A Year to Remember By Erin Signor , Director of Member

Services

The Rock’s Ledger

Greetings LedgeRock members! With all the holiday cheer and season’s greetings, we forget how fast the year seems to go…..it is almost 2011! We’ve had quite a year; from new staff in the golf shop and food and beverage departments to having one of the hottest summers ever with the course being in the best shape ever! If you haven’t been around all season, we added several new tees to soften the course and our ap-proach to make the course more enjoyable, yet keeping it chal-lenging. After the golf season, we’ve managed to find some down time between Halloween and Thanksgiving to start pre-paring for the holidays and next year’s events.

The food and beverage department has been very active in hosting, catering, and creating holiday events for our members and their guests. Just last month we started to pair up the

Reading Symphony Orchestra nights with dinner at LedgeRock for our members and RSO patrons.

You can get an early meal starting at 5:30 and even complimentary tickets to the orchestra exclusive for our members. Future RSO dinner dates are 1/22, 2/12, 3/5, 4/16, and 5/14. The February 12th evening will also be our special Valentine’s Day din-ner, so be sure to make your reservation early…..this will be a popular event!

We want to thank everyone for stopping out to the annual member’s holiday party on 12/12. Santa made his appear-ance once again and we had some wonderful little kids join in on the fun; whether it was sitting on Santa’s lap or playing in the bay areas with golf clubs! This is one reoc-curring event we look forward to every holiday season!

We are excited to end the year with a full TRUST membership roster and lots of activity with prospects in the upcoming year. To your right you will see some of our newest members listed. We thank you for your continued support in the club and look forward to an even better 2011! Happy Holidays and here’s to a wonderful new year!

Warmest Wishes, Erin

End of Year edition

Welcome New Members! Joe Butto ( Mohnton)

Glenn Ricks ( Wyomissing) Josh Welk ( Ephrata)

Carter Benjamin ( Reading) John Stelmach ( Reading)

Mike Lazarchick ( Wyomissing) Andy Gehman ( Denver)

Sanand Menon ( Wyomissing) Steve Savage ( Reading)

Golf Professionals continually are asked, “How do I hit the ball farther?” While there is seemingly an endless list of answers, it all comes down to (essentially) one thing - creating more club head speed. Easy, right? Well, yes and no. Understand-ing how to create more club head speed is one thing; actually pulling it off is usually the challenge. There are some important principles to consider in the desire to hit the ball far: width, length, lag, and release. Width loosely refers to the distance your hands are from the center of your turn (a straight left arm); Length refers to the distance of your shoulder turn and the distance your arms travel; Lag, potentially the most im-portant component for distance, is complicated and refers to the time and distance your wrists remain “loaded” on the way down to impact; Release refers to how/when the club head “snaps” at the bottom of the swing. Ernie Els has great swing width; John Daly has great swing length; Sergio Garcia has great lag; and Fred Couples has a great release. One common feature among these players - they all hit the ball FAR!!! Acting alone, each of these components may not create more distance. When combined, however, great things can happen. The concept of lag explained a little more: The more LAG you create (holding the angle on right wrist), the

more likely you will drive the ball “down” with your hands forward of the ball at impact, effectively de-lofting the club at impact and making a 7-iron a 6-iron. Maintaining the angle in your right wrist is critical to creating more lag. With respect to the angle in your right wrist, we often hear the term “casting” with the down swing. A casting motion, similar to a cast when fishing, eliminates that angle created in your right wrist. When this happens, power is taken away, the club path will travel “outside to in”, and a weak slice will result. Something to consider: Swinging with a faster tempo DOES NOT usually translate to more club head speed - in

fact, it rarely does. Swinging faster affects the transition from your backswing to your downswing. A smooth tempo will help create a smooth transition, allowing all your body parts to release the club correctly at the point of impact.

To learn more about hitting the ball with more power, see a member of the professional staff, or consider at-tending one of the Winter Clinics dedicated to distance (December 18th & February 5th).

Good Luck!!

Brady

Hit ting with Power

By Brady Foore , PGA Assis tant Golf Profes sional

Page 2 The Rock’s Ledger

variation of warmed apple cider. It is a great beverage for your guests on a cold winter’s night. Wassil means “good health”. **Freshly whipped Cream—Fresh whipped cream sweetened with sugar will provide that extra touch too your holiday desserts and add a more fes-tive look to any creation. **Need lemon juice? – Microwave a lemon for 15 seconds, it will give you double the juice **Have frozen fish?—Thaw in milk in refrigerator it will bring out the freshness **When mixing salads do not use metal bowls use glass or china, be-cause the stainless steel can cause a reaction to lettuce.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season. -Chef Tyler

Greetings to everyone from LedgeRock. It has been a great golf season but like all good things it comes to an end. It has been an ex-citing six months for me and it has been great getting to know everyone. I appreciate all the support and input from everyone, and I look forward to next season. It is a busy holiday sea-son here with parties and dinners. If there is anything I can do for anyone,

please feel free to contact me. If you have that short notice holiday party and need to make something, let me know. If you are in need of any cook-ing or baking tips I am always avail-able. Here are some great holiday tips for everyone. **A great holiday idea- Wassil, origi-nation from Eastern Europe, is a

Chef ’ s Corner By Tyler Misko, Special Events Chef

I t ’ s Of ficial ! Chip Lutz Ranked #1 U .S . Senior Amateur AND GAP

Senior Player of the Year !

Join Us on January 21st as we celebrate

and honor Chip Lutz on a successful season and career!

The Roast of Chip Lutz! January 21st 6pm cocktails

6:30pm heavy hors’deourves

$25.00++ per person

Please RSVP to Erin by January 14th.

By Kyle Miller, PGA Assistant Golf Professional

Page 4 The Rock’s Ledger

The 2010 golfing season has come to end; that may make some of you happy, but I think most of us are sad to see the dreary winter begin. Luckily, the weather has been cooperative for most of November, especially for The Dog Fight that we had on the 6th (GO TEAM BLUE!!), and for the guys that played in the Goat Cup on the 18th. However, it is now time to take a breather… and then turn our attention to the 2011 season at The

Rock! We will be unveiling a revamped golf schedule for the New Year, which includes “Founder’s Cup Week” and “Club Championship Week” as new tourna-ment traditions, along with a new type of social gathering for men and women on Thursday evenings. One Thursday in each month—from April to October—we will be holding a “Chix for Six”event where the ladies can come out and play a quick 6 holes, then have wine, cheese, and other assorted snacks and drinks. This event will have plenty of potential, whether it is a “Bring-A-Guest” night or a team scramble night, and we look forward to making it very successful. The idea for the men is a little more specific and competitive, but still involves the key three-letter word that we keep consistent throughout all events here at LedgeRock—FUN! As some of you may al-ready know, we are starting a Thursday Night 9-Hole Men’s League. Everyone has received an email with the information, but basically here is the hopeful synopsis. There will be 6 teams of 8, with 6 men playing another team of 6 men each week, and two alternates for those times when someone cannot make it. We encourage you or someone you know to take the role of Team Captain and put together a team of your own choice of men, but we will also take individual signups and pair those onto teams accordingly. There will be 10 weeks in the regular season (your team will play each team twice) and then the playoffs (first round, semifinals, and an 18 hole championship). The format for each match is a better ball of partners, along with an individual match at the same time. The captain is in charge of submitting his pairings for each week, and then we pair up matches based on handicaps. Individual matches are worth 1 point and better ball matches are worth 2 points, allowing 12

points to be won for each weekly match. The points are cumulated throughout the season, and the team with the most points wins the regular season trophy. From there, the teams are re-seeded for the playoffs. In terms of scheduling, we tried as best as we could to make a vacation-friendly cal-endar. The first five weeks will be from May 19th to June 16th, followed by a break from Father’s Day until after the Fourth of July. The final five weeks will resume July 7th and finish on August 4th. Then the playoffs will be on August 25th (allowing time for family vacations before school starts), September 8th (skipping Labor Day week), and the championship would be Saturday, September 24th (18 hole finale). We believe that this would be the most beneficial schedule for the majority of par-ticipants, but remember: if there are a couple dates that do not work for your sched-

ule, you still have an alternate who can take your place. Once again, I know that was a lot of info. So, here is what you need to remember—it is going to be FUN! Finally, I just want to say that it has been an amazing first year for me here at LedgeRock. All of you are so nice, and it was very easy for me to feel as part of the club from the very beginning. I will be working at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, FL from January to the end of March, so if any of you are ever in the Orlando area, send me an email and maybe we can play. I look forward to returning to The Rock in the spring and helping make 2011 better than ever! Regards, Kyle

As we approach the end of another year at LedgeRock it’s hard to believe that it only brings an end to our fourth full season. It feels like we’ve been around a lot longer than that as construction and the grow-in seem like a distant memory. I’m sure every-one knows about the ‘summer from hell’ for turf (and those that look after it!) that 2010 produced but it is very reassuring that LedgeRock held up exceptionally well especially for what is still a relatively young course. The fact that we have 100% bentgrass greens, tees and fairways certainly helped as it is a tougher turf than other cool season grasses in extremes like this summer however the maturity level of our turf definitely played a hand also ensuring it was in fighting condition heading in. And lastly, of course, my crew who put in a lot of long hours ensuring that the turf had just the right amount of water to make sure it survived. There are a few scars re-maining in the rough but the majority of these will heal quickly in the spring once the growth revs up. Luckily the fall stayed mild and frost delays really didn’t hit hard until early December. I know that a frost de-lay can be inconvenient and because of that I ensure golf can start as soon as there is no potential for turf dam-age. Below is a picture that shows the number of footprints from one foursome playing a green like normal. You can plainly see how much concentration there is around the pin, which if there was frost would result in severe damage. My long range weather forecaster is predicting a milder than normal start to the year so frost delays in this weather can be more of an issue. The main issue with frost is that it freezes the cells, so when they are walked on the frozen water in the cell ruptures, killing (or severely stunting) the plant. When the weather is milder with warmer days but cold nights the soil can freeze but the heat during the day will thaw the top few inches which results in the potential to sheer the roots off at the thawed/frozen interface when walked/driven on which undoes all the root growth from the fall and set the plant back for the following year. Over the course of the winter the crew is prepping equipment and the course furniture for next year, and when the weather is cooperative, we’ll be out taking care of the odds and ends we need to do on the course for the spring. From everyone in grounds we wish all our members a very joyous and peaceful holiday season Alan

T u r f T a l k b y G o l f C o u r s e S u p e r i n t e n d e n t , A l a n F i t z g e r a l d

C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s t o A l l 2 0 1 0 T o u r n a m e n t W i n n e r s