Published: October 23, 2009 11:40 am      

Men's 9-Hole League holds annual banquet

The Men's 9-Hole League held its annual banquet on Monday, Oct. 5, at the Legends. Sixty-five members attended and enjoyed a delicious pasta buffet with

meatballs and grilled chicken, served in either a marinara or Alfredo sauce. Steve Kraft, FFG golf director, was our guest and featured speaker. The TTime Ladies

were also invited to partake in the abundance of food.

E.J. Bueche, league president, introduced the 2009 officers: Tom Rice, VP; Gary Sherman, treasurer; and Dave Dougherty, handicap officer. Publicity Officer

Allan Schroeder was unable to attend. The invocation was said by Marvin Orewiler, prior to serving the members lunch. After lunch, Gary Sherman presented the

league's financial report for 2009, pointing out that because of three rainouts this season, the league will be carrying over to next year a larger balance than usual. 

Gary also highligted that the distribution of prize money to members this year was 78 percent paid to regular members and 22 percent paid to substitutes. 

Tom Rice conducted the business meeting, which turned out to be more interactive than usual, with the membership bringing up a number of issues. 

• Marvin Orewiler was elected vice president and Ron Ekis was elected treasurer by the membership.

• The attendees agreed that the 2009 excess cash balance should be used to reduce the 2010 regular member dues to $25.

• Dick Deweese stated that some members feel the four-man scramble as currently structured is unfair to players with high handicap points. He suggested using an average of the four players total points. After some discussion of the pros and cons it was decided to form a small study group to evaluate the impacts. Walt Miles agreed to be the study team leader.

•Dale Koestler asked if the league would consider extending the season by adding two weeks in April and two weeks in October. While Steve Kraft knew of no reason why this would be a problem for him, there are a few potential league issues like many of our regular members are away for the winter and don't return until May; also since we use a shotgun start on 9 holes, the other nine would be open, unless the ladies also agreed to extend their season. It was decided that the matter would be evaluated by the board and reported back to the membership at the 2010 Spring meeting.

•Some of the members were interested in knowing how the board selects new regular players from the substitute members. E.J. explained that the first step is to indicate an interest in regular status when the substitute submits his application, since many subs do not want to be regular members. He then read to the group the specific criteria from the league bylaws that govern the promotion process. E.J. pointed out that former regulars coming back into the league are generally given priority, but consideration is also given to handicaps so that the spread between partners is not unreasonable.

The 'Recognitions and Awards' portion of the program lightened up the membership after the tense business meeting, and we had fun with the following presentations:

Eagle Awards: Paul Adams, Den Dempsey, Bill M. Hunt and Paul Smith

Couldah Hada Hole-in-One Award: Ray Belanger

Top Five Money Winners: Bill M. Hunt, Roger Lebel, Tom Rice, Ed Sisson, Paul Smith

Most Improved Golfer: Phil Poynter

The league also recognized Gary Sherman and E. J. Bueche for their service, and those players who are +80 years old, and those having perfect attendence records.

At the end of the meeting, the league began accepting applications from the membership for the 2010 season.