August Newsletter Final

AUGUST 2021

NEWS FROM THE RIDGE

OAK RIDGE COUNTRY CLUB
Celebrating 100 Years

President’s Letter

Oak Ridge Country Club Dear Oak Members,

Established 1921 Time for a mid-summer recap!
700 Oak Ridge Rd., Hopkins, MN
The biggest party of the year on July 3rd was an amazing success with nearly 700 registered
55305 members and guests! It was truly inspiring to see how far Oak Ridge has progressed from a
dismal year when we couldn’t even gather to celebrate in our favorite fashion…with
Business Office: (952) 935-7721 amazing fireworks! I would like to thank those of you who took the time to complete the
Golf Shop: (952) 939-5460 brief survey following the event so we can best analyze where to go next in planning for
Starter: (952) 939-5461 2022 and beyond.

Swimming Pool: (952) 939-5462 In mid-July, Oak Ridge held the annual Macrocarpa Invitational. To offer some
Tennis Clubhouse: (952) 939-5463 perspective, this is truly the first time we could call it an honest-to-goodness invitational
Greens Department: (952) 938-6900 where there was no recruiting efforts to gain more golfers. We had a full field of golfers (120)
plus a waiting list! Congratulations to all that participated, organized and executed an
Club Officers exceptional weekend event. Congratulations to Kevin Fecho and his guest, Cameron
President Gary Singer Sigecan, for an amazing putt to seal the deal on the 18th hole. And a big thank you goes out
Past President Carole Kaplan to the entire membership for your patience as events of this magnitude can really take over
Vice President Andrew Todd an operation. I was able to be in and around the Club during the event and it was so inspiring
Secretary Kara Frank to see so many folks enjoying themselves 100%.
Treasurer Jason Sondell
Last week, the ladies guest day hosted nearly 50 players with a Woodstock/1960’s theme. A
Board of Directors 45-minute rain interruption did little to quell the fun! Maybe you noticed the GIANT peace
Blake Appelhof sign on the first fairway and the colorful logo on the 13th approach…both art pieces truly
Howard Chanen representative of the team we have at Oak Ridge providing all they can to make these
Kara Frank experiences special.
Joe Gleason
Carole Kaplan On a personal note, I had the opportunity to bring my grandkids to the pool recently and on
Molly Rutzick one occasion, my grandson bonked himself in the face on the new diving board. The pool
Gary Singer staff was immediately on the scene providing first aid. Even in a scary moment, my grandson
Jason Sondell felt safe and cared for. Ellie and I are so very grateful for the professionalism we experienced
Andrew Todd in this tense situation. THANK YOU! When you are at the pool, please remember that the
Ellyn Wolfenson team does everything in their power to promote a safe environment and they are the arbiters
Drew Zamansky of the pool. Thank you Steve, Ali and all who delivered a first class response!

Committees Our tennis program has been bulging at the seams this year. Barb and the crew have provided
Admissions / Member Relations a host of dynamic events for all age groups and ability levels. As I routinely pass by the
tennis courts while playing the 10th hole, I have seen the remarkable progress in the project
Joe Gleason to update and beautify the space. It looks so welcoming as the deck has come together with
Finance the furniture and the new landscaping that accents the space.

Jason Sondell Lastly I’d like to provide a brief progress report on our membership levels. After a couple
Golf of difficult winters where we hit a low mark of 207 golf members, the 2021 rebound has
been terrific as we sit at 297 golf members! We have also gained twenty-nine Sports Activity
Kevin Ryan, Co-Chair members from the beginning of the 2021/22 FY. I want to recognize the membership for all
Molly Rutzick, Co-Chair your recruiting efforts, the Membership Committee for their leadership coming into such a
robust influx and to Karey Kohout, our Membership Director for facilitating the hundreds
Greens of emails, phone calls and messages that turn into new Oak Ridge members. Well done
Blake Appelhof everyone!

House Sincerely,
Kara Frank
Long Range Planning Gary Singer
Andrew Todd President

Pool
Raleigh Miller

Tennis
Ellyn Wolfenson

News from the Ridge
Editor:

Karey Kohout

General Manager’s Message Oak Ridge Country Club

Ladies and gentlemen! Staff

I’m going to briefly play the role of an amateur statistician for the next few minutes of your Jake Hawley
lives. I’m going to trot out some numbers, deliver some figures and provide some amateur General Manager
analysis. In conclusion, I will ask for help from each of you…I want that to be out there in the Wendy Robinson
open…no surprises. Director of Business
Administration & Finance
Let’s have some fun with this. Here goes…through July 26th, 2021 our golf course has
officially recorded a total of 13,115 rounds played (9,366 18-hole rounds and 3,749 9-hole Emily Sparks
rounds). This includes all rounds by members, guests, outside events, golf professionals, local Human Resources
and state dignitaries, professional athletes, country music stars and one round from me. I’ll
make an assumption that each of these 13,115 rounds was played to completion totaling a Jeff Wissman
whopping 202,329 holes of golf played. That’s a lot of holes! Assistant Contoller

Let’s extrapolate a bit further… Karey Kohout
We can reasonably assume that 44,962 par-3’s were played, 134,886 par 4’s were played and Marketing &
22,481 par 5’s were played. Agreed? Of the par 3’s, let’s say 20% of the tee shots hit the green Membership Director
on the fly. I think that would be a safe assumption. Maybe a little light, but for sake of argu- Sue Johnson
ment, let’s use 20%. That’s a potential for nearly 9,000 ball marks on par-3 greens…so far Service Manager
this year. Let’s use that same 20% number for approach shots on the 4’s and 5’s…31,469 ball Kim Trzpuc
marks. Add 3’s, 4’s and 5’s together (and I will round down)…that’s 40,000 ball marks. Oof! Catering Director
If you dial this in to an individual round of golf for each of us, we could expect to have to fix Tim Jones
roughly five ball marks per 18 holes of golf. Seems reasonable. Executive Chef

Now let’s look at fairway shots. We can statistically remove the par 3’s out of this portion Margaret Diffley
of the analysis. I know not everyone hits the fairway all the time so let’s say that on the par Sous Chef
4’s, 50% the accounted for holes result in at least one shot from the fairway equaling 67,443
strokes. From here, let’s assume that of those 67,443 shots from the fairway, half of those re- Steve Palodichuk
sult in some sort of divot being taken…33,721 and half of those result in a divot that can be re- Sous Chef
placed/repaired by the golfer…16,861. On the par 5’s let’s assume 1.25 shots take place from
the fairways 50% of the time equaling a shade over 14,050 fairway shots. Then let’s use the Lauren Paradise
same hypothesis that 50% of the accounted for fairway shots created a divot --> 7,025 divots Beverage Manager
and half of those could be replaced --> 3512 repairable divots. Grand total of repairable divots
on 4’s and 5’s = 20,373. Reducing this number to a single round of golf would net nearly ten Kellie Hoiness
repairable divots per 18 holes. Maybe that’s a little high, at least for my game…:). Director of Golf

At this point, I could jump in the sand and create a whole new set of postulates and Eric Speck
assumptions regarding bunker traffic and raking but it would be extremely difficult to attempt Head Golf Professional
to apply a whole bunch of logic to the randomness of bunker play.
Jeff Crouch
By now you can certainly recognize the spirit of the messaging here. These numbers may not Assistant Golf Professional
be wholly correct and certainly there is potential for error, but the essence of the analysis is
what’s important. There is a lot opportunity to exercise pride and comportment to this fabulous Marshall Hoiness
property, the wonderful playground we all enjoy. Please take the brief moments in your rounds Director of Instruction
to fix your ball marks, replace your divots and rake the bunkers. On behalf of Kellie Hoiness
and the entire Golf Department and Todd Kranz and the entire Grounds department we are Katie Clark
thrilled to see these historic levels of activity and appreciate every ball mark that is fixed, every Director of Merchandising
divot replaced and every bunker raked. Your efforts coupled with ours is what will set Oak
Ridge apart. Enjoy the hell out of the remaining months of the 2021 golf season! Todd Kranz
Golf Course Superintendent
Sincerely,
Justin Ellison
Jake Hawley Assistant Golf Course
General Manager
Superintendent
Barb Meyer

Head Tennis Professional
Erik Mitchell

Building Engineer
Steve Miller
Pool Director

August Events

PIZatZthAe pPoAolRTY

Saturday, August 14th

Adults: $20 Kids: $12 Under 4: $6
1:00pm - 3:00pm

kids featuring: SARG

WITH ARTS & CRAFTS $10 Family Fun
Thursday, August 26th
Golf Events
6:30pm
August 29th
MAC N’ CHEESE FOR DINNER! 5:30pm shotgun

y, Thursday, August 19th Open to all membership categories
12:15pm Lunch
Book with discussion
following
Club
Lead by Cynthia Kalland

Pool News

The pool has been very popular this summer. With the hot dry weather, it has been a great place to be, and it is
even more so now that we finally got our new diving board installed. As Erik Mitchell and I were putting it in,
we had kids lining up to jump off before we were done. It has been the most popular feature since.

The Oak Ridge team wrapped up its season during the last week in July with the Jr. Champs, and Champs meet
at the Eden Prairie Community Center. Thanks to coaches Lily Rostal and Gabbie Kruse for making the season
fun and successful!

The fourth of July was a hit. We played a lot of water games, gave away prizes and the kids enjoyed Sarge the
D.J. It is always fun to plan and execute this event.

Once again, the July session of kids all sports camp was a success. The feedback from kids and parents was all
positive. I would like to give a ton of credit to Ali Hall and all the lifeguards who ran the swimming portion of
camp. They worked hard to ensure the kids had a great time. It is always fun to see the strong bonds that form
between the guards and kids as they work together during the week-long camp. We have one more session in
August.

It is really hard to believe it is already August! Summer has flown by, but we still have some of the best days
to enjoy time in and by the pool and we are looking forward to seeing you here.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my staff. They have worked hard and done a fantastic job. I would not
be able to run this facility or any of the programming without them! They have been amazing!

Steve Miller
Pool Director

FROM the 1st TEE

• Hole Locations Sheets will be available at the Starter’s Podium on your way to the 1st tee!
• Please yell FORE if any time an errant shot is hit and is heading even remotely close to another golfer.
• Please help us care for your golf course by raking bunkers, fixing ball marks, and keeping carts 30 yards

away from greens.
• The Golf Committee expects players to complete an 18-hole round within 4 hours, if later, within 10 minutes

of the group immediately in front of them. Should a group fail to meet this standard, the Golf Staff will alert
all players involved, to encourage faster play by playing ready golf. If a group fails to respond/improve to
two such requests the Golf Professional may require the group to proceed to the next tee. If by the end of the
round there has not been an effort to improve pace of play, a letter will be sent to all members in the group.
If there is a recurrence, it will be reported to the Golf Committee. Any fivesomes will be expected to main-
tain the same 4-hour pace of play.

CADDIE CORNER Golf Events

MEET OUR CADDIES! August 7 & 8
Men’s Club Championship
Junior Club Championship
August 11
Women’s 9 & Dine Guest

August 12
Women’s Casual Guest Day
8:30 a.m. Shotgun – 18 Hole Players
10:30 a.m. Shotgun – 9 Hole Players

August 17 & 18
Women’s Club Championship

WILL BENSON WILL NELSON August 21
Christensen Cup
Senior at St. Thomas Academy, Evans Scholar graduated from August 27
currently in cross country and Track Hopkins High School and is Couples Twilight (Glow Ball)
attending the University of Sign ups available on ForeTees under
Field for the 800 meter and 1600 Minnesota for Finance at the Carlson the events tab.
meter. Currently in his second year School of Management in the fall of
at Oak Ridge, and is applying for the
2021.
Evans Scholarship next year.



2021 Results

Red Oak Flight Champions Pin Oak Flight Champions Black Oak Flight Champions
Cameron Sigecan and Kevin Fecho Keith Detlefsen and Ryan Ess Gus Kellom and Jon Cochrane

White Oak Flight Champions Laurel Oak Flight Champions Post Oak Flight Champions
Jon Kattke and Andrew Todd Pete Madson and Kai Worrell Jason Wilsey and Jeff Gratton

Willow Oak Flight Champions Blackjack Oak Flight Champions English Oak Flight Champions
Peet Moseley and Colman Collins Ryan Rutzick and Cory Dalbec John Farni and Jorie Soskin

Gambel Oak Flight Champions Men’s Shoot-Out Champions Men’s Shoot-Out Runners Up
Andrew Todd and Jon Kattke
Joe Shallenberger and Geoff Bray Kevin Fecho and Cameron Sigecan

Ridge Couples Tournament

1st Place- 59 2nd Place TIE- 63 4th Place- 64
Ryan and Molly Rutzick Bruce and Louise Moss Casey and Michelle Campbell
Jeff and Laura Nielsen

Kranz’ Corner

olf.
ers

It’s been a crazy weather year already just 4 months
into the golf season. We have had some extremely
warm temperatures and very little rain to speak of.
Since June 1st, we have had 1.92” of rain and 21 days
in the 90s! In that same time, we have used roughly
16 million gallons of water to keep the turf healthy.
We are not without our stressed out areas on the golf
course but overall we look really good. The stressed
out areas will bounce back once the weather cools.

The path on 7 tee will be complete in early August
and is a great addition to that tee box. It will give cart
traffic a
dedicated route and keep the turf on the hillside from
getting beaten down.

Thanks,
Todd J. Kranz

At Your Service

It’s time to plan your holiday event with

Special Events at Oak Ridge Country Club

CELEBRATE AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF ONE OF THE MOST BREATHTAKING VIEWS
IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA.

WHETHER IT’S AN INTIMATE DINNER IN THE BOARD ROOM OR A FESTIVE AFFAIR
IN THE MAIN DINING ROOM, WE HAVE THE TOOLS TO ENSURE YOUR EVENT
EXPERIENCE IS SEAMLESS FROM THE BEGINNING TO END.

DISCOVER WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO RELAX AND ENJOY YOUR PARTY.

Celebrations, Meetings, Golf Outings, Fundraising Events, and more!

Call us to get started : 952-935-7721

Wine of the Month Beer of the Month

Jules Taylor Better Half Summit EPA

Sauvignon Blanc

Behind the Baseline

We had so much fun celebrating the Olympics
during our July kid’s camp. In addition to improving
their tennis skills, campers competed daily in
soccer, track, baseball, volleyball and (of course)
tennis. Friday’s medal ceremony was the
culmination of an amazing week of fun, hard work,
competition and sportsmanship!!

Drills, lessons, Ridge Kids, birthday parties, cardio
tennis, record breaking attendance for live ball and
USTA League filled the courts with activity in July.
Oak Ridge had 5 USTA teams this summer and once
again the Ladies 3.5 team is on their way to the
sectional tournament and then hopefully on to
nationals!!

The Deck is DOne!

If you have not been to the courts to see our beautiful new
deck, please come visit!! It’s an amazing place to hang out
and watch some tennis.

August

S M T T Funday Saturday
Wonday uesday ednesday hursday riday
1 23 4 5 6 7

Club Men’s League 9 & Dine Men’s Club
Closed Championship
Ladies Golf for
the Cure 14
Pizza Pool
8 9 10 11 12 13 Party

Club Men’s League 9 & Dine Ladies Casual
Closed Guest Day
Ladies Day Event Ladies Guest
Day

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Club Men’s League 9 & Dine Book Club Christensen Cup
Closed Ladies Club

Championship

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Club Men’s League 9 & Dine Movie Night Couples Twilight
Closed Ladies Day Event

29 30 31
Family Golf Men’s League
Club
Closed Ladies Day Event