NOTES FROM ELK CITY AND ALL OVER!

- First things first... The PGA of America has estimated that across the country, golf raises over $3.2 billion (with a "B") for charities. Most courses do their part, and Elk City Golf & C.C. is, and will always be, part of the pie. Aside from the usual yearly tournaments that raise money for various charities, this year, The First Assembly of God's men's group, will host one at our course on behalf of Korbin Perkey. Korbin is a boy of 15 years of age who has brain cancer and whose family has been overwhelmed with medical bills (see our yearly calendar by clicking the appropriate link under "Favorites" on the right). Team entry will be $500 for a 4-Man Scramble. There will be three flights and the top three places in each flight will be recognized. To enter your team, call the pro-shop at 580-225-3556, Scott Hines at 580-821-0870 or Craig Kincead at 580-799-4774. IMPORTANT NOTE: SINCE THIS IS A ONE TIME TOURNAMENT, ORGANIZERS NEED TO HAVE AN IDEA ON HOW MANY ADDITIONAL CARTS TO ORDER, SO PLEASE SIGN UP AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE. THANK YOU.

- The opening tournament of the season will also be a fundraiser in its 2nd year: the Boy Scouts Scramble. More details will follow. Brad Harguess is chairman of the event and he can be contacted at 580-799-5482, and it will be played on April 6. This is a second year event that was successful last year.

- April will also host 4 (yes, four) high school events: the two regular invitational events of each year (Girls 4/8 and Boys 4/10), plus the Western Regional Tournament for the first time in years! (Girls 4/23 and Boys 4/29). Hosting the regional events was the brainchild of Bill Weatherly, Athletic Director who pursued this with great enthusiasm and offered nothing less than Elk City's friendship as the best selling point. Thank you! (Note: Elk City Boys Team is defending Regional Champion)

- So Tiger won at Torrey Pines. Since he turned pro in 1996, he has never won the Masters when he hasn't won in the same year prior to The Masters, all of his four Masters titles have been when he has won before the April classic. Will this be his year? Who knows. One thing is for certain: people love or hate Tiger, and because of that, when he is in a tournament, the ratings go up. Some want to see him lose, and some want to see him win. Which one are you?

- Speaking about Tiger: Nike & Tiger are paying Rory McIlroy $250 million for a 10 year contract, not much unlike Tiger's first contract in 1996. The question is: is Rory worth as much as Tiger was then? I don't think so. Tiger revolutionized golf, athleticism and increased purses not unlike Arnold Palmer in the 50's & 60's. Rory, when he is playing well, is hard to beat, even by Tiger at his best, but Rory lacks the consistency that Tiger had (has). So the question that begs to be asked... "did Tiger pursue Rory's endorsement for the betterment of Nike?, or to help him get a major or two in the next two years since Rory is now getting used to new equipment?" Why do I sometimes like to distrust certain things? Maybe because Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player never invited each other to play with the clubs of the company that endorsed them.

- This is the first year that the LPGA does not have a completed calendar of events! Yes, there are still some tournaments that have not been secured! They need Tim Finchem as their commissioner, and the players' association needs to allow the commissioner and his office do their job instead of trying to micromanage!

- PGA's Play Golf Ready program is catching up all over. Though we have not officially entered any of the programs, Elk City Golf & C.C. is following some of the principles of these great programs and we had a very good year in 2012, better than the average and median growth around Oklahoma. Many good things happened in our favor, including weather, nice course conditions and many people teaming together to help promote our facility, which of course, includes our membership! THANK YOU!! (click here to check a summary of rounds played)

- Demo Day will be April 16: all four manufacturers invited have agreed to come: Taylor Made, PING, Titleist and Callaway.

- Range memberships are due for about 80% of our customers. This year, we are planning to "prorate" those memberships that were purchased later in the year so that all come due at the same time. Give us a call at 580-225-3556.

- Great Plains National Bank has agreed to help us by donating 192 Doz. new range balls to be used, as we have the last two years, for tournaments. Thank you!

NEW BOARD ELECTED...

As scheduled, the Annual Stockholders meeting took place Monday, January 21 at 7:00 p.m.

Three out of the nine board members who make the Board of Directors, are elected every year. This year, the board members with expired terms were Leon Stuart (Greens Chairman), Ann Cowan (Secretary Treasurer) and Joe Wynn (President). Of the three, Leon Stuart and Joe Wynn -who had announced his decision a few weeks ago-, decided not to seek a seat for the 2013-2016 term. 

Before the election, outgoing president, Joe Wynn called the annual meeting to order, read a financial report prepared by Myra Baker, and then asked Ed Hughes and myself to read a condensed report of our activities and results. 

Rusty Wilson
new Board President

After all reports were read, Joe Wynn called for nominations for the three seats. Three people were nominated, thus, the three members were elected my acclamation: James Ainsworth, Greg Dodson and Ann Cowan, who was reelected to the same seat she has been holding for the past three years. Their term will expire 2016.

After the new board members were elected, the Board of Directors went into a closed doors meeting and elected Rusty Wilson (2012-2015) as the new president. 

2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! - SHORT NOTES & NOTICES

WE HAVE SOME SHORT NOTES AND NOTICES...

Joe Wynn, President. Has has said
this is his last year in the Board.

First of all, coming up this coming Monday: ANNUAL MEMBERS MEETING AND ELECTION OF OFFICERS. As every year, three offices are elected to serve a 3 year term. You now have nine officers as the seat that used to be filled by the Women's Golf Association president is no longer part of the board since there is no Women's Golf Association.

Leon Stuart

The three seats up for election or re-election, should the members completing three years choose to run again, are Joe Wynn (president) with Leon Stuart and Ann Cowan. Nominations will be taken from the floor as well. As customary, there will be a yearly report to the membership as well.  Joe Wynn has notified the board and several members, that he does not want to seek reelection. The other six members of the board are: Rusty Wilson, Jeff Rule, Cory Smith, Jordan Williamson (appointed to finish Ricky Nagle's term after Ricky stepped down from his position), Grady Lantz and Brad Gilbert.

Ann Cowan

The monthly Board Meeting will be at 6:00 p.m., the Stockholders meeting and election of board members will be at 7:00 p.m. We encourage all members to get involved and interested in your club matters.

Now, let's go to other stack of notes.....

- While the PGA Tour already started the 2013 golf season in sunny Hawaii, here in Elk City, so far, the weather has been really cold and there is not much "action" to report. The Tournament of Champions was shortened to 3 rounds, and Dustin Johnson won. This is his 4th victory in shortened events!

- The new poster for "Newsmakers of 2012" has been finished and is displayed in the clubhouse.

-The New Year's party drew about 80 people who danced at the tunes of Trader Price. The music was so good, that even I had a couple of dances!

-Unlike last year, after the club's New Year's party, there was no one playing on the 1st of the year, or the 2nd... or the 3rd. First day of play -and it wasn't a very good day-, was the 4th. Officially, my first round of 2013 came on Saturday the 5th when I had the pleasure of playing nine holes with new Elk City High School boys team coach, Tim Ellison and friendly Brad Harrison. Elk City High School can rest assured that Mr. Ellison will be a very good, "hands on" coach.

- On the few days that we have been open, you can almost guess who will be there: you can, of course, start with Logan Gore and Joby Gray, who have not missed a day of golf in months, then of course, those who call themselves "brave die-hards", except they don't really come if the temps are below 50.

- Both, the girls and the boys's teams have started practicing on days when the temps have reached 50 or so. We have seen Berek Dyson and Carter Mucrief, but haven't seen talented Brock Walker yet.

- Have you read the latest Golf Digest? The one with the front cover of Dustin Johnson (this years Tournament of Champions winner already)? You need to read the article on page 82. All I can tell you is that it corroborates my thoughts that Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Gary Player, Tom Watson and Billy Casper, as a whole, are better than all the golfers of this generation. Many of you in your 50's and younger, might not agree, and most of you in your 50's or older might agree... if you happen to have played golf for a long time. The perspective in the article is pretty good.

-Kudos to the PGA of America in selecting Tom Watson to be the Ryder Cup's next captain in Scotland. Tom won 5 British Opens, four of them in Scotland, where the next Ryder Cup will take place. It was a long time coming that the PGA needed to change their habit of selecting someone in their 40's. There are others who got bypassed along the way who deserve the captaincy, most notably, Larry Nelson and Mark O'Meara. Only one time since 1999, have we won the cup, and that has been at home, when Paul Azinger, the most "hands on" captain since Watson in 1993, helped the U.S. to an win in 2009. The last time we won when playing away, was in 1993.... the captain that year? Tom Watson!

- The "President's Ball", originally scheduled for February 16, will be delayed to sometime in March. We will keep you posted.

- The first tournament of the year will be the second annual Boy Scouts Tournament, it will be played on April 6. The second tournament will be a fundraiser for the family of 15 year old Korbin Perkey, organized by the 1st Assembly of God. Young Korbin has brain cancer and, as in most of these cases, insurance does not cover all costs. Get your team early for these two events!

- Meanwhile, the Elk City High School will have their two tournaments in the same week, April 8 for the girls, and April 10 for the boys. In addition, thanks to the work of Bill Weatherly, we landed the Western Regional Tournament. Elk City is the defending champion of the regional event. The girls tournament will be on Tuesday, April 23, the boys tournament will be on Monday, April 29.

- I leave this column by wishing the best and prompt recovery to Vera Gilbert (Brad Gilbert) and Angie Murphey (Don Murphey), both of whom have had a rough time the last few months! Your prayers and support are appreciated... GIVE THEM A CALL!