trio from July 16 plays with Cribbs.
We’re getting involved with “Teens on the Green”, a worldwide organization providing college scholarship opportunities and cultural-exchange experiences for dedicated student-golfers. Some of our Juniors will travel to Cherokee Run Golf Club in Conyers, GA on July 31. The kids will try to qualify for the December World Championship in Palm Beach, FL. TOG founder and longtime TV actor/producer Renny Roker plans another qualifier at Maple Ridge on October 20, as he seeks to establish a TOG “Future Academy” in Columbus. Our friend Pam Willis-Hovey (Unity with Pam) is helping us round up a traveling contingent, including two or three adult foursomes to play in an afternoon fundraising scramble. Members -- please let me know if you’d like to participate. The Club will pay half your $150 entry fee.
Hear, hear for the Maple Ridge Hackers senior softball team! We’ve caught fire and won five straight to finish the regular season at 10-8, with postseason tourney to begin July 20. You’ve read about us for two months. We’re Frank Anderson, Jerry Gaylor, Buck Geeslin, Steve Hodge, Rick Jacobson, Mark Levy, David Moss, James Myles, David Sharpe, Ronnie Spann, Larry Suits, Ed Sumbry, Alan Valentini and William Young. We range in age from 54 to nearly 80. Professions include retail store owner, realtor, auto sales, CPA, two military drivers, veterans affairs administrator, mailman, mechanical engineer, four retirees and a private golf club marketer! League president Bill Hand, Charlie Speakman and Tillman Miller are Maple Ridge members, though assigned to other teams before the season.
TIPS FROM THE PROS Jason Fober, Assistant Pro
One of the most important parts of the golf swing is balance. If you were to look up and down the driving range you would see all types of crazy swings. It seems that most people take balance for granted. Next time you are on the driving range make a swing, focusing on finishing with your belt buckle to the target, also make sure to hold your finish while the ball is in the air. If you will think about these two things it will improve your balance and ball striking. This tip was given to Jay Haas when he was 5 years old, and he said it has been the best tip he’s ever received.
LET’S TALK TURF! Doug Smith, Certified Golf Course Superintendent
Growing Grass… Lately you may have noticed the green speeds have been a bit slower than normal for this time of year. This is primarily due to our efforts to encourage the weak areas on our greens to “fill-in”. In order to accomplish this healing process we raised the height of cut as well as fertilized and watered aggressively resulting in longer bladed and lush turf. At this point it should be safe to begin grooming the turf again for speed and less for growth. Over the next few weeks we will begin lowering the height of cut, applying growth regulators and vertically mowing the greens on a regular basis through the beginning of September at which time Mother Nature will naturally begin to regulate turf growth.
In other “turf” news here are some additional project updates from around the course. Bunker renovations are underway at #17 green as is grading the left rough on #5 for additional sod and re-grassing “black” tees at #5 & #8, and #14 “gold” tee. Also mulching with wood chips along holes #1 & #3. And of course let’s not forget the on-going research efforts to repair the creek crossing at #9 green so we can continue to make Maple Ridge the best it can be!