September 2015

Birdie Bugler

Congratulations to our new Club Champions;

Club Champion Rafael Barajas

Net Club Champion Don Bales

It was a great event this year with two deserving

champions. The Senior Club, and Super Seniors;

Championships are this month; and I’m expecting just as

gr xd eat of a tournament; good luck to all participants.

There will be a general membership meeting and raffle

after the Sr. Club tournament.

I want to thank the Board Members for their

participation; Club Championship was kind of demanding

at times; but everything got done. Good Job

We have a 2 man scramble this Labor Day weekend. We

will be playing the white movables, which should be fun;

and we will use #12 as the CP hole; for our 50/50.

There was a lot of confusion after the club

championships; looking for tournament cards and

missing cards. In fairness to the membership all cards

should be immediately turned in for scoring and

announcing the winners. It will help shorten the amount

of time players are waiting around doing nothing. I know

people are using their cards for all side bets; please make

an extra card for your bets. Let us be fair for those players

that have been waiting to see if they won the tournament

or not. Thanks

September09/05 General Meeting

Tournaments

Skins Game

Tuesday and Friday8:00 A.M.

RVGA Board MembersPresident – Vince MitchellVice President – Mark GallantSecretary – Dennis WalkerTreasurer – Doug PetersonTournaments – Kriss OzolsHandicap – Scott MerrillPast President – Tim DevaneyEditor – Manny Veiga

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20055 E. Colima RoadWalnut, CAClubhouse 909-595-7441Website – www.larvga.com

09/05 2 Man Scramble

09/19 Senior Club Champ

09/26 Senior Club Champ

Mark Gallant – Vice President

Hello fellow Members,

Summer is flying by and I can’t wait until my favorite time of the year, fall.

Even though we don’t have much of a fall season in SoCal, I still enjoy the

colder evening and less hours of sunlight.

We are very lucky to have such a great golf course to play every week. They do

their very best to keep it in the best shape. As members we also need to do our

part to keep the golf course looking good. We should be making sure we are

always filling divots, repairing ball marks, and driving the golf carts in the

designed areas only. As I have been playing I have noticed a lot of members

that don’t follow the cart signs and drive the carts too close to the greens and

even very close to the tee boxes. I have even seen members drive their carts

across the tees. As the Vice President this really upsets me to see member

abusing the course. As members we should be setting examples and take care

of our course. Please make every effort to follow the course signs and park

your golf carts on the cart paths near the greens and tee boxes. Below are

some photos of areas carts should not be parked.

Doug Peterson - Treasurer

From the Treasurer--While the final tally is not in on those exorbitant “Foreign Transaction

Fees”, (no, your treasury isn’t on the hook for them) the verdict IS in on our recent trip to

Scotland and all that it could teach us about golf, wind, rain, gorse, Guinness and single malt

scotch…what a great experience! All that one with a bent for golf would want…and much more.

As mentioned last month in this space, a small smattering of Royal Vista loyalists took to the

highlands and lowlands of Scotland to actually experience what we had recently seen of links

golf on television. Yes, it does look like a cow pasture, but a very well manicured one at that.

The fairways were hard as rocks and cut tighter than most greens we play on here. The

unmowed fescue grass that lined the fairways (or sat in the middle of them) was so tall we

almost lost Tim a few times and a definite deterrent to advancing the ball towards the greens.

But the “pot bunkers”, with their sod faces and steep angles, were the biggest unseen problem.

( Ron Gross had a knack for finding them first and sometimes often.) No bigger than a poolside

spa and twice as deep, our usual choice was sideways rather than forward. And the greens,

with multiple flags…white for the “outward” holes and red for the “inward’ holes…were

sometimes 70-100 yards long with bumps and hills to test everyone’s “get it close” skills. And

the weather, we got it all, from wind, clouds, cold, rain (only at St. Andrews), sun, cold, wind,

and yes wind…all part of the Scottish golfing experience. We saw few days get to 70 degrees but

walking the 8 courses in 14 days kept us warm and made the local brews taste that much better

when we finished/survived our round. J.D. Culbertson seemed to survive better than the rest of

us and shot 77 at the “Old Course” with the locals and visiting tourists surrounding the 18th

green giving him rousing applause as he sunk his last putt. As “bucket lists” go, this hit it, find

it, and hit it again adventure was all that we expected, and more. I think our wives enjoyed it

too, if not the scotch!

Enough of the travelogue and on to golf in warmer climes…the Mojave River Valley is

calling and our Laughlin roadie is just around the corner. A flier is attached to this Birdie but

the Cliff notes version is: 2 days of golf and cart with a 8:30 shotgun start at Avi and Los Lagos,

Oct. 23 and 24, over $4K in prize money with a cost of $230. The Aquarius Hotel has 30 rooms

reserved in our name (Royal Vista Golf. Group rate code C-LAR15) 3 nights for $150 + tax.

Make your own room reservations as I know some of you have other accommodations available.

We get a lot of “out of towners” for this tourney so spread the word and get your entries in early.

We can’t pick the teams until we know who is playing. We’ve been going to Laughlin for over 30

years now so “solvency” must not be an issue…and it isn’t.

Scott Merrill - Handicap

Well, it’s End of Summer….back to School…and horrible traffic!!!

The course is in pretty good shape considering the draught. Congrats to Rafael and Don for their victories in the Club Championship!!!!!

Thanks to SCGA member comments over the summer, a new initiative will be introduced for the 2016 year.Multi-Member Rebate Program. For those of you with multi-memberships, a rebate will be available after maxing out at $50.00. So if you belong to (2) clubs, $33+$33=$66-$50=$16 Rebate!!!! If you belonged to (3) Clubs, $99-$50=$49 Rebate etc. Just another way of servicing its members!!!

See ya on the links……..Scott

Tim Devaney – Past President

Sights but no sounds of a trip to Scotland with a contingent

from Royal Vista in the summer of 2015. The golf was just

as you might expect with wind, rain, cloudy and sunshine

days. Visits to castles, eating and drinking in as many pubs

as we had nights on this trip.7 golf courses were played in a

2 week period and all were links except the last which was

at Gleneagles , the site of the 2014 Ryder Cup. It is a Jack

Nicklaus design with the most penal rough of any of the

courses we played. All 6 of the links courses were walked

and with a pull cart if you wanted .Caddies were available

at every course and we only used them once at St.Andrews.

The old course was my absolute favorite and it is just as

might be imagined. On #17 (the road hole) you hit your tee

shot over the buildings and coming in to 18 green you cross

over Swilican bridge. Thinking of all who have proceeded

you walking over this bridge is quite amazing. Wedge shots

that never hold, putting from 40 yards away and drinking

COLD BEER (not warm) a trip of a lifetime..

Manny Veiga - Editor