Well it has taken me a while but I finally overcame my technology challenges so everyone could see John’s Ace. John just couldn’t stand that I had hit an ace so the very next week he went out and hit one. It just so happened that I quit playing because of my back, so I decided to attempt to video the hole. It blows my mind that on the first hole I film John hits a kick butt Skip Ace.

Sorry for the video quality as it was nearly dark when John hit the ace. I also lost it when he hit the ace with the Santa type laugh in the background.

Austin, Doug, Hal, John & Skyler showed for the first, of many to come, Chainracker version of the Ace Race. John had an Ace & 2 metals. Austin, Doug & Hal had 1 metal each. Doug had the memorable shot of the evening. His Flash (I believe) split the wood on the structure of hole 8 and it stuck there!! More Racker Races to come! Also going to figure out handicaps for 18 holes of teepads. We’ll start this next year sometime. Gotta go eat some raspberry chicken!!!!Keep ‘em flyin’——–JBK

I just wanted to update everyone on the Ace Race in Fresno yesterday.  Skyler and I decided to attend this event about 4 weeks ago and I want to say it was a blast. You have all seen me putt, so any event where I do not have to is a beautiful thing. The event is sponsored by Discraft and for your $25.00 entry fee you receive two prototype discs, a hat, a mini and a bag tag. The discs were over-stable mid ranges in ESP plastic.

We played three rounds of 12 holes for a total of 36 holes and it only took about an hour and a half to play with 30 t0 35 people entered. The holes were all short, like our #4 or #7. You throw one disc per hole and it has to be one of the discs that you receive when you sign in. You only keep track of Aces and any shot that hits metal, which is used as a tie breaker.

Now for the good stuff. Out of the thirty plus entries there were only three aces on the day and I was fortunate enough to have one of them. Unfortunately the other two aces came from the same person. Skyler was one of about 14 people that actually hit metal which put him in a tie for 4th place. First place had two aces and no metal hits, second place had one ace and two metal hits, yours truly, third place had three metal hits and 4th place were all of the people that had a minimum of one metal hit.

There is another Ace Race in Modesto on October the 24th and Skyler and I would highly recommend the event to any and all as a very fun way to spend the day. I think he and I will be at the one in Modesto as well.

The other big news is, Austin’s crushing tournament record has resulted in a huge drop in his handicap.  Austin, who started the year with a SUB 7 handicap, has now made a dramatic drop to a SUB 3.  Congratulations Austin!  Your handicap shows that you are one of our clubs better players…but now the task of winning has become even more of a battle.  Best of luck as you compete at this even more challenging level.

The reason for the change is to ensure that handicaps reflect how a player is playing recently (past year or so) and not how they have played over several years.  This will help even out situations such as a player who has greatly improved while playing with the club or a player who has significantly declined in their skills (hey, some of us are getting older).

As we are gathering quite a lengthy history of tournament scores for several players, the need to cap the total scores used has become more of an issue.  Most of you will see no change to your handicap for the January tournament based on this change.  Those who do see a change will only be affected by one stroke, maybe two.  If you have any questions about this change, please speak with me on Saturday.

NOTE: This does not mean that every round is used in the formula, since the worse half of your scores are not used to calculate the handicap.

So, should I order these sweatshirts?  And, do any of you want the hoodies?  Please reply soon so I can get the order in before our next monthly.  Post your comments now.

It was a challenging day with frequent winds interrupting many decent throws.  Players also used the new long tee locations for holes 4, 5, 8 and 9.  It seems that everyone liked having these longer holes added to the round.

Handicaps and Championship Standings have been updated.  Also, check out the new club page showing the current ace pool values and the club account balance.

*CTP – Closest To the Pin (basket)