OFF SEASON GAME IMPROVEMENT

 Snow covering the course doesn't mean you have to head south to work on improving your game. Here is the first of a series of videos meant to improve your game.

First up - PUTTING

2024 SEASON COMES TO A CLOSE

 ST JEAN TAKES 3RD RETIREES CHAMPIONSHIP

Perfect weather greeted the 50 Birchbank Retirees as they teed off in the season closing Club Championship and dinner.

Ray St. Jean made it a hat trick with his 3rd straight Retirees Club Championship winning the Overall Low Gross title while Wayne Shubert won his first Overall Low Net title.

RESULTS:

Overall Low Gross: Ray StJean (71)

Overall Low Net: Wayne Shubert (net 70) via tiebreak

'A' FLIGHT

1. Sandy Santori

2. Marlin Frederick

3. Rick Brown

'B' FLIGHT

1. Serge Pasquali

2. Brian Muskeyn

3. Stan Trozzo

C'' FLIGHT

1. Pat Zinio

2. Perry Hyson

3. John Newton

CLOSEST TO THE PIN

Don Szillagyi, Farrell Mclellan, Tom Stevens, Kevin Oliver

LONGEST PUTT

David Panton, Dave Muir

OVERALL CHAMPIONS

'A" FLIGHT WINNERS

"B" FLIGHT WINNERS

'C' FLIGHT WINNERS

2024 EVENT WINNERS

Each month the Retirees Club played 3 rounds that matched up with the professional majors, but without the big prize money. The winners did get to hold a  'big' trophy for a photo and have bragging rights for a year.

APRIL - RETIREES MASTERS MONTH

Green Jacket winner: Gary Schmitz shown donning the Green Jacket with last year's winner Marlin Frederick

MAY - RETIREES PGA MONTH

Bobblehead winner - Richard Dewdney

JUNE - RETIREES CANADIAN OPEN MONTH

Cdn Open winner - Al Pasin

JULY - RETIREES BRITISH OPEN MONTH

The Open winners - John Newton & Paul Troseth (tied)

AUGUST - RETIREES FED EX CUP MONTH

Fed Ex Winner - Wayne DeWitt

RETIREES CHAMPIONSHIP - SEPT 19 and more stuff

 2024 RETIREES CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP

Register now for our windup event to be held Sept 19 at 10AM.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE

Entry fee is $20.00 — includes dinner, individual prizes for Overall Low Gross, Overall Low Net, and 1st,2nd.3rd place in each flight, and individual prizes for KP & LP.

All players will be flighted by their course handicap and play in a group with players from the same flight. 

All players expected to abide by the Rules of Golf unless a Local Rule is in effect (ie. Local Root Rule) and all putts must be holed — there is no maximum number of strokes on any hole.

2023 Overall Winners: St.Jean and Holm

SEPTEMBER SPECIAL ROUNDS

Next up Sept 5 - Long Drive Day - let out the shaft and give 'er a rip to see how far you can hit it (in the fairway of course). FYI we have 30 players going to Christina Lake that day, so even I have a chance for LD.

Sept 12 - No Gimmes Day - count all your putts, don't take any gimmes in order to get ready for the Championship.

Sept 19 - CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP AND WINDUP 10AM SHOTGUN

Sept 26 - Last Retirees Day using the sign up sheet for tee times

SOME GUYS GOT THE MEMO

RAGING STORM AT THE DICE SCRAMBLE

 37 players braved the raging storm at this year’s Dice Scramble. Huge wind, large hail, lightning, and all manner of other dangers didn’t slow down this hardy group of golfers. OK, OK, I have no idea what the weather was doing today, but here in the Vancouver area it was quite decent.

Huge thanks to everyone who stepped up and helped John and Al with today’s event. 

Winning Team: Molloy, Regnier, Johnston, Muir

RESULTS

1ST - Phil Molloy, Howie Regnier, Scott Johnston, Dave Muir - 67 (tiebreaker)

2ND - Reg Cherenko, Wally Drezdoff, David Ross, Farrell McLellan - 67

3RD - Jim Park, Rollie Caron, Sergio Peloso, Dave Panton - 69

KP #2 - Team St Jean

KP #7 - Team Ross

KP # 14 - Team Trozzo

KP #17 - Team Gawryletz

LP #9 - Team Trosett

LP #18 - Team Wray

CHRISTINA LAKE DEADLINE

Just another reminder that the deadline to enter and pay the entry fee is Aug 28. Sign up online or on the paper copy on the bulletin board — pay via eTransfer or by cheque in the ProShop. I will email a list of entries to make sure I haven’t missed anyone. 

NEXT WEEK ‘COMBO MADNESS’ and HAWAIIAN SHIRT DAY

Everyone plays the combo tees next week, but you choose which ones — Red/White Combos OR White/Blue Combos. Check the scorecard to see which tees to use.

It is also the return of ‘Hawaiian Shirt Day’ so dig out that loud shirt that you bought at the airport when you vacationed in Hawaii so many years ago. Never been there? Wear the loudest shirt you own or maybe that John Daly golf outfit you foolishly once bought. Grass skirts optional.

DEWITT SCORCHES BIRCHBANK T0 WIN THE FEDEX CUP

 

Wayne DeWitt holding the actual FED EX Cup

RESULTS

Congratulations to our new FED EX Cup Champion Wayne DeWitt. Wayne's best 2 scores 67-67 = 134 total was just enough to edge second place finisher Reg Cherenko 65-70 = 135. A 'distant' third was John Lattanzio 69-69=138

This year's winner does not receive $25 million for his first place finish, maybe 25 golf tees if he doesn't mind used or broken ones, but he does get his picture taken with the trophy(see photo above).

KP AND LP WINNERS:

R1 - MUSKEYN, LARMOUR, MOLL

R2 - POSTNIKOFF, BURKE, CHERENKO

R3 - ST JEAN, FREDERICK, WALLIS

DICE SCRAMBLE ENTRY DEADLINE TOMORROW AT NOON!

Don't forget that includes paying your entry fee! $30.00

by cheque in the ProShop

FEX EX CUP WINDING DOWN & MORE TOURNAMENT INFORMATION

FED EX CUP LAST CHANCE!

2023 Fed Ex Cup winner (Richard)

The final round of this season's Fed Ex Cup wraps up Thursday — remember everyone plays from the WHITE TEES for this one.

Your best two Retirees rounds for August count.

DICE ROLL SCRAMBLE DEADLINE FRIDAY AUGUST 18

2023 Dice Roll Winners (Wayne, John, Ray)

This month's scramble will test the skill of all the teams — rolling the HAPPY FACE can make all the difference on each hole.

Entry Fee: $30.00 deadline Friday at noon. Includes golf, prizes and pasta w/meatballs lunch. 50/50 draw 

Sign up online CLICK HERE

OR Sign up on the bulletin board at the course

Pay by eTransfer 

Pay by cheque in the Pro Shop

CHRISTINA LAKE INVITATIONAL - SIGN UP NOW

Thursday, Sept 5  9AM shotgun start

Walker: $55.00. / Rider: $75.00

Deadline to sign up and pay is August 28

PAPER COPY OF THE LIST GOES UP TUESDAY.

You must include your Handicap Factor (decimal number), if you don't have a Golf Canada factor, you can use the Handicap Calculator found on our website to accurately calculate yours.

Attached is the list of players who have already signed up online

SIGN UP ONLINE FOR CHRISTINA LAKE CLICK HERE

RETIREES CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP - SEPT 19

(more details to come later)

2023 Club Champions: Low Gross and Low Net (Ray & Al)

Our final 'official' event of the year is set to go Sept 19 and John is busy crunching the numbers to determine the entry fee. Once his grandson's hockey camp is done, he will have time to dust off his Casio calculator and start crunching.

Our total number of members this year rose to 79 with 10 new players joining us. 

As always, we try to use all the money raised through the season to subsidize the meals, purchase golf balls for the weekly events, cash payouts for monthly events and purchase prizes for our Club Championship.

WATCH YOUR EMAILS FOR MORE DETAILS SOON.

JULY WRAPS UP WITH RED-WHITE-BLUE SCRAMBLE ...and more

 PHOTOS TAKEN AND MISSED

If you missed seeing the photos of our major winners, I finally managed to get them all:

John Newton & Paul Troseth and some other guy
British Open (tied)

Al Pasin (L) and some other guy
Canadian Open 

Richard Dewdney
PGA Championship

Gary Schmitz (R) 
Masters Champion

Unfortunately, we don't have a full set of photos of our monthly scramble events — I will try to fix that.

RED-WHITE-BLUE SCRAMBLE FINALLY GETS PLAYED

It only took an extra month, but we finally played the RWB! Fifty one players enjoyed a perfect day for golf — manicured fairways and greens, hot lunch, and cold refreshments. 

RESULTS:

1st: Keith Wallis, Gary Schmitz, Serge Pasquali, Rob Valentine (61)

2nd: Brian Austin, Rick Brown, Dave Wray, Jamie Pipes (62)

3rd: Norman Moll, Kevin Oliver, Sergio Peloso, Don Szilagyi (65) tiebreak

Other scores:

Cherenko, Piccolo, Park, Lamont (65)

Shubert, Campbell, Ross, Panton (65)

Drezdoff, Rilkoff, St Jean, Zinio (67)

Weaver, Corazza, Keen, Mailey (68)

Frederich, Menin, Boonngoum, M. Brown (68)

Trozzo, Shippet, Veltri, Masleck (69)

Molloy, Brennen, Burke, DeWitt (69)

McLellan, Beard, Gawryletz, Schickler (70)

Delorie, Muskeyn, Troseth, Noakes (71)

Larmour, Lattanzio, Newton (72)

Forgot to take photo of the winners, but did get some other shots!

FEDEX CUP MONTH STARTS AUG 1

This year, no points, no head start for previous event winners, BUT EVERYONE PLAYS FROM THE WHITE TEES for all 3 rounds.

Last year's winner Rich Dewdney

DICE ROLL SCRAMBLE - AUG 22, 9AM SHOTGUN

Online sign up is open deadline is August 15 - no late entries. Entry fee is $30 and includes golf, prizes and Pasta lunch.

NOTE: I will be out of town for this event so John and Al will need some help with running the event. Please step up is you can help in any way and talk to John. I will have the draw and scorecards done before I leave so help is needed on the day of the event. Scorekeeping, KP/LP pins, 50/50 tickets, etc.