LW Men’s Golf League
The 14 golfers of the LW Men’s Golf League, plus resident 11year golf pro Ethan—grandson of Randy Massaro— were met with a lovely cool morning on Jan. 19 at the 5,800-yard par 70 River View Golf Course in Santa Ana.
By mid-round there was radiant sun, temps moving into the 70s, and short sleeves were appearing out from under the long sleeve covers of early morning. With narrow fairways, several riverbed crossings and major elevation changes, River View requires accuracy and figuring out which club to use to reach the eight elevated greens. The course typically floods after heavy rains but was spared from the last period of rainstorms. The flooding did, however, widen several of the fairways and increase the edge drop-offs to four and five feet in places. This made retrieving errant golf balls an issue. The entire riverbed, whether flooded or just sandy, is considered ground under repair and all balls landing there can be removed with no penalty.
Fortunately, greens were in good shape and very consistent. Several fairways had sparse grass and flattened conditions from flooding, tending to make approach shots be very flat. With these interesting conditions and some difficult pin positions, six of the 14 players shot net at or under par and there were four birdies—one each by Chris Lankford, Larry Hillhouse, Jae Choi and Clay Fisher.
Closest to the pin on the 140-yard par 3 second hole was Fisher, and Lankford was closest on the 100-yard ninth hole. Gary Stivers had fewest putts for the A flight, and Won Park and Sergio Borbon tied for fewest in the B.
Net score equals gross minus handicap. A flight winners: Lankford, 5 under, first place; Jae Choi, 1 under par, second; Hillhouse, even par, third; Stivers, fourth; Dave LaCascia and Fujio Norihiro, fifth; Sam Choi and Fisher, sixth.
B flight winners: Dom Bautista and Won Park, 2 under 68, first place; Bruno Santillo, second; Tom Ross, third; Borbon and Randy Massaro, fourth.
The golf league plays every Monday at four local courses, all within 15-20 minutes of Leisure World. Advance league reservations are required with a sign-up sheet available at each round.
There is a prize pool for each round that players are not obligated to enter. Rewards are given for low net in each flight, birdies, closest to the pin on two par threes, and for the lowest number of putts in each flight. Holes-in-one and eagles are generously rewarded. Those interested in playing can contact Gary Stivers at 714-313-3697 or Dave LaCascia at 801-674-5975.
—Dave LaCascia
