Divot Digest

APRIL 8TH, 2025

in this ISSUE

4 6 9 10 11 13 14 15 17 18 19

FROM THE CLUB PRESIDENT TODD HALL

STROKE PLAY CHAMPIONS

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF GOLF JEFF OSTLUND

MASTERS POOL

HOLE IN ONE UPDATE

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

GROUNDS COMMITTEE

HANDICAP COMMITTEE

MGA & DESERT CLASSIC VIDEO

WGA

LNGA

LADY PUTTERS

FROM THE CLUB PRESIDENT TODD HALL

Thank you to our great golf and agronomy teams for another successful Club Championship. Congratulations to Robin Cole, Woman’s Club Champion, Steve “Bergie” Berg, Men’s Club Champion, and Jay Kernan, Men’s Senior Club Champion. Well played! You recently voted to elect Dick Danais, Sue Molina, and Gary Thalhuber to 3-year terms of the Tonto Verde Gold Club Board of Directors. The new Board recently elected the following as the 2025-26 officers: President Todd Hall Vice President Brenda Knott Secretary Gary Thalhuber Treasurer Sue Molina We all owe a huge thank you to Don “Doc” Holliday, who has served our Club as president for the last three years and has been directly involved in many projects, highlighted at Monday’s Annual Meeting, that have elevated our Club to premiere status.Doc will continue to serve on the Board until April 2026. Let’s also give a shout out to Carolyn Carter, who has served as Treasurer of the TVGC Board for the past three years. Carolyn has been a great steward of your monthly dues and capital fees and she is leaving the Club in a solid financial position.

Doc and Carolyn are just two of the many volunteers who generously give their time and talents to make golf-life better for the 859 golfers at our Club. By my rough count there are more than 90 members who selflessly volunteer as group commissioners, on committees, golf associations, golf event planning teams, and other activities…thank you all. “The greens are too slow…fast… inconsistent, the rough is too thick…too wet, the bunker lips are too steep…sand is to hard…too fluffy, the tee markers are the wrong colors, the green approaches are too wet, the patio furniture is the wrong color, etc., etc., etc..” We’ve all heard complaints like these over the last few years and my experience is they come after bad rounds of golf, three-putts and triple bogeys. Not so much after career best rounds. Let’s pause for a moment and consider how fortunate we are to call Tonto Verde Golf Club home. My wife, Lori, refers to Tonto Verde as my happy place; I hope it’s your happy place too. We should all give those Tonto Verde Golf Club volunteers and our golf and agronomy staff the benefit of the doubt that their actions are meant to improve our experience here. We can do this by treating each other (staff, volunteers and fellow members) with respect… assuming best intentions.

FROM THE CLUB PRESIDENT TODD HALL

Todd Hall, TVGC President Todd Hall Please use this email address for all communication to the Board for anything relating to Tonto Verde Golf. Well meaning, constructive questions as well as criticism delivered with sincerity and a potential solution is always appreciated and will be taken seriously. To help facilitate respectful communication and input to the TVGC Board, we now have an email address for you to use: TVGCBOD@tontogolf.com

CHAMPION WOMEN’S

Robin

COLE

CHAMPION MEN’S

Steve

CHAMPION MEN’S SENIOR

KERNAN Jay

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF GOLF JEFF OSTLUND

The Stroke Play Club Championships were held last week with 109 players in the field. Congratulations to all the Flight Champions and to our 2025 Club Champions: Robin Cole, Steve (Bergie) Berg and Jay Kernan. Robin entered the final round one stroke off the lead and shot a smooth 79 to edge out past champions, Claudia Pilot and Marsha Heitzman. Steve(Bergie) Berg backed up a stellar opening round of 71 on the Ranch with a 73 on the Peaks to hold off a charging Joe Cabrera to claim his first Club Championship title at Tonto Verde. Jay Kernan’s consistent quality play (78-76) proved to be enough to add a Senior Championship title to his decorated résumé at TVGC. Complete tournament results can be viewed by clicking on the following links: Women’s Results Men’s Results Golf fans have been waiting patiently for the world’s best players to get back together. We finally get to watch it this weekend with the 89 edition of the Masters Tournament being played at Augusta National. See the flier below for details on the Tonto Verde’s annual Masters Pool. th Until next time, fairways and greens!

RANDOM BUT NOTEWORTHY Callaway and XXIO will be on our South Range for the season’s final demo event this Friday, April 11 . You can sign up for a focused fitting with either vendor via the “Demo Day” link on the ForeTees app or by contacting the golf shop. th Registration for the Cinco de Mayo morning and afternoon shotguns are now on a waitlist. If you’d like to attend the party that evening without playing golf you can do so by signing up under the “Events” tab on your ForeTees app or on TontoVerde.org . Starting Tuesday, April 15 the first tee time of the day will move up to 6:33am. On this date the regular tee time booking window (7-days in advance) will open up at 6 am which will also be the Golf Shop’s opening time throughout the summer. th We’d like to remind everyone that any golf shop credits earned from this season will not expire until January 1 , 2026. st The Early Morning Play Policy remains in effect for those of you that enjoy chasing the dew off the course. We ask that the lead group adhere to a 3.5 hour pace or skip completely around the maintenance crew so as not to interfere with their prep work.

Jeff Ostlund, Director of Golf Jeff Ostlund

TONTO VERDE'S 2025 MASTERS POOL Cost = $20 per entry (cash or member charge) HOW IT WORKS

All players in the Masters field have been categorized into 9 groups. Everyone picks a team of 10 golfers (1 from each group). Add your best 5 of 10 golfer’s scores, each day, to form your team score. The best team score wins the pool. Cut golfers (and anyone who doesn’t finish 4 rounds) get 80 for any rounds not completed. Playoff holes do not count. There will be a $100 daily bonus paid out to the team that has the best performance for each day of the tournament. In the event of a tie for the daily best team score, winning teams will split shares. All payouts will be in golf shop credit. The balance of the purse will be paid out to the top 10 entries according to the following scale: 1 =27%, 2 =19%, 3 =13%, 4 =10%, 5 =8%, 6 =7%, 8 =4%, 9 &10 =3% each st nd rd th th th th th th You will also be prompted to predict the winning golfer’s score as a tiebreaker. HOW TO JOIN THE POOL Pick your team of golfers here: http://www.easyofficepools.com/join/?p=386470&e=kfvn

LIVE LEADERBOARD Follow the action live http://www.easyofficepools.com/leaderboard/?p=386470

IMPORTANT: We will not be running any money through easyofficepools.com. Instead, all entrants will be charged $20 on their April statement unless cash is received in the golf shop by the end of day on Wednesday. Non-members are allowed to participate but must clearly indicate which member they’re affiliated with on their entry. If a non-member wins,

they will be awarded a TVGC gift certificate in lieu of golf shop credit. Feel free to contact the golf shop with any questions about the pool. Jeff Ostlund, Director of Golf

H LE ONE in MARCH & APRIL in

Please submit your Hole-in-One photo to Somin at slee@tontogolf.com.

H LE ONE in MARCH & APRIL in

Please submit your Hole-in-One photo to Somin at slee@tontogolf.com.

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

We are excited to announce that we have successfully cleared the waitlist for Tonto residents. This means that all Tonto residents can now become new golf members immediately. Furthermore, due to our recent increase in the Target Membership Level from 505 to 515, our Non-Resident waitlist has been reduced to just 4 memberships. We expect to clear the current waitlist within the next 1 to 2 months. With this good news, we want to remind you of an important policy for our current members. When the Club had a lengthy

waitlist in place, we did not require a 6- month surrender notice period, allowing new members to join right away. Once our Club no longer has a waitlist, our Bylaws (Section 4.07, Surrender of Regular Memberships and Pass-Through Sales) stipulate that we will require a 6-month notice period for any membership to surrender. Thank you for your understanding. It’s our goal to keep all our members informed and ensure that Tonto Verde Golf Club remains a vibrant community for all our members going forward in changing times.

GROUNDS COMMITTEE

2 Thoughts from The Grounds Committee and Agronomy Team -

1.Leave the course and the game better than you found it (Arnold Palmer) 2.Some day, I'll stroke the last putt in the last round I'll ever play.

Until then, I intend to be conscious of my good fortune every time I tee it up.

As a club golfer, nothing is more fundamental than being grateful for just being here. (author unknown)

HANDICAP COMMITTEE

Reminder, if you played in the Desert Classic, most, if not all, of your rounds are postable. This seems to be a competition where many players miss posting scores. We are committed to helping players avoid them.

To easily check, access your Peer Review Report, which tracks your posted scores.

If you have questions or comments, please contact us at handicapcommittee@tontogolf.com.

MGA

This year’s Desert Classic was held on March 20-22. The 72 MGA members and their guests enjoyed typical Tonto Verde Hospitality coupled with beautiful weather and pristine Golf Courses and facility. Special recognition and thanks to Blake and the Pro Shop staff for staging a great event, and to Cindi Reuvers and the TVA F&B staff for providing excellent meals and first class service throughout the tournament. The overall shootout winners of the Nicklaus Division were Kevin Fitzgerald and his guest Pete Rocker. Larry Hay and his guest John Huff were the overall shootout winners of the Palmer Division. Both shootouts came down to the last shot.

Since our last Divot Digest, we welcomed Chris Beck, Mark Giangreco, Dave Haney, Lou Panos, Ian Tarlie, Steve Weberman, and Chad Yurko to the MGA. Please welcome them when you have the opportunity. We now have 39 new members this year. The Nominating Committee chaired by Rob Bachrach along with Tom Kennedy and Tim Gabrielse have completed their nominating work and at the last MGA Board meeting reported the two members who have agreed to be nominated for a 3 year term to the MGA Board are David Kettel and Jim Wallace. Ten percent (43) of the current MGA membership (426)

MGA

REMINDERS

may nominate other candidates for the MGA Board by signing a petition and submitting it to the MGA Secretary, Bill Goerich, by noon on April 15. Assuming there are no petitioned nominees, a voice vote will be taken to approve the two nominated members at the Annual Meeting. Plan to attend the MGA Annual Meeting & Dinner, which is scheduled for Wednesday, April 23rd, after the MGA Cup final round. Whether or not part of the MGA Cup Event, all members are invited to attend the Annual Meeting and Dinner. The 88 MGA Cup qualifiers have been identified and registered for the event and dinner by the Golf Shop. Anyone who has not qualified for the MGA Cup and would like to attend the subsidized dinner must sign up for the Annual Meeting and dinner, but using the TVA member website: Event Registration/Lifestyle/April 23/ MGA Food Only tab. The MGA will pay $25 of the meal cost for all dues-paying members. The dinner subsidy will be paid from your general dues funds. Sign up and come out early, enjoy the shootout, and join everyone for a special dinner event.

If you have not yet received your MGA 30th Anniversary gift and are a current MGA member, be sure to stop in the Golf Shop and pick up your engraved bottle. One per member, please.

MGA Game Day 4/9 - Sign up closes today. This is the last event of the season before the MGA Cup. Click here to view the MGA Cup point standings . This year’s field has expanded to the Top 88 plus ties to compete in the MGA CUP flighted finals. The purse has been increased to $10,000, with each participant awarded a cash prize. The games will take place on April 16th & 23rd, with dinner and awards following the final round. The Handicap Committee continues to ask the MGA to remind members of the importance of posting all their scores on the correct date so that our handicaps are correct, fair, and current. Make sure you post all your Desert Classic Rounds.

Jon Lynch, MGA Communication Jon Lynch

WGA

The Past Presidents Luncheon was held on March 12. Thank you to the wonderful women who captained our League! th

The upcoming WGA Cup in April will not be affected by this new rule, but let’s aim to meet that 80% mark anyway! CLICK HERE for a list of factors that can unintentionally lower your peer review score and how to address them. Please remember to post your scores and check your peer review regularly. CLICK HERE to learn how to check your peer review. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Shellie Rosser or Christie Gorsline. Thank you for posting your scores!!

Congratulations to Robin Cole, Tonto Verde’s 2025 Club Champion, and all the flight winners! Thanks to the ladies who participated in this event!

UPCOMING WGA EVENTS:

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE: WGA HANDICAP POSTING

25 Viki Wilds, WGA Communication Viki Wilds Viki Wilds, WGA Communication Viki Wilds CLOSING DAY - April 22nd -12:30 PM shotgun event on the Ranch Course. Our WGA General Meeting, including election of officers, dinner, and presentation of awards, will follow. The 2025-26 officers were presented at the meeting on March 11 The nominees are Mary Ann Welsh, President; Mickey Shield, Vice President; Glenda O’Neal, Secretary; and Sue Molina as Treasurer. th . SUMMER INTERCLUB signup will be available on Foretees soon. WGA CUP - April 15 & 17 . Watch for the results posted in ForeTees. th th

For the 2025-2026 season, the WGA Board has decided that winnings, placing, and payouts in three of our tournaments will be awarded only to those golfers who have posted at least 80% of their Tonto scores. These tournaments include the Member- Member, Four-Member, and WGA Cup.. If any member of a winning team is below the 80% posting threshold, the entire team will be disqualified, and the next highest performing team will be awarded. While players with lower current handicaps are encouraged to participate, they will not be eligible to win. However, these restrictions do not apply to Game Days, guest events, or Match Play and Stroke Play Club Championships, allowing for numerous events with more relaxed rules.

LNGA

On March 13, 2025, the past presidents held their annual golf outing and lunch.

Another creative Member/Member event was held on March 11, 2025, and there were many “Dazzling Duets” that participated.

The Niners Academies are a wonderful way to hone your skills under the watchful eyes of Matt and John. If you have suggestions for the subject matter of future academies please contact either Matt or John. LNGA hosted Tonto Verde Interclub on March 25 th with another successful turnout from the various surrounding golf clubs.

Our new slate of officers for the LNGA 2025/2026 season are: President: Kathi Chawla, Vice President: Lynne Nelson, Treasurer: Cheryl Egan, Secretary: Carol Noonan, Past President: Cindy Wetherbee

Hard to believe but it has been almost 25 years since the LNGA came into existence. The present membership is thankful to the group of pioneers who formed this league; as it is a very welcoming and fun

filled group for the women of Tonto Verde. The Niners now have over 160 members and is still growing…here’s to another 25 years of golfing fun and friendships.

Carol Noonan Communication Carol Noonan

LADY PUTTERS

March brought some cool rainy weather early in the month and Spring golf events impacted Tonto Verde Lady Putters schedule for mid-March but putting resumed later in the month with some fun events. Just like golfers, Lady Putters are always ready to drink in some advice from the pros in the pursuit of that elusive Hole-in-One. On March 26, on a perfect morning for Putting, golf pro-TVLP coordinator, Jacob Trimble, had everyone’s attention during a putting clinic and afterwards, members registered a record number of 15 holes-in-one. WOW! Clearly, it is never too late to take a lesson from the pros and Jacob has been a great asset to Lady Putters this season.

Judith Potter, TVLP Communications Judith Potter Kudos and a huge thank you to the 2024- 25 Board: Kristen McLinden (President), Julie Maas (Past President), Kathryn Stredonsky and Sue Pedersen (Co-Vice Presidents), Karen Grozak (Secretary), Shary John (Treasurer), Patty Milliken (Assistant Treasurer), Sheryl Coup and Deb Stevens (Registrations) and Karen Stephens (Pins) for the great job of steering and organizing some really enjoyable putting events this year. Lady Putters is all about getting outdoors, meeting new TV people and having fun and we certainly reached out goal this year. A huge thank you also to our Golf Shop coordinator, Jacob Trimble for conjuring up some fun but challenging competitions. With only three putting sessions in April, TV Lady Putters is coming to the conclusion of the 2024-25 season. In April, there will be 3 putting events on 2 , 9 and 16 . On Wednesday, April 9 , putting will begin at 10.00 am followed by a lunch in the Cimmaron Dining Room and the final event on Wednesday, April 16 , will be the windup event with an Easter Bonnet theme. Putting will begin at 3.00pm, followed by dinner at the Clubhouse with acknowledgements, awards and the introduction of the new Lady Putters Executive Board members for 2025-26. nd th th th th

By the end of March, TVLP had two members leading the pack in terms of HiOs: Patty Milliken with 8 and Julie Mass with 7 HiOs; Sheryl Coup and Janis Steinbrecher were tying for 3 place each with 5. rd

APR/MAY 2025

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday Thursday

Friday

Saturday

WGA LNGA

MGA LADY PUTTERS

WGA CACTUS LEAGUE TVGC ANNUAL MEETING

GOLF FOR LIFE GOLF KNEE MASTERCLASS

BOARD MEETING LADIES TEE TIMES

MGA LADY PUTTERS

LNGA WGA

LADIES TEE TIMES

MGA PAST PRESIDENT

LADIES TEE TIMES WGA CACTUS LEAGUE

WGA SONORAN LEAGUE

WGA

MGA

BRUNCH BUNCH YELLOW BALL

MONDAY MAINTENANCE RANCH CLOSED UNTIL NOON

LADIES TEE TIMES

BOARD MEETING LADIES TEE TIMES

CINCO DE MAYO

LADIES TEE TIMES

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Divot Digest - April