April Okazaki had a strong Back 9 finish to post a Net 64 to capture the Ron Eng Memorial trophy. Kay Yamanaka figured out his swing on the range in the morning and pulled out of his slump to shoot a Gross 78 and Net 64, but was no match in the tiebreaker with April. He did do well with all his side bets and went home with a smile. In the Match Play playoff for the final spot in the bracket we saw Ed Olivier struggle to keep up with Mike Parsons and John Sturges coming down the stretch. Mike Parson had a putt on 18 to secure the final spot, but the miss resulted in a tiebreaker that went to John Sturges.

The two venues for the 2023 Founder’s Cup were top rated courses used for our past NW Invitationals. This may have added another level of prestige to our 2 day tournament. The Reserve North Course hosted not only our 1st round of play, but had the Future Champions Tournament for Juniors on the course behind us. Many of the parents that were part of the gallery walking the course were in danger of getting hit by a golf ball as some of the PCGC players don’t always play in our own fairways. It did appear that Jay Lee and Tim Rodrigues may have found fairways to both post Net 67’s for the rest of the field to chase down. Those that found the soggy rough probably found it to be most punitive.  After a week of summer like weather the local golf courses had a chance to dry out for the 2nd round at Pumpkin Ridge Ghost Creek, that offered some great conditions for us to make a run on the leaders. Toshio Sakuma took advantage with a Net 65 and was able to catch Tim, but not quite good enough to take the Cup from our Champion Jay Lee.

In the Match Play Qualifying Round the final spot for the Bracket Round is still up for grabs for 3 players that will be determined at our next outing at Stone Creek.

The trip to Elk Ridge requires the crossing of The Bridge of the Gods with a toll of $2.00, but inflation hit and it was $3.00 to cross this year. I guess Lek has to increase his side bets by $1 to have toll money to get back home. The round started with a cloudy day until our “rain dancers” opened the sky for us in the back nine. The dampness of the greens were challenging as the aerated greens were still sandy which didn’t make putting that easy.  At Hole #14 Brandon Vanderberg drove the green on the Par 4 to give himself more putting opportunities. Tim Rodrigues made it easy for himself as he kept sticking it close as we can see his name on numerous KP’s.  It was however not enough as he was edged out by Shane Starr for first place.

We head North for Three Rivers to get some of the driest course conditions in the area, however no one told the weatherman we were coming. There was a cold wind with rain, showers, sun break and back to rain. Bruce Locke has gotten soft living in California as he was put on “survival mode” to play in this weather. When asked what happens if it rains in California on the day of Golf and his reply was “Stay Home”. It sure didn’t seem to bother Carl Louie as he plays golf year round and has trained for this moment by sticking a 66 on the Leader Board.

The season kicked off at Glendoveer East where 26 players braved some intermittent showers for our Opening Day. This year the course was dry enough to allow golf carts and some even opted for the adventurous Golf Boards.  Phil Robles must have been practicing over the Winter as he had the sharpest game to take 1st with a Net 71.  April Okazaki impressed coming home as she had a “Birdie” at both Hole #16 and # 17. The first Par 3 of the day had a diabolical pin placement that was only missing the “Clown’s Mouth” as 5, 6, 7 and 8 were found on many scorecards. I just wonder if the greenskeeper may have been Carl Spackler??

The Club Championship came down to a tiebreaker where 1st round leader Skyler Felton was caught on the second day by Ryan Oliver with a net 66 and prevailed based on the a better second round score. Clark Louie held off the Senior Division and secured his hardware for 2022.  Shigeo Fukushima posted 163 to hold off Yoshio Matsuzaki by one shot to take home the Lawrence Lee Championship Trophy.  The weather was nice for both days and after the Sunday round club members went to Mike Parsons house to celebrate Championship Weekend.

The Final Four of Match Play was contested at Mint Valley GC in Longview, Washington. They are famous for the Mint Valley Burger and John Sturges convinced the board to sponsor a lunch for the members. We had Laville Fendors vs Carl Louie and Ed Olivier vs Gunar Meneks to determine who would make it to the Finals. Laville was 1 up going into #17, but his tee shot found the water and Carl took advantage to tie it up going into #18. Having to give a stroke Carl took an agressive line on the tee shot and found the fairway bunker. Laville played it safe and found the fairway and kept the pressure on Carl to win the hole outright and to go 1 UP for the match and a spot in the Finals. Gunar was not only down 1 but also had to give up a stoke on the final hole, which put the pressure of making Par or better to keep hope alive. Gunar did manage to make his par, but Ed capitalized with a bogey to secure a 1 UP victory to meet Laville in the next round for the Crown.

The Finals was contested at Heron Lakes Greenback between Laville Fendors and Ed Olivier. Laville put the match in dormie at Hole #15 and with a timely par at Hole #17 the match with over with the score of 3 &1.

The Consolation Match for 3rd place was contested at McNary GC where it came down to the 18th all square. Carl and Gunar both made double bogey 7 at the Par 5, but since Carl had to give a stoke he ended up losing the Match.

Congratulations to Laville Fendors for becoming the 2022 Match Play Champion.

The Ralph Moe Memorial landed on one of the hottest weekends of the summer as temperatures in the mid 90’s was a good test of the mental game. We had a three way tie on top of the leaderboard with Net Scores of 69.  Congratulations to June Hall who used the back nine tiebreaker of 34.5 to take home the hardware and happened to play with the competitors she beat out in her group namely Hank Lawrence and Cherie Anderson. The rest of the field was finding ways to beat the heat and didn’t put too much pressure on June Hall.

The Founders Cup started at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club which was gearing up for the upcoming LIV Golf event in July. A forecast of showers turned into a downpour that made for soggy course conditions. Bobby Lee should not have anything to complain about with a net 69 and leader in the clubhouse despite the weather. Then Skylar Felton comes in with a net 63 to take over the lead and something for Bobby to talk about. The 2nd round at Stone Creek brought a perfect day of sun at Stone Creek and Skylar Felton holds on to take home the Founders Cup. The PCGC sponsored a Burger BBQ for the members after the round and it was the perfect day on the deck to have a club social event.

A beautiful day of 70 degrees welcome the PCGC to the Salem Golf Club for competition for the Ron Eng Memorial Trophy. A net score of 72 was the low mark of the day as John Sturges won the tiebreaker with a better back nine to hold off Dale “1b” Okazaki. There were many first timers to play Salem GC for some of our members and guests, as the layout confused a couple of groups that ended up at the wrong tee box and was sent back to the right one. The patches of white clover on the course helped camouflaged some golf balls and it may have been a better idea to use a colored ball instead.  The round also served as the first qualifying round for the Match Play Bracket and the next opportunity will be at our outing at Pumpkin Ridge.

The weather watch for the Columbia Gorge was a forecast for snow in April. As Sunday approached we had 9 groups on standby in case of a snow storm, but it was just a few showers in front of our drive east to Carson, Washington. We did have to brave the cold wind and then a shower mixed with snow challenged us on the opening holes, but later settled into a pretty nice day. There were some naturally insulated golfers that didn’t need winter gear and actually still wore shorts, but some of us were bundled up and ready for the slopes. The restaurant was closed so the groups came into the clubhouse to warm up and watched the Masters as the rest of the club finished their round. It was a fun day for many of the members who bought remote control electric golf carts and ran them around the course. Clark Louie still needs to read the owners manual for his unit, as the guy in the Pro Shop pointed out that someone has a runaway golf cart outside and we realized Clark must have been playing with his remote in his pocket.

We had 28 players drive up to Longview, Washington in spite of the rising gas prices to enjoy a warm spring day of golf. The course was having a tournament and we teed off about 15 minutes behind our original assigned tee time.  The pace was set with the groups on the course and overall our club kept within reasonable time.  Rian Kindig must have watched a bit of MacGyver to engineer his repair job on his pushcart at the first tee. It was a beautiful sight to see the golf ball get forward roll instead of being stuck in the mud last week. Joe Ito took full advantage as he had the Low Net of 68 and Kelvin Onchi had a Low Gross of 78. Kay Yamanaka hit all the greens for the Par 3’s to earn the maximum 4 tickets for the next drawing.  We all gathered at the 18th green as the later groups finished and there was just a little pressure on those putts as all eyes of the gallery were watching.