November 2022
Dear Senior Golf League Members,
October 31st was our last official league day. Another year golfing together and thankfully Covid concerns were sharply reduced. This letter as usual provides some observations and highlights of our season as well as some links to photos and ideas for filling the gap until next season.
Banquet
Twenty-eight folks attended the reestablished annual TSGL luncheon on Monday including three invited guests from the Pine Meadows staff and Lexington recreation department. We thanked Melissa Battite of the Town of Lexington and John Allen of the New England Golf Corp. for their institutional support and John’s hard work on course maintenance; with additional thanks to Tony Mendonsa, and the absent David Martell, for their weekly help this year. The course was kept in excellent shape in spite of extreme periods of rain and drought.
A number of donated prizes were raffled off and small gifts were given to folks who helped out with TSGL activities this year. Please thank our donors by considering them for your business (or friendship):
- Two $65 dollar gift certificates each for a 30min PGA lesson at Big Sticks Golf in Burlington.
- One package of 3 training sessions worth $180 at Golf Galaxy in Burlington.
- Five separate passes for a free round at Pine Meadows from the Lexington Recreation Department and the Course Management.
- Two separate $25 gift certificates for the Great Wall Restaurant in Bedford.
- Seven passes for free driving range balls at Stone Meadow in Lexington
- Arnold Palmer Custom Ball marks together with a 2022 U.S Open bag tag donated by Ric Magro.
- A box of golf balls donated by Jim Colantropo.
Special recognition was given to Bruce Arenburg and Eric Baatz. Bruce was our most improved golfer this year, shaving two strokes off his handicap. Eric was our champion golfer of the year. He finished in first (or tied) twice and got at least one point in 5 of the 6 tournaments. We are looking forward to mounting a plaque in 2023 at the clubhouse listing the Champion Golfers of the Year.
It was also announced that Jim Colantropo accepted an invitation to join the Planning Committee. He will be in charge of special events next year, help coordinate Excursion Golfing and participate in our planning meetings.
Volunteers
Also at the luncheon we noted the volunteers who have helped with the League’s work this year. Thank you gifts were provided for: Rick Atkins, Jim Colantropo, Deb Heneghan, Mary Snow, Mike Spence, and Mark Thompson.
We also received offers from others to help in 2023 and we will be following up with them to schedule and integrate their assistance. THANK YOU in advance.
If you would like to help us; tell a committee member or email your interest to: TSGLManagement@gmail.com.
New Members
We hope you had a chance to play with some of the new faces in the League. To remind you, they are: Dick Conant, Bob Driscoll, James Foster, Bill McCarthy, Orlando Spano, Doug Stuart and Dan Wiley.
Golf Highlights and Handicapping
And now a little trip down memory lane about the great wins and special accomplishments by our league members this 2022 season.
We played 1219 rounds, not counting the tournaments in which individual scores were not kept, for example, in Scrambles, with Walter Kerr and Eric Baatz breaking the 50 barrier and Ric Magro, Bill Sciarretta, Arthur Barbera, and Mike Mickelsen breaking into the 40’s.
Low net honors for the year goes, for a second year in a row, to Arthur Barbera with a 28 on July 11 and to Bill Condon on June 27, closely followed by Ken Han with a 29 on June 13 and Dave McDonald with a 30 on June 27.
Low gross was 36 by Peter Southwick on May 16 and Eric Baatz on May 23 and August 1, closely followed at 37 by Rick Atkins on June 27 and August 1, Mike Mickelsen on August 29, Ros Paine on August 1, Eric Baatz on September 15 and Peter Southwick on May 30.
The most sub-40 rounds were turned in by Eric Baatz with 11, followed by Peter Southwick and Ric Magro with 3.
Very large birds? We had two eagles this year, one by Jay Flynn with a 6-hybid on the third hole on April 21 and a hole-in-one by Mike O’Connor with a 3-iron on the fourth hole on May 5 during the 4-person Scramble.
There were 137 birdies with 39 of them coming on hole #3 and 28 coming on hole #9, which is the reverse of last year. There were only 4 birdies on #2 and 5 on #5. The easiest holes were #3, with an average score of 0.93 over par and #7 with 1.07 over par. Surprisingly, #9 was played in 1.23 over par. The hardest holes were, unsurprisingly, #2 at 1.89 over par and #5 at 1.73 over par.
Results for all the 2022 tournaments (and previous years) are here: https://www.tsglma.org/tournament-results/
Pictures
Yes, we caught you in the act of golfing and winning and having fun with fellow members. Sorry if we didn’t capture everyone, but we were trying to golf too! Click this link to see all the happy people: https://www.tsglma.org/gallery/
Excursion Golf Outings
A bunch of us tried other challenging courses to see how much worse our scores can be and to see if we can keep our sense of humor. And yes there were BIG totals; but a beer after the round helped the humor to return.
Thanks to Rick Atkins, Mike Spence and Mark Thompson who arranged many of the excursions this year and took much of the burden off Arthur Daltas.
There were 17 excursions. Because of weather problems, that number was down from our record 25 in 2021. We played Four Oaks, Stow Acres South, Meadow at Peabody, Campbell’s Scottish Highlands, Black Swan, Trull Brook, Green Meadow Jungle, Beverly, Butternut, Mt. Hood, Butter Brook and Red Tail. There are 39 people on the email invite list and usually we have 8 to 12 golfers for each excursion. If you want to be added to (or removed from) that email list for next year, let a committee member know or send a message to the league email, TSGLManagement@gmail.com.
This Winter: Indoor Golf, Ping Pong etc.
We have a small group of golfers who like to play indoor golf on simulators at Big Sticks in Burlington. All our real clubs are used, and we play famous courses around the world. If you would like to be on the email list for when we plan to play, contact Arthur Daltas or Mike Mickelsen or drop us an email. Or just go on your own when you can or take some lessons. Big Sticks owner Terry Felty has been a sponsor of our luncheons: https://www.bigsticksgolf.com/
Peter Yee is active with folks who play ping pong at the Lexington Community Center Contact him or the Center if you are interested in that and the other activities at the center: https://www.lexingtonma.gov/511/Recreation-Community-Programs
Feedback
Finally, if you have comments and feedback about last year and/or ideas for next year please talk to any committee member or email us at TSGLManagement@gmail.com. What do you think of the mix of tournament formats we used like blind match, scrambles, individual net, etc.? Awards? Communications? Website? https://www.tsglma.org/
We plan to monitor email traffic only from time-to-time and then you’ll start hearing from us regularly in early Spring 2023.
We hope your holidays and winter season are very happy, healthy, and safe. We look forward to seeing you on the course next year! Watch your email for announcements.
Best to all of you,
The Senior Golf League Committee
Arthur Daltas: Chair, Town-Course Liaison, Treasurer
Eric Baatz: Rules, Webmaster, Asst. Handicapping
Jim Colantropo: Events, Excursions Asst.
Mike Mickelsen: Handicapping, Communications, Asst. Treasurer
Andy Rittenburg: Daily Scheduling Coordinator