RCGC Winter 2021 Preserve

THE

P RES ERV E

PHOTO BY BILL BOOTH

WINTER 2021

LET TER FROM THE GM DEAR MEMBERS, As the golf season comes to a close, my family and I would like to thank the Membership for another great year of golf. Happy to return to a form of normalcy, the Clubhouse also buzzed with activity throughout as members returned to gathering with friends and family in the restaurant, terrace and lounge. So with a few weeks left as we roll into the new year, let’s enjoy these holidays and look forward to the 2022 season.

Brandon Lejeune General Manager bjl@rivercrestgolfclub.com

Currently, the club managers and I are working on 2022 course and clubhouse plans and will have updates shortly after the new year. In the meantime, here’s an update on some items as we wind down the season.

AN EMPLOYEE HOLIDAY FUND THANK YOU!

NEW YEAR’S EVE DINNER

‘Floored’ was the only word I could use to describe Stephanie updating me on the memberships’ contributions to the employee holiday fund. This season far exceeded previous years and will be greatly appreciated when they get hand delivered to the staff in the weeks leading up to the holiday. Many of you went above and beyond here. Your dedicated RiverCrest staff thanks you!

The Club will again be hosting a fantastic New Year’s Eve Dinner for both families and adults in the restaurant. Last year this event sold out early so make your reservations soon if you want to enjoy a great meal before heading off to your New Year’s Eve Party. Last call will be at 9pm. Reservations are required by calling the host.

STAFF HOLIDAY PARTY EMAILS

All changes in membership status for next year must be received by December 15th. Please contact me if you have any questions or would like pricing on different membership options. I can be reached at 610-933-4700, ext. 201 or brandon@rivercrestgolfclub.com.

Besides personally handing out holiday bonuses, one of my favorite times of the year is hosting our annual holiday party in January. In particular, I look forward to reading emails I’ve received from members during the season sharing their positive experiences. Did you have a great experience or have a positive interaction with a staff member that I can share at the party? If so, please email me brandon@rivercrestgolfclub.com. I can assure you the staff really enjoys hearing their name or department called out for exhibiting great service or a job well done.

HOLIDAY LUNCHES On December 15th & 16th (Wednesday and Thursday), the Club will once again be offering our festive Holiday Lunches which includes a special menu and a live holiday musician.

It’s the perfect opportunity to entertain your co-workers, friends and family before the holiday break. Reservations are required by calling the host.

MEMBERSHIP STATUS CHANGES

15TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY TOY DRIVE As the RiverCrest community does every holiday season, now is the time to help support the families and children in the Phoenixville community! Please take the time to read the info here to the right of this page on the types of toys and gift cards needed. So, as many of you get out shopping and log into your Amazon accounts, please consider adding that one extra item to your cart for a young child who needs it most! If our entire RC community gets behind this, there will be many more smiling faces come Christmas morning.

My family and I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season.

Brandon

R I V E R C R E S T H O L I D AY S C H E D U L E The Club will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after Christmas.

The Clubhouse will be open on December 29th & 30th (Wednesday and Thursday) for lunch and dinner.

On New Year's Eve, the restaurant will be open for a pre-fix dinner only. Fireside will be closed,

Support for this event was overwhelming last year thanks to your generosity and we are looking to carry it over for the 2021 holiday season. Once again, the price of admission will be a toy or books for a child 6 months to 12 years valued at $25. We are also asking for $25 gift cards to Walmart or Target for Orion. The evening will include a light dinner and desserts as well as a cash bar.

This has been a long standing event at RiverCrest and we will continue to share our good fortune with those in our community who are not as fortunate. The need this year is even greater as we recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Please be as generous as you are able.

If you are unable to attend, but want to be a part of this special event, please drop off your gift or donation in the Proshop at the golf house.

SIGN UP ONLINE

C O U R S E U P D AT E Another fun filled season of golf is wrapping up, it was wonderful to have such a normal season on the course. The weather was fairly kind to us this season with a dry cool Spring, timely rains in the Summer followed by one of the best Falls of golf in recent memory.

Tim Edwards Course Superintendant tge@rivercrestgolfclub.com

As we look out to the upcoming Winter, we hope to see a mix of all the normal things, snow cover to insulate the grass, frozen ground to move materials around the course without damaging the soil, and mild weather to complete spring maintenance items ahead of schedule. Below is a rundown of the status of the course…

THE GREENS

ROUGH AND FESCUE

The performance of the greens was excellent this season leaving the team confident that the agronomic program is working well to balance the health of our putting surfaces and the needs of our players. We will continue with the aeration practices of 2021 in 2022, a light venting around memorial day, a regular core aeration in August, and a late season core aeration after Thanksgiving. Topdressings will be worked in as frequently as needed, looking at the weather and the golf calendar.

The reduction of fescue last Fall had a positive impact on the golfers experience and made keeping the 20 acres of remaining fescue pristine. Areas that are transitioning to rough from fescue are being seeding with the other rough grasses and being leveled out with aeration debris. Please bear with us as we work these areas in.

THE TEES The tee boxes are looking great for next season. Again, the changes are working, and we will be continuing them. This winter we will be covering some of our most sensitive tees to insure they hit the ground running next spring.

THE FAIRWAYS Fairways were one area that had some struggles this past season. A lack of deep topsoil and poor internal drainage caused areas to boil during the end of Summer barrage of heat and rain. The team is committed to fixing these issues by building up our topsoils through core aeration and deeptine aeration every Fall and Winter and applications of composted materials to increase the humic qualities of our soil profile. We will be continuing to add sand channel drainage to areas of excessive moisture. The drainage added last winter to 1,13, and 16 is helping immensely. Overall, the health of the fairways is improving over the seasons. We are seeing better divot recovery and cart traffic resistance. The team is continuing to make changes to small parts of the agronomy program to maximize the health and performance of our fairways.

WINTER PROJECTS This winter the team will be completing several small projects. We will be redoing a few of the small bunkers that continue to give us issues, adding sand channel drainage to fairway wet areas, removing and planting trees. The pot bunker in front of the 5th green and the pot bunkers on 18 are at the top of our list for renovation this off season. We also plan to resod around some of the bunkers that are now in rough like the first right fairway bunker on the 6th hole. Sand channel drainage will be added to the 2nd, 6th and 15th fairways. Tree work will focus on dead trees, and groves of invasive tree of heaven. Several ash trees are in full decline, there is a large one at the beginning of the 4th fairway.

A grove of tree of heaven by the 12th green will be removed and new specimens will be planted in their place.

Thank you to all the members of the Crest for a great 2021 golf season. Our team is very grateful for all your support! We take so much joy and pride in presenting this amazing golf course to you everyday. We are looking forward to making continued progress on the overall conditioning going into 2022 as well as some immediate impact projects for you to enjoy next Spring!!!

GOLF NEWS & NOTES DECEMBER GOLF HOURS OF OPERATION AND STARTING TIMES GOLF COURSE Weekdays & Weekends – the first starting time is 10:00am (depending on Frost Delays)

GOLF SHOP Weekdays & Weekends – opens at 10:00am and closes at 5:00pm

DRIVING RANGE Closed for December Around the Holidays the Golf Shop and Bag Room will be closed from Friday, December 24th through Sunday, December 26th. Players may play those days, but must carry their clubs. All golf operations will reopen on Monday, December 27th at 10:00am. The Golf Shop and Bag Room will be open until Friday, December 31st.

The Golf Shop and Bag Room will be closed for the month of January, and will reopen in early February. Players will need to have their clubs out of storage by December 31st if they are planning on playing in January.

ONE MORE MONTH TO SPEND GOLF SHOP CREDIT AND GIFT CERTIFICATES Please remember that all Golf Shop Credit needs to be redeemed by December 31, 2021. To find out if you have any remaining Credit, please call or visit the Golf Shop. Unused Credit will not carry over to next year, so stop in the Golf Shop today.

2021 MEMBER HOLE-IN-ONES It was another busy year for Hole-in-Ones at RiverCrest! As of this point we have 14 Members who hit perfect shots this year. For some it was the first ever, and for others they continue to add to their impressive collection of aces. Congratulations to everyone on this list!

April 5, 2021 May 2, 2021 May 19, 2021 June 18, 2021 July 5, 2021 July 11, 2021 July 23, 2021 July 29, 2021 August 2, 2021 August 11, 2021 August 11, 2021 October 15, 2021 October 15, 2021 November 4, 2021 .

Karen Stanley Bill Artosky Rich Menseck David Satterfield Mark Decker David Justi Jamie Stein Carey Tucker Blake Prichard Kurt Meyers Marie Latoff Jim Babb Mark Weller Terry Fair

Hole #5 Hole #5 Hole #5 Hole #3 Hole #17 Hole #3 Hole #3 Hole #5 Hole #5 Hole #5 Hole #17 Hole #3 Hole #5 Hole #5

2021 MAJOR TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS MEN’S MATCH PLAY CHAMPION Kurt Meyers MEN’S BETTER BALL MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONS CJ Knecht and Kevin Robertson SENIOR MEN’S MATCH PLAY CHAMPION Mike Angelos SENIOR MEN’S BETTER BALL MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONS David Barlow and Bill Green MEN’S SUPER-SENIOR MATCH PLAY CHAMPION Dennis Pitzer MEN’S MEMBER MEMBER CHAMPIONS David Hurlock and Matt Yanocha MEN’S CLUB CHAMPION Ryan Tall MEN’S SENIOR CLUB CHAMPION Jim Pickens MEN’S INVITATIONAL CHAMPIONS Mike Angelos Sr. and Mike Angelos Jr. LADIES INDIVIDUAL HANDICAP CHAMPION Karen Thomas LADIES BETTER BALL CHAMPIONS Barb Cox and Christine Palde LADIES CLUB CHAMPION Allie Robertson LADIES MEMBER MEMBER CHAMPIONS Jen Heller and Christina Yeager LADIES MEMBER GUEST CHAMPIONS Amand Bielski and Marge Myslinski

G O LF AC A D EM Y N EW S

Brian Moose Director of Instruction moose.brian@gmail.com

With the winter season upon us, not everyone has the ability to get outside to practice and play. And while this break may not be your first choice, there are still things you can do to improve in the off-season (and also that you might not want to change in the middle of the golf season). So, if you missed out on the Winter Lesson Special here are some tips to look at the off-season as a positive. Use this time off to make some of the biggest changes so you come back ready when golf season rolls around again.

IMPROVE YOUR GRIP BORING? MAYBE. BUT IT’S IMPORTANT.

Your grip will determine not only what your clubface looks like at impact, but holding your club properly in your fingers will allow you to have security without tension, which allows for speed and power. Every golfer is built differently and there is no one way to grip the club, but allowing your lead arm to relax and hang to see what position your hand naturally falls is important to knowing what your grip should look like. It also has to match your hip speed and desired ball flight.

POSTURE Perfect posture will put you in an athletic position to start your swing and help make it easier to consistently make contact with the golf ball. Your posture should be the same from club-to-club, bending forward from your hips so that your chest is over your toes so that your hands can hang directly below your shoulders.

Your posture is one of the best things you can work on in the off-season.

Practice in a mirror and see what it looks like when you are balanced forward and your hands truly hang. Ask yourself: Where is your weight in your feet? How far are you from your hands to your thighs when your arms hang?

BOOST THE SWING SPEED We all would love to hit the ball farther. And once you have reasonably consistent contact you can train speed.

Learning to swing the club faster requires lack of tension, good fundamentals and training. One of my favorite ways to train is by using the Superspeed golf training system. Their light, medium, heavy system with training protocols really works and this is something that would be great to do inside in the offseason. We have them in the Golf Academy and every now and then you may have had the experience of using them during a lesson.

How far are you from your hands to your thighs when your arms hang?

GET FLEXIBLE When a student arrives for a golf lesson, I have to work with what they have as far as strength and flexibility.

Improving flexibility takes a bit of time and effort — which makes it a great thing to work on in the off-season. Flexibility allows for a better range of motion as well as your ability to turn athletically.

Another important part of necessary flexibility for golf is that your hamstrings are flexible enough to allow you to get into good posture. Just simply bending from your hips and allowing your arms to hang toward

the floor can help to loosen your hamstrings which allows you to bend properly from your hips and get into an athletic golf posture.

PUTT INDOORS One of the quickest ways to lower our golf scores is to be a better putter from short range. In the height of golf season, launching golf balls can be a lot more fun than grinding over your short putts, but your winter season is the perfect time to get down to work. The putting greens in the Golf Academy are from Big Moss and I love the way the ball rolls on the mats.

PRACTICE WITH ALIGNMENT AIDS Aiming and aligning properly can “look” wrong when it is right. I find most right-handed players tend to aim too far right and left handed golfers tend to aim too far left due to the fact that in most cases your eyes are inside the target line. Simply putting two parallel clubs on the ground so that the line in between points to your target, practicing setting up parallel with your body lines and glancing to your intended target can help to train your eyes to what it looks like to aim properly. I think the most efficient path to having good aim and alignment is to make peace that it may never look correct, but rather to just determine how far left or right it looks when your set up station puts you into a perfect set up.

C L U B H O U R S O F O P E R AT I O N GOLF COURSE Open daily March through November until dusk.

Refer to the Club's website for first starting times, frost delays or superintendent notifications.

Course closed on Tuesdays, including practice facilities.

Temporary greens December through mid-March.

DRIVING RANGE Open a half hour before first starting time.

Mondays - closes 90 minutes early for maintenance.

March – weather permitting (check website) April, May & September – closes at 7:00pm June, July & August - closes at 8:00pm October - closes at 6:00pm November - closes at 4:30pm January, February & December - closed GOLF SHOP Open daily 15 minutes before first starting time.

Tuesdays - closed January - closed February, March, November & December – closes at 5:00pm April, May, September & October – closes at 6:00pm June, July & August - closes at 6:30pm CLUBHOUSE RESTAURANT Wednesday through Sunday - open for lunch & dinner starting at 11:00am.

No food service after 9pm on Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday / 10pm on Friday & Saturdays.

FIRESIDE LOUNGE April through December Opens Wednesday, Thursday & Friday at 4:00pm / Saturdays & Sundays at noon.

January through March Closed on Sundays FITNESS CENTER GOLF SEASON 6:30am to 6:00pm on Monday / 6:30am to 9:00pm Wednesday through Sunday.

Tuesdays - closed OFF-SEASON 8:00am - 5:00pm on Monday / 8:00am - 9:00pm Wednesday through Sunday.

GREENSIDE GRILLE Open April 1st through November 15th (honor system only) Closed on Tuesdays