Very limited activity with the golf club this year, in fact we only held the Tom Stead – Bob Simonson Scramble at Rio Vista GC on Saturday, July 29th. The Tournament was set up by Ed Vegas, we had 16 players with some of them regulars from Rio Vista GC. We raised $ 600.00 for the American Heart Assoc. in Tom’s and Bob’s memory, total to date $ 10,174.00.
The 2023 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, April 29th starting at 10:04 am. We played on an absolutely beautiful day, temperature in the mid 80’s with the normal prevailing wind coming up in the afternoon. We played one day before a predicted major cool down. Play was again from the up front green tees which made for lots of fun. The greens were in good shape but very slow ruining quite a few birdie chances. In the first flight it was Steve Blotzer and Dave Pearce teaming up to win first place repeating their win from last year with a net score of 69 (2 birdies). Also winning first place was the team of John Askin and John Santamaria with net 69 (2 birdies), also in first place was Dean Dye whose partner didn’t show up with a net 69 (1 birdie). Floyd Duggins teamed up with Rio Vista regular Wayne Antoque to take second place with a net 70 (2 birdies). Home course favorite Ed Vegas teamed up with Al Thacker to also finish in second place with a net 70 (1 birdie). The Larry and Glenn Campbell team finished third with a net 73 (1 birdie). The Mike and Sandie Cook team tied for third place with a net 73 (1 birdie). The Rick and Matt Simonson team who didn’t have an established handicap played for fun and had a good time. The Valero Golf Club’s closest to the pins on the front nine were won by Larry Campbell and John Askin, on the back nine it was Wayne Antoque and John Askin, each received a sleeve of the Callaway tour soft golf balls contributed by Ed Vegas. Steve Blotzer also took one point for being the closest Valero Player on # 13. The first place team members split $80.00, second place $60.00, third place $40.00. Our thanks go out to Ed Vegas for setting up the tournament and arranging for reduced green fees for us. Thanks to the winning team members who gave back their prize money and added it to our donation, we raised $600.00, plus generous contributions from Don Scribner, Nemon Williamson and Rio Vista’s Ronald Auger for the American Heart Association in Tom’s and Bob’s names. We broke a milestone, total to date is now $10,174.00.
2023 was the 22nd 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. 2023 started out with the Mulligans in first place after week # 1 & # 2.. The Rovers and the Mulligans tied for first in week # 3 then the Rovers alone for week # 4, the Mulligans then took the top spot in week # 5 and comfortably held it until the last week of the regular season. At the end of the regular season the first place team (the Mulligans) received a bye. The second place Birds and the third place Rovers played off on August 30th to determine who would play the Mulligans in the Championship Finals. The Rovers won 8.5 to 1.5 and advanced on to play the Mulligans on September 6th, 2023. The Rovers who found themselves in fourth place going into the final week of the season came through to finish in third place. They won their first playoff match and then faced the Mulligans in the Finals. The Rovers went on to win 5.5 to 2.5 and claim their seventh league championship. The finals match was videoed this year by Mike Cook. The Rovers finished first, the team consisted of Steve Duff, Nick Alexander, Frank Hartig, Kyle Massaro, Tyler Mortensen, Tony Schiwal, Brad Stephens and Rob Winn. The Mulligans finished second, the team consisted of Dexter Nigos, Sean Black, Ed Colonna, John Cupp, Ron Hall, Dale Maus, Eddie Pereira, and Daniel Reyes. The Birds finished third, the team consisted of James Johnson, Pete Asselin, Ray Castro, George Cruz., Andrew Estrada, Mason England, Jim Minkel, and Bill Schroll. The Seadlings finished fourth, the team consisted of Ken Hoehn, Jason Allen, Glen Campbell, Josh Lundholm, Bill Quessenberry, Antony Stelly, Mike Trevino, and Johnath Zychowicz. The Hackers Unlimited finished fifth, the team consisted of Ben LaFountain, Mo Abueida, Jake Finnegan, Ryan Murphy, Steve Millicevich, Tim Rickabaugh, Bradley Rupert and Danny Weir. The Tennis Pros finished sixth, the team consisted of Doug Nelson, Fred Foote, Sanjeet Kamat, Ben Osborne, Eddie Pereira Jr., Pat Ponce, Dale Ramirez and Antonio Santiago. In the individual rankings this year; Sean Black started out the year as # 1 and held it through week # 2, James Johnson took over # 1 in week # 3 and held it through week # 7, in week # 8 Steve Duff took # 1 and held it for one week. In week # 9 Dan Weir took # 1 for one week. In week # 10 Steve Duff held # 1 until the end of Week # 13. In week # 14 Pete Asselin and Dexter Nigos held # 1 together through week # 15. After the first round of the playoffs Dexter Nigos took # 1 by himself. After the Championship Finals Steve Duff finished the year as # 1 and ended up the # 1 ranked golfer for the year. Yearlong individual honors went to Pete Asselin who was the SOLO CUP Champion for the year for the second year in a row. John Cupp was the runner-up. Pete Asselin broke the record for low gross score on Blue Rock – West, back nine, white tees with a 35 and Blue Rock East front nine, white tees with an even par 35. Josh Lundholm tied the runner-up record, low gross on Blue Rock – East front nine white tees. Nick Alexander and Pete Aselin tied the runner-up record for low gross score in the playoffs on Blue Rock West front nine. Nick Alexander made an Eagle two on the par four 4th hole on Blue Rock west in the playoffs. In Post season play the two person scramble tournament was won by the team of Steve Duff and Jason Allen. The three club tournament was won by ???.The VGL completed another entire season and we look forward to another great season in 2024. Mike Cook
