At the Italian Bistro, the Godfather was beaming. Rob Juliano had electrified the OCAGA Membership beginning with the simple question, “What does the President Even Do?”  He was commanding and strong, truthful, thoughtful and persuading.  The nomination was elicited during a powerful, yet subtle oration that mesmerized his audience. Yes, he owned the floor and generated a volcanic eruption that swept him into office by acclamation with glasses raised! Bruno asked if Art Czachorowski was displaying early symptom dementia with his repeated explanation, over and over again, why OCAGA needed to return to the “old handicap system.”

Of course Stanislaw, at the Polish American Tavern, was pontificating about the “formula of 12,” the last 2 played and the lowest 3 scores from the next 10 tournaments, played only in the league. He was proud of how adamant Czak was, eventually shifting more and more of the members to his thoughts.  Kasimierz was emphatically proclaiming that tee boxes didn’t matter. The winners kept the ball in play more often, sunk putts and obviously in this decade, having Polish Blood was clearly an asset.  There was a demonstration outside of the Tavern prompted by speculation that Rich Antczak may return for some 2018 tournaments, a march of girl scouts chanting, “Richie, Richie, he’s too cute!”

The Godfather responded to Bruno by saying at the Banquet there is always much debate and very divergent views, but what was important, when the mood of the members was clear, it was Rob who volunteered to make it happen.

At Le Petite Café the conversation was about everybody playing from the white tees, how the forward tees at Avalon elicited too much confidence and made it too easy for Lazarchick to win the Championship and clearly was very unfair for Bohan.  Pierre asked why Marc would even play with such golfers asking for rule changes to “rake zee sand traps,” every year, year after year.  They saw the total disgust on Marc’s face, with head shaking, telling everyone “You don’t fix hazards, you avoid them!”  Don St George had stopped by the Café but could not stay for dinner. Apparently a piece of paper explaining Rule 28 was found shortly thereafter and Pierre had to elucidate beginning the diatribe that no one really has to hit out of a footprint in a trap! Anywhere, anytime, except for water hazards, a player can declare an unplayable lie and move the ball with a one stroke penalty. They can come out of the trap and go back to their previous spot. They can drop the ball no nearer the hole in the trap within 2 club lengths or on a line straight back from the pin as far as the trap will allow.

At the English Pub, the visiting Duke of Cornwall was applauding the acceptance of the final draft of the “Modernized Version of the Rules of Golf” to go in effect January 1, 2019. The Duke was explaining how they support Visionary Young Roger Read’s assertion that the “Direct Line” OCAGA Rule, disregards stroke and “distance” and really should be a 2 stroke penalty.  The OCAGA Rule: “PENALTY for the lost balls, balls out of bounds and unplayable lies is one stroke. The ball may be dropped at the point of loss (or crossing out of bounds line) or anywhere on the DIRECT LINE (not curving line of flight) between where the ball ended and the point from which the ball was hit. “  The Duke laughed when the subject at the Banquet shifted to measuring and marking pars three to match the distances on the score cards which devolved quickly and was discarded.

At Hamm’s Brewery, the discussion was all about Glenn’s motion to play “lift, clean & place” in the fairway in every Tour tournament, because the fairways are not so pristine and it is not fair to penalize a nice drive. They figured there must have been a lot of drinking by the time this made it to the floor at the Banquet. Other than Hamm, everybody voted “No,” to stay with the Head Starter makes the decision on the day of each tournament.  Yet, within moments Glenn was elected to the position of Head Starter for 2018.

At press time, the Investigative Reporter submitted a summary:

Rob Juliano was elected President and has already constructed a Handicap Spread Sheet that calculates handicaps using the 12 Tournament from League Play Formula. Glenn Hamm was elected Starter. Michael Lazarchick and Art Czachrowski were reelected to Secretary and Treasurer.

While Rob actually agreed with those in favor of everyone playing from the white tees, the discussion was dropped when he stated those that moved up to Gold might leave if we took back that option. While measuring tee box distances and changing where they were placed initially sounded good, the discussion became very problematic, very quickly, and was dropped.

Changing the “Direct Line Rule” from 1 to 2 strokes will be sent out for a vote from the membership.

WE CAN STILL USE A FEW NEW MEMBERS —–   RECRUIT

First Tournament    Vineyards    April 8^th   11:33