Men’s Club 2010....It’s a Wrap!
September is the month that signals the end of another league
season here at Ironwood. And as all of the leagues conduct their wrap
up events to determine their champions for the year, the excitement
that surrounds that ‘crowning’ is no more evident than in the Tuesday
Men’s Club!
It always starts about 2 weeks before the championship
and begins with a few of the league players popping over to the course
to practice their putting and chipping. And as wrap up day looms
closer, there are more of them and they come more often. They set up
extra games with their friends, “just to keep their edge” for the final
Sunday competition.
After all, there is a lot at stake here and it’s not just one of the 6
flight division trophies or the money...it’s the bragging rights that
count! For many of them, it will also be the final time in the season
when they will be together as a foursome for that weekly game of golf
sharing a cold beverage (or two), making some side bets amongst
themselves and just enjoying their round with good friends.
I have to admit that the first year I worked with the Men’s Club I
wasn’t totally convinced that their ‘point system’ formula for scoring
would be on a par with the more common ‘handicapping system’. But
as I entered their scores each week over that summer, I came to
realize rather quickly that the point system formulas developed by
Wayne Parkinson almost 20 years ago have easily stood the test of
time.
Wayne’s idea was not only to make Men’s Club a little more fun
but also to give everyone a chance to win. He accomplished that and
more with the introduction of his new system. Players like Bob
Fletcher, Dave Holtzmann, Bill Farquhar, Jim Guenther and Paul
Gorman all endorsed Wayne’s carefully thought out ‘points’ plan and
payout sheets and helped him each week with the ‘paperwork’. In the
beginning, everything was done by hand until Ken Pinder offered to
help. Ken put together the spreadsheets which saved a considerable
amount of time each week for the person responsible for the inputting
of scores, determining the winners and printing out the scoring sheets
for the following week. We still use the same spreadsheets today!
And something else of note happened. Men’s Club grew from 35
to 100 participants as players quickly spread the word about this new
system that was both fun and fair for everyone. To Wayne’s credit,
that is quite an achievement.
Some years ago, before I had the opportunity to work closer
with Men’s Club or understood the why or how of his efforts, I asked
Wayne why they used points and not handicapping. His reply was
“Well, my answer to that would be if it’s not broke why bother to ‘fix’
it?” And I never did and I never will.
And so yet another successful season in Men’s Club has come
and gone and their final day of competition has given us a new set of
champions for the year 2010 and the record books. Congratulations to
the following winners...
From top left:
Morley Obre-D flight , Ed Preszcator-DD flight , Ty Obre-C flight
From bottom left:
Jim Guenther-B flight, Darren Mason-Club
Heath Palen-A flight
Champion,
2010 Men’s Match Play Champion
John Rudderham
2010 Free Ironwood Membership Winner
Harrison Eo