The 2024 Tom Stead-Bob Simonson Memorial Scramble with the two person scramble format and low net scores used was sponsored by Mike and Sandie Cook and held at Rio Vista GC on Saturday, May 18th starting at 10:00 am. Each player was asked to contribute $ 20.00 to the American Heart Association. We played on a very very windy day, temperature in the low 70’s. Play was thankfully again from the up front green tees which made it possible to reach some of the greens. The greens were in good shape, much better than last year, lots of birdies were made. In the first flight it was Cash Campbell and Glenn Campbell teaming up to win first place with a net score of 66 (4 birdies). Ed Vegas teamed up with Rio Vista regular Glen Hahn to take second place with a net 67 (4 birdies). Also finishing in second place was the team of Ron Chalmers and Dave D’ Arche with a net 67 (6 birdies). The Gene Richards and John Santa Maria team finished third with a net 68 (1 birdie), also in third place was the team of John Askin and Jim Rostec with a net 68 (5 birdies). The closest to the pins were expanded so The Valero Golfers and the Rio Vista Golfers had their own markers for CP’s. The Valero golfers closest to the pins went to Mike Cook and Rick Carr (with two), the Rio Vista golfers closest to the pins went to Gary Hahn, Gene Richards, John Askin and Ron Chalmers. Each Valero golfer received a sleeve of the Titleist PV1’s golf balls contributed by Mike and Sandie Cook. The Rio Vista golfers received Titleist AVX golf balls contributed by Ed Vegas. The first place team members split $80.00, second place $60.00, third place $40.00. Other teams that played; Carr-Hurst, Pearce-Yarbrough, Campbell-Cook, Devlin-Tegenkamp and Ament-Dye. Our thanks go out to Ed Vegas for setting up the tournament and arranging for reduced green fees for us and the Rio Vista golfers, a great group of guys. Thanks to some of the winning team members who gave back their prize money and added it to our donation, we raised a total $680.00, some of that coming from players that couldn’t attend, Floyd Duggins plus a generous contribution from Don Scribner, Rio Vista’s Ronald Auger and George Barlesi for the American Heart Association in Tom’s and Bob’s names. Total to date is now $10,854.00.
See other tournament player photos below
Other Players for the Tournament
2024 was the 23rd year for the Valero Golf League, play continued on the Blue Rock West and East courses. The league continued to be nine hole team play starting officially at 4:30 pm every Wednesday. Playing were 6 teams of 8 players each. Steve Duff continued as the League President, Ken Hoehn continued as the League Statistician. 2024 started out with the Hackers Unlimited in first place after weeks # 1 & 2. The Mulligans took over in week # 3, then the Hackers again for weeks # 4 & 5. The Mulligans then took the top spot in week # 6 and held it until week # 9. The Birds took first in week # 10, the Mulligans again in week # 11, the Hackers took over in week # 12 and held it until week # 14. The Mulligans made a big run and ended the regular season in the top spot. This year a change in the playoff format now has the first place team at the end of the regular season select which 2nd, 3rd or 4th place team it wants to play in the first round of the playoffs, the remaining two teams playoff for the second first round in the playoffs. On Sept. 11th the first place team (the Mulligans) chose the 4th place Tennis Pros in the first round leaving the second place Birds playing the third place Hackers in the other playoff spot. The Tennis Pros won their match over the Mulligans 5.5 to 2.5 and the Birds won their match over the Hackers 7.0 to 1.0. The Championship match was played on a very hot day (102 degrees at tee off) Oct. 2nd with the Birds winning over the Tennis Pros 8.0 to 2.0 claiming their fourth league championship. The finals match was videoed this year by Mike Cook. The Birds finished first, the team consisted of James Johnson, Pete Asselin, Ray Castro, George Cruz., Andrew Estrada, Brian Engell, Jim Minkel, and Bill Schroll. The Tennis Pros finished second, the team consisted of Doug Nelson, Fred Foote, Sanjeet Kamat, Ben Osborne, Eddie Pereira Jr., Pat Ponce, Dale Ramirez and Antonio Santiago. The Mulligans finished third, the team consisted of Sean Black, Ed Colonna, Mike Burzynski, John Cupp, Ron Hall, Shawn Sladek, Eddie Pereira, and Michael Thetford. The Hackers Unlimited finished fourth, the team consisted of Ben LaFountain, Jake Finnegan, Ryan Murphy, Steve Millicevich, Zack Porschien, Sean Hall, Bradley Rupert and Danny Weir. The Seadlings finished fifth, the team consisted of Ken Hoehn, Jason Allen, Glenn Campbell, Josh Lundholm, Bill Quessenberry, Antony Stelly, Mike Trevino, and Matt Covert. The Rovers finished sixth, the team consisted of Steve Duff, Nick Alexander, Frank Hartig, Serena Coker, Tyler Mortensen, Tony Schiwal, Brad Stephens and Rob Winn. In the individual rankings this year; Steve Duff started out the year as # 1 and held it through week # 2, Ed Colonna took over # 1 in week # 3 and held it one week. Steve Duff retook # 1 in week #4 and held it through week # 6. Glenn Campbell took over # 1 in week # 7 and held it until week # 10. Sean Hall took # 1 in week # 11 for one week. Ray Castro achieved # 1 in week # 12 and held it through the regular season and both playoffs to finish the year and be the # 1 ranked golfer for 2024. Yearlong individual honors went to Ray Castro who broke the record for the most medal points won through the playoffs, tied the medal point winning percentage in the regular season and through the playoffs and tied the runner-up record for total points through the playoffs. Pete Asselin who broke the record in the playoffs for low gross score on Blue Rock – East, front nine, white tees with a 35. Antonio Santiago broke the playoff record for low net score on Blue Rock – East, front nine, white tees with a net 30. Glenn Campbell tied the runner-up record in the regular season for the low net score on Blue Rock – West front nine white tees with a 26. The most improved handicaps for the year were; 1st – Glenn Campbell, 12-6, 2nd – Dale Ramirez, 6-4, 3rd – Ron Hall, 10-7, 4th – Ray Castro, 16-12 and 5th – Mike Burzynski, 13-10. No official post season play was held because of some operational problems at the refinery. The SOLO CUP was not held this year. The VGL completed another entire season and we look forward to another great season in 2025. Mike Cook
