Minutes of the RBIMGC Board of Directors

 Rancho Bernardo Inn Men’s Golf Club

Minutes of the Meeting of the RBIMGC Board of Directors    February 18, 2020 in the Veranda

In attendance were Gregg Gattuso, Jerry Canning, Ron Lacy, Norm Blades, Tom Dubuque, Tom Smith, John Kersey, Joe Walkington, Ren Halloran and Darryl Medders. Tom Christopher was absent. Ren Halloran could only stay for the first half hour.

The meeting was called to order at 7:57 AM by President Gregg Gattuso.

Director of Golf Evan Biundo:

We have entered the Frost season. When there is a frost delay, the Pro Shop will announce a “hard start time” rather than a floating time, meaning they will stick to that hard-start time and not change even if conditions improve.

$150K worth of new cart batteries are being delivered today and will be installed by Monday. Our tournament on Monday should not be affected.

The Inn’s planned aeration dates in March and October have not changed.

Minutes – Tom Smith:

Tom Smith noted that the minutes of the January 09, 2020 meeting had been circulated and posted on the website.  He asked for a motion to approve those minutes.  MSUA.

Treasurer’s Report – John Kersey:

John Kersey distributed the Treasurer’s report for the month. The Club has an operating cash balance of $10, 564.44 as of February 18th and an estimated available cash balance of $9,833.44 on Feb 18, 2020.

The Treasurer’s report was approved MSUA.

On another subject, John Kersey suggested that we invite the Course Superintendent, Dave Buckles, to our March BOD meeting to explain to us what is happening on the course, particularly on hole #15. Dave was not aware that the Men’s Club plays hole #4 from across the water, not from the white tees. Joe Walkington will talk to Dave about our Men’s Club tee setup.

Special Events – Tom Dubuque:

The Spring Mixer will be played on April 7 one week after greens aeration. The Club will start publicizing the event in late February.

Membership Report – Jerry Canning:

Jerry Canning reported the Club added 5 new members since the January meeting, and also had 5 renewals. The Club also had one non-renewal, and there are 4 members who are due to renew in the next month.

Total membership as of February 18 is 189.

• 182 Full members
• 1 Associate member
• 6 Comp and Courtesy members.

The Club currently has no new applicants in the pipeline for membership.

Handicap – Norm Blades:

There have been no reported issues so far with the new World Handicap System.

The Club’s most recent new member, Chuck McGhee, joined us with no GHIN # or handicap, but he did have 4 signed and attested scorecards from recent rounds. Once Jerry Canning notified the SCGA that he was a paid member, he was assigned a GHIN #. Norm Blades told him he could then enter his old scores on his own and the SCGA would assign him a handicap based on these scores. This worked well and should be used for future new members with similar situations.

Tom Smith pointed that the GHIN #s are not updated automatically in Golf Genius. Tom has been assigned the duty of doing this every Saturday before 9AM so that the TD has the latest data for his Monday tournament. Tom Smith updates the Golf Genius Master and League rosters as our membership changes, as well as all GHIN #’s in Golf Genius every Saturday. Golf Genius makes this very easy to do.

TDs should post all the scores for their tournaments by Monday evening so that the GHIN #’s can be updated at midnight by the SCGA.

Tournament Director – Joe Walkington:

Joe Walkington handed out the latest Tournament schedule. So far this year we are averaging 74 players per round, even with the very low turnout last Monday with the rain. An ILN tournament is coming up soon. The Club tries to have them at least once per quarter. The Club also tries to have a scramble at the same time as the Inn is punching the greens.

Gregg Gattuso will have Tom Christopher open up the Spring Member/Member tournament for registration, which is scheduled for March 16.

Website – Tom Christopher:

Installation of a new operating system software failed and brought the site down. He was able to revert back to the old operating system. Tom Christopher feels our site has a limited life. Several options were mentioned to replace our site or at least parts of it. We will look at this in March when Tom is back.

Rules – Joe Walkington:

Some members have asked: Is the fence on #15 as you go around the bend and over the culvert an immovable object? The existing red line which puts the fence inside a hazard is no longer in effect. It was put down for a special tournament and will eventually go away as it wears off. The Club is ruling the fence to be an immovable obstruction so that players get relief from the fence.  Joe Walkington is working on the exact wording of this local rule.

Open Discussion:

A discussion was held regarding the attendance required to qualify for free rounds of golf from the Pro Shop. The TD Handbook needs to be updated in this regard so that all TD’s are operating with the same set of instructions.

A discussion was held regarding the fairness of awarding CTP winners the highest value prize (free round) when we are a team-oriented Club with the stated goals of awarding Team winners the highest prizes. The proposal presented by Gregg Gattuso was to award the free rounds given to us by the Inn to the first place Team winners. To arrive at the necessary 3 or 4 rounds per week, the Club would supplement these free rounds with rounds purchased using money from the prize pool. After much discussion a vote was held and, by a 9 to 2 margin, the BOD agreed to move forward with exploring this idea.

Gregg Gattuso then presented his proposal:

Must have 70 or more players to have Team winners get free rounds

If less than 70 players, award prizes same as now, with the one free round awarded to CTP winner on #13

The program will be cash neutral, with no enhancement or reduction of a tournament’s prize pool

The free rounds will have to be identified differently from the purchased rounds for accounting purposes

Cash reconciliation report will have to show which rounds are free and which are purchased

We will start this plan on March 2, which is an ILN tournament

The Spring Mixer will be exempt from this proposal. Awards for that will be up to the TD’s discretion.

Regarding the Veranda Dinner:

This dinner will be awarded via a drawing in the Veranda bar after the tournament

A player need not be present to win

A first place team player can win both the dinner and a free round

The mechanics of the drawing is yet to be decided. One possibility is to use a Random Number Generator in two steps. First it will generate a Team Number, then it will generate which player on that team will win the dinner. The TD may get the F&B staff involved in selecting the random numbers.

A motion was made regarding Gregg Gattuso’s proposal to award rounds to ILN or Team winners, and dinner using a random drawing in the Veranda. This will be done only for regular tournaments initially. Motion passed. Gregg Gattuso will send out an email blast notifying our membership of this change effective March 2. The BOD will review his email before it goes out.

Eligibility of Forward tees for Special tournaments:

When Forward tees were first allowed, some Board members thought that maybe those players utilizing them would have a competitive advantage, so they were not allowed for Special Tournaments. Subsequent analysis of rounds shows that there is no discernible competitive advantage, and that the handicap system is doing its job of leveling the playing field.

A motion was made to allow qualifying members to use the Forward tees in the Club’s special tournaments. Motion passed. Gregg Gattuso will send an email to the membership.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:48 AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Tom Smith

Secretary