Paradise Valley
Kooman Boycheff Memorial
9th Event of 2005 Season
2nd Major Tournament of Season
Saturday, May 7, 2005
(This is the event which we honor Kooman Boycheff, the founder of our club.)

David Moers with the coveted blue jacket. This was his first Major.

Moers Ekes out a Victory

This tournament was one of the more adventurous stories we've experienced. To start, David Moers, the eventual Low Gross victor, barely made it to the clubhouse. Early in the round David was on fire. In fact, through the opening fourteen holes David was 1-under par. Standing on the 15th tee, the tournament was entirely his to lose; He nearly succeeded. Had he parred out he would have easily captured low gross and he would have also earned overall low net (however, a player can only claim one championship award). David did not par out. Instead he finished out with three bogies and a double bogey. He crawled into the clubhouse and waited to see if anyone else came in with a better score. Several were close, but only Jimmy Ikeda was able to match David's 76. Saul Geiser came in with a 77. A bogey at #15 was partly to blame. Saul is no stranger to finishing one stroke behind the leaders; At last year's Kooman Boycheff Saul shot 76 and finished alone in second, one stroke behind Jim Peretti. This year David Lozow also finished one stroke behind. A bogey on #18 kept him out of the playoff. So the playoff was between David Moers and Jimmy Ikeda. This was each player's first-ever club playoff.

While David Moers had stumbled into the clubhouse, Jimmy Ikeda had played much more steadily. He shot 38 on the front and 38 on the back. Although he took a bogey at #18, he managed par over the previous six holes. Jimmy's worst hole was #11, where he carded a double bogey. Jimmy's scorecard was comprised of two birdies (#6 and #10), eleven pars, four bogies, and one double bogey. David Moers' scorecard included three birdies (#3, #4, and #14), nine pars, five bogies, and a double bogey. The playoff was bound to be interesting. And it seemed to favor Jimmy, who had played his last seven holes at 1-over par as compared with David who played the last four holes at 5 over par.

The Playoff

David Moers and Jimmy Ikeda faced each other in a playoff for overall low gross. After completing his round, David Moers sat in the clubhouse waiting for the likely contenders to return. The wait was very beneficial to Moers, who needed to forget his play over the previous four holes. The two headed to the 1st hole. David striped a drive down the middle while Jimmy pulled his drive into the trees left of the fairway, past the trap. David hit three wood 15’ short of the green. With his second shot Jimmy punched an iron beneath the trees to 150 yards out. Jimmy then knocked it over the green and beyond the trees behind the green. David hit his third shot to 6-feet from the hole. From beyond the green, Jimmy’s fourth shot went over the trees, hit in the hole and bounced out to 20-feet from the hole. (Had it stayed in it would have been a birdie and David would have been faced with a knee-knocker to stay in the playoff.) Jimmy missed his 20-foot par putt and made bogey while David holed out his birdie putt.

This year - Where was Steve? Where was Ken? Where was Defending Champion Jim Peretti???

Steve was playing. At least that's what others recall. Steve is still trying to forget his round, which included a triple bogey at #13. Without the triple Steve, who shot 78, would have won the low gross outright. Ken Lloyd, who's always a strong performer in the Kooman, was in Muncie, Indiana, at Ball State (not Golf Ball State) where his son was graduating with his Masters degree. Jim was busy too. For shame, Jim...

The Blue Jacket

Having recently watched the Masters at Augusta, Club President Walburg was wondering why our Masters didn't have a jacket ceremony as does the "real" Masters. On Friday before the event he hit a thrift store and found a blue jacket to serve as a prop for our own "Blue Jacket" ceremony. The jacket was perfect! It was the perfect hue of blue, so that it would register as blue. Most jackets are dark blue and often register as black. Upon learning about this jacket, Kelly Alvarez suggested that it serve not only the winner of overall low gross, but also the winner of overall low net. "I want a chance to win the jacket too!", he protested. And so it will be... For now we will use it as a prop for photos at the award ceremony. Other suggestions included that we embroider a Cal Golf logo on the blazer to make it our own. We'll look into these ideas.

New GOY Leader: David Moers

Last Month Ken Lloyd and Dennis Smith were tied for the lead in the annual Golfer of the Year contest. After his major win, David Moers has catapulted himself into the lead. By one stroke over Dennis Smith. As always, this season promises to be an exciting GOY finale.

Tournament Squeezed in between two Storm Fronts

We've been truly lucky all season with our weather. This tournament was no exception. Forecasts provide an excellent visual representation of our good fortune, a small opening between storm fronts. Saturday we were blessed with nice weather: 60-degrees at 9am, up to 70-degrees by 3pm. It was partly cloudy with winds from the Southwest at up to 15 mph.

Paradise Valley History: Love at First Site

The club first played Paradise Valley in 1995. It was immediately perceived as a fun course and a great value. Paradise Valley opened in 1993 and the board moved quickly to add the course on its schedule. (The board must approve of our schedule. The schedule is usually assembled and presented to the board for approval by the Club Manager, Steve Desimone, a year in advance.) After holding our first event in 1995, Tim Jackson, at a board meeting on December 12, 1995, motioned to hold the Kooman Boycheff at Paradise Valley for the second year running. The motion passed. Then Van Hall moved that Paradise Valley serve as the permanent site of the Kooman Boycheff Memorial -- the UCGC’s version of the Masters at Augusta. Charlie Flowers seconded and the motion passed unanimously. Since first visiting the course in 1995, we've held the Kooman Boycheff there every year.

Paradise Valley History: Always Very Exciting

Paradise Valley has historically been the site of our most exciting finishes. To start, there is a rich history of playoffs occurring at Paradise Valley. In fact our very first tournament, held in 1995, was the site of a three-person playoff between Steve Desimone, Ken Lloyd, and Fernando Delmendo which lasted for four holes. Steve won the playoff. Four of our five most recent playoffs have occurred at Paradise Valley. Aside from playoffs we've had some crazy endings at Paradise Valley. Last year's 2004 Kooman Boycheff Tournament was no exception when Jim Peretti and Steve Sanguinetti were first time major winners. Jim's back nine was filled with ups and downs, both literally and figuratively. Of course Jim's chip in for birdie from against the fence on the par three 15th hole was the shot of the day and was crucial to his one-stroke victory. However, Steve Desimone claims the most important shot for Jim was the momentum-saving, 70-foot putt at #13 which was rolling so fast that had it not been uprooted by the hole it would have rolled off the green.

Kooman Boycheff: Tournament with most playoffs

Over half of our recorded playoffs have occurred in the Kooman Boycheff tournament. We've had seven at the Kooman; four at the Club Championship, and three at the Faculty/Staff. Three of the four 3-person playoffs have occurred at Kooman. A playoff only occurs during one of three tournaments, which are the Club Championship, Kooman Boycheff, and Faculty/Staff. That's because those are the only low gross majors, aside from the Eddie Reed, which has a playoff integrated into the format. See also: Complete history of UC Golf Club playoffs.

One Exciting Golf Club

Odds are against it, but the past three majors ended in sudden death or playoff. Needless to say we’ve recently had some exciting finishes.
• 2004 Eddie Reed Match Play: Paul Zingg defeated Mark Steppan on the 20th hole of the championship match at Hiddenbrooke.
• 2004 Club Championship: Steve Desimone defeated Rory McDonough on the first playoff hole at Boundary Oak.
• 2005 Kooman Boycheff: David Moers defeated Jimmy Ikeda on the first playoff hole at Paradise Valley

Things getting desperate for Club President

Club President Walburg has not been having the easiest time out there of late. A net 98 at Paradise Valley is his worst-ever net score in a UCGC event: 98 and it ties his worst-ever gross score: 112 (112 was also scored on 9/13/03 at Chardonnay). To date, 98 is the worst net score of the year for any member and it’s the worst net score since Eric Kubota's second round of the 2-day Gold Country Trip (122, net 104), but Eric was hung-over, having stayed up half the night playing poker and drinking non-non-alcoholic beverages. Sadly, Walburg has no such excuse... Nevertheless there was some deja vu, a birdie at #7! In 2001 when Walburg won Overall Low Net he had been 5-over through six, then he’d birdied 7, then played remaining 11 holes at +2. Today was similar in one respect a birdie at #7, However instead of being 5-over through opening six, he was 21-over through opening six, and played remaining holes at 20-over. Any violins out there?

How Walburg Managed 16 Strokes on a Single Hole

Steve Sanguinetti noted the Club President's 14-stroke adjustment to his score of 112 and demanded a synopsis. Most of this adjustment results from the 4th hole which was played thusly:

4th hole – par 5

1st shot - 5-wood, down the middle
2nd shot - 4-iron, to 170 out
3rd shot - 6-iron, pure shank, viciously to right rough, loose dirt
4th shot - 9-iron, sculled, ball went forward 3 feet into deep rough
5th shot - 9-iron, ball moved forward 3 inches, deeper rough
6th shot - 60-degree lob wedge, 90-degrees into fairway to about 145 yards out
7th shot - 9-iron, pure shank, viciously to right, into creek, took drop near creek, under trees.
9th shot - pitching wedge, chunked into bunker, short of fairway, 100 yards out
10th shot - 54-degree wedge, ball went 10 feet, still in bunker, too much sand.
11th shot - 54-degree wedge to 10 feet below front of green
12th shot - 60-degree wedge, chunked to 3 feet from green
13th shot - putter, ball on green, but past the hole by 10 feet
14th shot - putter, 3 feet past hole
15th shot - putter, missed the 3 footer
16th shot - putter, tap in, no problem

Birdies at Paradise Valley

Will Hoss, a non member, had 4 birdies. Normally mention is only made of our members' performances, but this was exceptional. As for our club, three players tied with three birdies. As a group we birdied every hole on the course. Once again Al Rollins demonstrated a knack for playing well on the most difficult holes. At Roddy Ranch he was one of six players to par the most difficult hole, #16. At Paradise Valley he was the only player to birdie #18, arguably the most difficult hole.

Format for information = A (B, C)
A = hole
B = par
C = handicap

Birdies by Hole

Other Tidbits:

• This event marked an exciting occasion for new member Al Rollins. It was his first event with an established index; His first event in a “regular” flight.
• Mike Birnbach recorded his second consecutive CTP.
• As expected, turnout was robust for our first major. In fact it's been 11 years since we've had this many players (74) sign up for the Kooman Boycheff Memorial.

Quote of the Tournament:

“Man, Brad (Rice) and I are floundering, with our pars.”
- Jeff hazel, as he walked off the second green, having witnessed Dave Webb’s birdie-birdie opening.

Photos

Chad Carey had a rough day. Perhaps it was his strange diet.

Chris Brown fired a net 69 and placed second in the 4th flight.

Dave Wherritt at the range expresses pride over his pull cart. Pull carts were very uncool in the 80's. They're still really uncool, but Dave doesn't know that.

Dave is especially proud of the beverage tray on his pull cart. All of this is extremely nerdy and uncool.

Will Hoss was the guest of Mitchell Chernock. Will fired the day's most birdies (4). Coach Dez should take notice!

David Moers with a putt on hole #3.

Dave's shot to the green at #3.

[Super-size]
Dave's drive at #5.

Steve Desimone's tee shot at #3.

[Super-size]
Steve's drive at #5.

Club Secretary/Treasurer Mike Birnbach was in trouble on the second hole. Of course his playing partners were delighted with the prospect of watching Mike struggle from this excellent vantage. Mike came through like a trooper, as if to say, "In your face, boys" Later Mike would earn his flight's CTP. It was yet another in-your-face-moment. Mike was all up in our faces on this day.

Brad Rice' birdie putt at #2 comes up short.

Dave Webb drains his second birdie putt, and this was only the second hole. At this rate he was on course to fire a 54. But alas, the birdie train ended here.

Dave Webb after birdies at #1 and #2. Can you say "pumped up?"

Jeff Hazel's drive at #4.

Brad Rice at #4.

Brad Rice watches Mike Birnbach's drive at #4. (I think this is my favorite photo of the batch).