The Poplar Post – October 2024
October 2024 - From the Editor
The 2023-24 season has come to a close and the new season starts in a couple of weeks with the
Senior Championship on October 24. The past year was marked by poor course conditions caused
by lack of water, which problem has apparently been rectified (See the message from the General
Manager below). With the new season and improved conditions, I hope we can get away from lift,
clean and place for both tournaments and skin games on Thursdays. I am tired watching players hit
ugly shots behind trees, then taking a club length relief to extricate themselves without any penalty.
Or players whose ball lies in grass in the fairway but just not the way they like it so the ball is teed up
a little better. Or rolling the ball over in the bunker because the player doesn't like the lie. True, we
have a public links course and a percentage of the general public doesn't know how or doesn't give
a damn about properly caring for the course. We are not California Club or the Olympic Club.
Course conditions are not going to be perfect. Remember – Champions Adjust!!!
Because of lift, clean and place, I would opine that, in general, handicaps are probably 1 to 2 index
points lower than they should be which puts the player at a disadvantage when he plays in NCGA
events or in tournaments at other courses. The other side of the coin is those players who do not
enter low scores who are commonly called bags of a loose granular material that results from the
disintegration of rocks, consisting of particles smaller than gravel but coarser than silt, and is used
in mortar, glass, abrasives, and foundry molds. But handicaps will be the subject of a later diatribe.
So if the water situation is under control and the course is getting back into good shape, let us
remember to keep it that way by replacing divots, raking bunkers, fixing ball marks on the green and
doing whatever else is necessary to take care of the course. Maybe it is time for the course to start
putting soil bottles on carts.
President's Message
Hope everyone had a good end of Summer! We held our Tournament of Champions (TOC) on
September 28th and Andy Kishore took home the title this year. Congratulations Andy! On October
3rd, we had our Annual Meeting, and it went off smoothly. At the meeting, we announced the 2024-
2025 Tournament Schedule. You will find it in this newsletter as well. Our next tournament will be
the Senior Club Championship, with three flights based on age. It will take place on Thursday,
October 24th with a start time of 10:00 AM. Registration is open on Golf Genius (accessible through
PCGC.net). This issue has an update from the GM, Kevin Kobayashi, which goes into course
conditions and water status. If you have played the course recently, you will see that the grass is
really coming back, and the course is playing better. Can't wait for our next full tournament out
there (NCGA 4-Man Qualifier) where we will hopefully be able to play the ball down! As always, the
entire board of directors, along with the other officers and myself, are always here to listen to any
suggestions you might have to improve the club and tournament experience. Please do not ever
hesitate to reach out to any of us. Looking forward to seeing all of you at the next tournament!
Jason Pollard
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News from the General Manager
Hello Club Members,
Hopefully, your summer is going well, and your golf games are better than the course
conditions! All kidding aside, I hope you've had a chance to play the course this past month and
have seen first-hand the incredible work Tim Powers and our maintenance team have done to get
the course back to ideal playing conditions. I know how tough our current irrigation well situation
has been on course conditions. In a nutshell, our irrigation well located on hole 2 is 25 years old
and no longer pulling enough water out of the ground to keep up with our operational needs.
A huge team effort between the City of San Mateo, City of Burlingame, and San Mateo Consolidated
Fire Department allowed the golf course staff to get some much-needed water from an onsite fire
hydrant to supplement our well water. The fire department was gracious enough to lend us 1,700
feet of 5-inch diameter fire hose. We hooked up the fire hose and turned on the water on
September 6. In just under a month, we've pulled over 5.3 million gallons of water from that fire
hydrant and put it into the retention ponds on hole 2! Our irrigation system then pumps water from
those two ponds out onto the course. The effort and cost to get this water is extremely high, but I
hope you all would agree, it was desperately needed to get our playing conditions back to where
they needed to be.
The City's next objective to resolve this issue is to present a capital improvement project to drill a
second irrigation well to city council for their approval this fall. If everything goes as planned, we
anticipate breaking ground on this project in the spring of 2025. We should have enough water after
completion of this project to avoid the same turf issues we experienced this past summer for years
to come. If you see any of our maintenance crew members at the course the next time you are at
Poplar, please thank them for the incredible work they do every day!
Tournament Results
Tournament of Champions
To round out the season, the Tournament of Champions was held on September 28 at the very
difficult Coyote Creek Tournament Course. Some players found the course less difficult than
finding the correct golf cart and which tees to play. In any case, Andy Kishore prevailed as the
champion of the tournament. Finishing second was PCGC Club Champion Paul Karson.
Flight winners
Flight 1
1..Paul Karson
2. Art White
3. Art Klein
Flight 2
Andy Kishore
Alex Alvarez
Joe Cioni
Flight 3
Frank Parcell
Dave Delbon
Walter Koning
Flight 4
Joe Fernando
Joel Spielman
Steve Rueda
3
Two Man Scramble Tournament September 2
The penultimate tournament of the season in which two players did not show, leaving their partners
to play alone with no chance of placing. Completely unacceptable behavior, notwithstanding
empty apologies. An interesting format in which, on each nine holes, each partner's drive and
second shot must be used at least four times which places a high level of importance on tactics.
(As an aside, query, if a team makes two holes in one in the same nine, it is impossible for each
player to hit four second shots on that nine. Are they DQ'ed?)
Flight 1 Winners
1. Al Bogenhuber-James Abayon
2. Paul and Thomas Montserrat
3. Art White-Dave Butzman
Annual Meeting
Flight 2 Winners
1. Tim Cole-Steve Rueda
2. Felila Esikia-Rob Carballar
3. Manny Casillas-Joe Fernando
The annual meeting of the membership was held
on October 3. The following were elected as
officers and directors for the coming year.
President – Jason Pollard
Vice President – Joe Cioni
Secretary – Larry Shaw
Sargeant-at-Arms – Kevin O'Malley
Directors –
Jim Lambrechts
Marty Lambrechts
Tim Anderson
Manny Casillas
Greg Cary
Andy Kishore
Randy Gubert
Scott Rehn
Walter Koning
President Jason Pollard addresses the membership at the Annual Meeting
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2024-2025 Schedule
2024
Thursday October 24 – Senior Championship
Saturday November 2 – NCGA Four-Man Team Qualifying Round to represent Poplar Creek
Saturday November 16 – Turkey Shoot
Saturday December 7 – ABCD Santa Ball
Friday Dember 13 – Holiday Party
2025
Saturday January 11 – 2 Man Razzle Dazzle
Saturday January 25 – 4-Man Scramble
Saturday February 8 – NCGA Four-Ball Qualifying Round (Two-man team event)
Saturday February 22 – Beat the Pro, Prez and General Manager
Saturday March 15 – Qualifying Round for Match Play Tournament
Sunday March 16 – Match Play Tournament Round of 32
Saturday March 22 – Match Play Tournament Rounds of 16 and 8
Sunday March 23 – Match Play Tournament – Semi-Finals and Finals
Tuesday April 1 – Greens aeration
Saturday April 5 – Away tournament #1, course TBD
Saturday April 19 – NCGA Individual Net Tournament Qualifying Round
Saturday May 3 – NCGA Senior Four-Ball Net Qualifying Round
Saturday May 17 – 5 Club Tournament
Saturday May 31 – 1,2,3 Best Ball Tournament
Saturday June 14 – Away Tournament #2, course TBD
Saturday June 28 – Foursome Tournament ( 2 man alternate shot – Chapman format)
Saturday July 12 – 4 man ABCD Scramble
Saturday July 26 – Away Tournament #3, course TBD
Saturday, Sunday August 16, 17 – Club Championship
Monday August 18 – Greens aeration
Saturday September 6 – 2 man scramble
Saturday September 27 – Tournament of Champions, Course TBD
12-Man Team
The Cinderella run of the 12-man team came to an end as our warriors were eliminated by Silver
Creek Country Club 21-15 on September 5. But it was good season for the group, making it into the
elimination round for the first time in a few years and reaching the second round after a win over
Spring Hills in August. Something to build on for future years.
Poplar Cup
Final Standings for 2024 Season
1. Art White
2. Bret Evans
3. Joshua Baltor
1,220 points
935 points
930 points
5
Rules Corner
Answer to last month's question. His score on the hole is 9. Drive into penalty area (1). Hitting a
wrong ball (2 stroke penalty). Hitting out of the penalty area (4). Picking up ball without marking it
(1 stroke penalty). Hitting it from wrong place (2 stroke penalty) – However, Exception to Rule
1.3c(4) – If a player is required to replace a moved ball under Rule 9.4 but fails to do so and plays
from a wrong place, they get only the General Penalty under Rule 14.7a (Golf math 1+2=2). Hitting
onto green and 2 putts 7, 8 and 9.
In match play, there are either one-stroke penalties or loss of hole penalties. The only two-stroke
penalty in match play is if a player is in a bunker, decides to take unplayable lie relief (either laterally
or back of the line) for a one stroke penalty, then decides to play from out of the bunker for another
stroke penalty.
This month's question-which appeared in a Southern California Golf Association Rules Exam
several years ago:
Scott hits his tee shot from the teeing area of a par-3 hole and the ball comes to rest in a playable
position within a yellow penalty area. Scott plays his original ball further into the penalty area
where it can't be retrieved. He then drops a ball under stroke-and-distance relief, which rolls into
deep water within the relief area. Scott abandons that ball and plays another ball from the teeing
area, which comes to rest on the putting green. He takes two putts to hole out and tees off on the
next hole. What is Scott's score for the hole?
A. 6 B. 7 C, 8 D. 9
Point to Ponder
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.