By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
After another successful season the men’s senior Gray Foxes held its annual banquet at the Pub on Nov. 13. The Gray Foxes organization is almost as old as the golf course. A wide variety of awards and individual achievements were announced at the banquet.
There is an eighteen-hole Gray Foxes group that plays every Thursday morning and a nine-hole group that plays every Tuesday morning. Players put in a small amount of money each week they play and that money is then awarded as pro shop credits to the top performers of the week. Sometimes the players compete on an individual basis and sometimes in a team format. Players also compete in a “skins” competition weekly. In order to win a skin, a player must have a lower net or gross score on a hole than anyone else who is in the competition. This is an elective competition and players can compete in the gross score competition, in the net score competition, or in both. In these competitions, winners are paid in cash, not in store credits. Each week there is also a closest to the pin competition on one (nine-holers) or two (eighteen-holers) of the par three holes.
For the eighteen-hole Gray Foxes, the leading money winners in store credits for the season were John Stenz, Dan Atkinson and Paul Schmidt. The winners of the most skins for the season in the eighteen-hole competitions were Dave French with 17 gross score skins and John Stenz with 28 net score skins. The second most gross score skins with 15 was Jim Beach. The second most net score skins was Jim Kinter with 16.
In the eighteen-hole group closest to the pin competition, Dave Gallager had the most closest to the pin wins for the second year in a row. He had five closest to the pins. Four closest to pins were achieved by Mike Ruggiero, Paul Schmidt, and Jeff Stainaker. No one in the eighteen-hole competitions made a hole in one all season. This demonstrates how rare a hole in one is. With 30-50 competitors shooting for a hole in one, two holes every week from late March to early November, no one achieved this feat. In the nine-hole group, there was a hole in one, achieved by Tom Sullivan.
In the eighteen-hole group ringers competition, the lowest gross score was 63 by Mike Hanson. He was closely followed by Jim Beach and Les Tinsley who came in at 64. Jim Beach and John Alluisi were two off the pace at 65. In the gross score ringers competition, John Stenz was low with an impressive 47. George Macomber, Garry Woody and Jim Wilkin followed with 50, 52 and 53. The best match play scores for the year were Les Tinsley with an average score of 11.375, John Stenz with an average of 11.33 and Tom Sullivan with an average of 11.
The low gross score for the year in the eighteen-hole group was 73 by Jim Beach and Les Tinsley, with Mike Holmes coming in with a 74. The best net score for the year was a 64 achieved by George Sander and Jim Wilkin, followed closely by John Platt and Fred York with 65.
The nine-hole Gray Foxes group designated Carl Heins as their Most Improved Player. In the nine-hole group’s ringers competition, the low gross was achieved by Tom Sullivan with 33. Close behind was Phil Ward with a 35. The ringers low net winner was Jim Kinter with a 26. Three players were one off the pace at 27, they were George Macomber, Greg White and Carl Heins. In the nine-hole group match play competition, first place went to Hank Bailey, with Jim Davis in second and Richard Winston in third. Obviously, the nine-hole group was very competitive this season as is evidenced by the lack of repeat names in the above.
Officers elected for the 2024 season were, Paul Schmidt, president, John Platt, treasurer, Dan Atkinson, eighteen-hole coordinator, and Greg White nine-hole coordinator.
