16 THE CHARBONNEAU VILLAGER
Charbonneau
Men’s Club
By JOHN MCLAIN
Mark your calendars
for our upcoming
events
Why do you
love to play
golf? Some of
our members
tell me it’s all
about the
friends and ca-
MCLAIN
maraderie. For
others, it’s the
exercise of walking the course.
And of course, there is the game
of golf, often with a few bucks on
the line. Money-winnings is also a
way some golfers measure their
love of the game. While there
may only be $5 on the line for
that final putt on the 18th hole,
for some members, it is the same
pressure putt as the recent PGA
event on TV, where the final putt
meant a difference of $700,000 be-
tween first and second place.
Okay, so we don’t really know
the same pressure here at Char-
bonneau, but many members love
the thrill of competition with
their friends. All of these are
good reasons to join the Men’s
Club for golf and social events
planned throughout the March
through October golf season,
February 2020
whether you want to play nine
holes or 18 holes, or both.
GHIN and World Handicap Sys-
tem got off to a rough start in Janu-
ary. There were several problems
with new systems provided by
OGA/USGA. But, by the time this
article is published, perhaps things
have settled down. Bill Moir and
Mike Lucich are leading the way to
get things up and running in the
new system. Change is always
hard, but the purpose of change is
to make things better, fairer and
easier; two of out three so far.
Jim Gibbons will lead an educa-
tional seminar about rules and
handicapping in March (see below
in this article). There is a lot to
learn this year so mark your calen-
dar now for March 21.
Men’s Club Board is busy plan-
ning and organizing for the 2020 sea-
son of golf and social events. The
major events for the 2020 season are
already published on the Men’s Club
website under the golf menu. A full
schedule of all the play days and so-
cial events will be published in
March. The board has been expand-
ed from nine members to 12, due to
all the amount of work that needs to
be done to organize about 100 play
days and about 20 major events
each year. This includes golf, social
and educational topics for our mem-
bers. The membership has grown
about 10% in the past few years, to
more than 250 in 2019, and we have
budgeted for that many again in
2020. However, we did have to in-
crease the dues in order to break
even (revenues equal to expenses)
in 2020. We don’t yet know the im-
pact on membership of this change,
but the board still feels it is a good
value for our members. The Men’s
Club website has a list of the board
members and the various commit-
tees, under the admin menu (look
for boards and committees). We are
always appreciative of volunteers to
take on small tasks to make sure we
don’t burn out a few members who
are trying to do it all by themselves.
Even if you are spending the winter
in southern states, you can help
with scoring, be on setup and clean-
up teams for social events, or sub in
for a committee person who is on
vacation. Please read the boards and
committees page and consider vol-
unteering.
Spencer Groshong and a few of
his friends really love golf and play
through the winter months of De-
cember and January here at Char-
bonneau. Six to 22 golfers are often
seen trying to warm up in the Turn
after a round of golf. After enduring
cold, wind and rain, they are still
smiling and having fun because
they love the game of golf. Other
groups of members play here and
at other courses too; often Langdon,
Stone Creek, and OGA in Wood-
burn. Once in a while, I get an email
or picture from members playing in
warm climates of southern states
— envy anyone?
Bill Moir is leading a team of
Men’s Club members, as well as
helping the Niners and CWGA ex-
pand the use of “Golf Genius” for
scoring our Charbonneau golf
events. Bill is a natural teacher and
gets great reviews about his work-
shops and training sessions for all
three clubs. This Golf Genius soft-
ware is a national standard used by
golf courses around the country.
We also use it to print out the
scorecards for our golf events. If
anyone wants to help out and learn
a little bit about golf games and
scoring an event, please contact Bill
or me.
John McLain — As President of
the Men’s Club, I am optimistic
about golf at Charbonneau. The
current operating agreement be-
tween CGC (Charbonneau Golf
Club) and CCC (Charbonneau
Country Club) will allow all the
clubs (Men’s, CWGA, Niners) to
better utilize the new covered gar-
den terrace for our events (current-
ly under construction). CGC can al-
so use the Country Club facilities to
host larger corporate and private
golf and social events, which is pre-
dicted to close the financial profit-
ability gap that has been a burden
in past years. This is likely a win-
win agreement for everyone, but
time will tell.
Of course, there is also the im-
pending “offer to merge” that, as
this is being written, has not yet
been revealed by CGC. They have
estimated that the offer will be re-
vealed soon, perhaps around the
time this article is published in Feb-
ruary. According to the CGC presi-
dent at a recent public meeting, the
offer is expected to include benefits
to the entire community of Char-
bonneau, as well as golfers too.
Mergers are always complicated
and take more time than you feel
they should. I am optimistic be-
cause I sincerely hope that the two
entities of CGC and CCC can do
more for the community as a whole,
See MEN’S CLUB / Page 17