Bellport Golf Club Commission Minutes
October 4th, 2017
Commission Members in Attendance:
Brit Lawlor – Chairman
Ed Santalone – Special Projects
Joe Dabrowski – Tournament/Rules
Michael Cioffi – Men’s Locker Room/Food and Beverage
Jim Dowd – Violations
Others in Attendance:
Jim Von Eschen – Director of Golf
Chris Johnson – Superintendent
John Mackie – Assistant Golf Pro
Motion to start meeting by Jim Dowd, Joe Dabrowski 2nds it; accepted by Brit Lawlor. Meeting officially starts at 6:05PM.
Tournaments/Rules Report, presented by Joe Dabrowski
Our tournament schedule has basically come to a close throughout September. The big one, was obviously the Club Championship; the results of the event went as follows:
Championship Flight
1st Place – Matt Mirocco – 147
2nd Place – Mike Monastero – 159
3rd Place – Lee Stocker – 162
Ladies Championship Flight
1st Place – Lee Redvanly – 180
2nd Place – Angela Matus – 182
3rd Place – Kathy Dennis – 186
A-Flight
1st Place – Jim Cullen Sr. – 163
2nd Place – Antonio Boutureira – 166
3rd Place – Tom Ford – 168
B-Flight
1st Place – Ray Fell – 171
2nd Place – John Robilotta – 174
3rd Place – Jerry Andritz – 175
C-Flight
1st Place – John Daley – 174
2nd Place – Bob Palermo – 175
T3rd Place – Tom Curley – 178
T3rd Place – Roberto Carreras – 178
D-Flight
1st Place – Bill Herrick – 191
2nd Place – Rich Feinsilver – 193
3rd Place – Mike Mucci – 199
Our Closing Ryder Cup will be held on Saturday, October 21st; deadline to sign up is October 15th. The field will be limited to the first 96 players. Additionally, the annual Turkey Shootout will be held on November 23rd (Thanksgiving). The shotgun will start at 8:30AM, frost permitting.
Looking forward to next season already, myself and Jimmy have a tentative tournament schedule for next year. Everything is essentially in place besides the Club Championship. If we move it back into August, we can’t use both the 1st and 10th tee. Using both tees, we were able to get everybody out on the golf course in a timely manner. Pace of play was much better and we were able to get more and more people to hang out around the scoreboard afterwards. With talks of the Club Championship getting moved, moving aeration also gets brought up. Jimmy states that Ray Fell wants to keep aeration at the end of September. This keeps our greens in great condition during our September membership push. Speaking of, Jimmy states that we have 21 new members as of now and hopefully, we should get another 10 members before the season is over. Going into next season, we will need our membership caps in place.
Violations Report, presented by Jim Dowd
I have nothing.
Special Projects, presented by Ed Santalone
(Led by Jim Von Eschen)
This past Monday and Tuesday, we had course architect, Bill Love up to walk the course (making suggestions) as well as try and have him draw up a practice facility plan. Jimmy states that Ray Fell spoke with Bill Love on the side and said that we want to hire Mr. Love to put together a 5 year plan, with year 1 being immediate. There are areas that we can start doing now, without the help of Bill Love. These projects include widening fairways and areas around the green where we have irrigation already. We plan to widen the fairway of the 8th hole near the green, the back of the 9th green as well as the 14th green. You will also start to see the fairways to widen into the mouth and behind the fairway bunkers on holes such as 1, 9, 18, etc. Anywhere that we already have irrigation, you can expect us to widen the fairways. As far as the back of the 9th green, we are going to have to fill the slope so the drop-off isn’t as severe. Until we get the fill, we can simply cut back the rough, until the decline starts. Chris states that if we sod the runoff area, it will obviously be more costly but it will be playable, quicker.
Jimmy states that Bill Love is going to design a bunker complex for us on the 3rd hole to make you think off of the tee. We are looking at the bunker complex to be at about 100-125 yards out from the green. This way, you have to either carry the bunker, leaving you with a short shot in or lay up and have roughly 130 yards to the green. If we accept this proposal, Love will come back and be very hands on; the 1st plan should be done relatively quickly. Ultimately, Bill [Love] loved everything that we have done over the last 15 years at Bellport. From this 5 year plan, the golf commission will ultimately decide what we will do and what we won’t do. Having this 5 year plan will be good because we will now be following something, rather than just trying to come up with ideas.
Going forward, Jimmy begins to talk about how Bill Love would love to see a double fairway in between the 13th and 16th fairway (over the first bunker on the right, but before the irrigation box). Jimmy states that this wouldn’t necessarily make the golf course easier for the average golfer, but it would add a new element to the golf course. Bill Love stated that he loves the idea, but he would want to see it on the front 9 as well. Again, Jimmy states that he would like to see it in between the 1st, 8th and 18th hole; similar to Maidstone. Chris Johnson states that he likes the idea as long as it is feasible with irrigation.
Going onto the conversation of the sand traps, Brit asks if lighter sand would fall off of the faces of the sand traps; Chris states that it is definitely a possibility. Jimmy and Chris state that in the Spring, we will be adding sand to all the traps to try and make them consistent. The problem is, with all the wind that we see at Bellport, sand will get blown out or blown around the sand traps. Jimmy mentions that Bill Love thinks there is nothing wrong with our bunkers and quite frankly, ours are in good shape. Mr. Love states that because of our location, there will always be rocks in the sand traps (being on Long Island, and being on top of sand). Additionally, he states that more sand will not get rid of the rock problem. Ultimately, it was great having Bill Love and his assistant around Bellport for 2 days.
Men’s Locker Room/Food and Beverage Report, presented by Mike Cioffi
The air conditioning unit in the Grill Room will be getting looked at alongside with Gus and Mike. After speaking with Ray [Fell], he said to work out the problem and let him know how it goes. Jimmy states that the Grill Room was shut down at 5PM today; Mike quickly says that he remembers that being in the lease (October hours). The thing with some of the new members, is that they like to drink late. Jimmy spoke with Ray Fell and he believes that if we’re open to the membership, regardless of the day and time (including Monday), the Grill Room should be open as a service to our members. Mike states that he will review the lease and when the sit down to write a new one, he will help with the lease verbiage.
Superintendent Report, presented by Chris Johnson
Aside from everything that was said previously, aeration is finally finished (both greens and fairways). The weather looks fantastic for our greens and fairways to come back in a timely manner. Quite frankly, the greens are healing good. As of now the mower is just picking up sand, but the greens will be back in great time with this weather. Other than that, everything is good.
Director of Golf Report, presented by Jim Von Eschen
The double tee during the Club Championship worked out perfectly. The pace of play was significantly better than it has been in years past; I think the longest round was about 4:25 minutes (compared to 5+ hours in previous years). In addition to the pace of play, we were able to have almost everybody who competed in the event, hang out afterwards and watch people come in. It is the exact atmosphere that we are looking to create around these tournaments.
Going forward we only have 3 outings left in the season; October 9th, the 12th and the 16th. After that, we’re finished! Two of these outings are make-up dates from rainouts in mid June and early August. The Fuoco Memorial was good. We had some problems with volunteers who drank and took golf carts and the gators through the fairway and through the fescue (specific things that they were told not to do). Additionally, they broke the lock on Gus’ window to use his electricity.
Some of the commission asks how we can eliminate the Fuoco volunteers driving through the fescue/areas where they should not be. Jimmy and John state that every outing drives through areas where they shouldn’t; we try and monitor it as best we can throughout the day. The Fuoco is a longer day, which is most likely why we see more problems. Other than that, all we can do is monitor and be in contact with those who are running the outings and who head the volunteers.
Meeting officially concludes at 6:55PM.