NORWOOD NEWS October - December 2023
2 General Manager’s Message 3 Membership 4 Preservation Foundation 4 Clubhouse News 5 Food & Beverage 5-6 Upcoming Events 7 9-Hole WGA 8 18-Hole WGA 9 Norwood Seniors 10 Golf Shop News 10 Grounds & Greens 11 Ascension Charity Classic Inside the Issue hours of operation Monday CLOSED Tuesday Lite Fare 12pm-7pm Wed-Thurs Champions 11am-8pm Fairway Lounge (Bar) 11am-8pm Fairway Grille 11am-8pm Friday Champions 11am- 9pm Fairway Lounge (Bar) 11am-9pm Fairway Grille 11am-9pm Saturday Champions 11am-8pm Fairway Lounge (Bar) 11am-8pm Fairway Grille 11am-8pm Sunday Champions 11am-8pm Fairway Lounge (Bar) 11am-8pm Fairway Grille 9am-8pm West Shack Monday CLOSED Tuesday: 9am-5pm Wednesday 9am-5pm Thursday 9am-5pm Friday 9am-7pm Saturday 8am-7pm Sunday 8am-6pm East Shack Monday CLOSED Beverage Service Tuesday-Friday 9am-5pm Full Kitchen Saturday 9am-5pm Sunday 9am-5pm (314) 521-0682 Golf Ext 335 Accounting Ext 222 Membership Ext 221 Events Ext 9005 Concierge/Reservations Ext 287 club contacts Facebook.com/NorwoodHills Twitter.com/NorwoodHills lnstagram.com/NorwoodHills Linkedin.com/company/Norwood-Hills-Country-Club stay connected “Yappy Hour” at the Pool
General Manager Message Norwood Hills Members, What a great start to the fall season! Norwood Hills again shined as we welcomed the best from the PGA Tour Champions and congratulations goes out to Steve Flesch for his win and course record 62 on Sunday. I want to thank our membership for being such gracious hosts, our entire team of dedicated employees for their efforts, and the numerous volunteers and others that helped make this event first class. Kudos to all! The St. Louis community again showed its support with large crowds gathering each day and Norwood was once again in the spotlight. Speaking of fall, I`m excited for Chef Eric to unveil his new fall menu. If you haven’t been out to the club to experience many of Chef`s daily and featured entrées, I encourage you do so. They are fantastic! Did someone say fried chicken? Chef Eric and his team have re-introduced this great Norwood tradition back into the fold and will be offering Sunday Fried Chicken nights every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month each month. The fried chicken is delicious! Also, join us on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month with live music and complimentary spirts and/ or wine tastings at the club. We have a great line up of vendors for our Happy Hour tastings and those will be announced in our weekly club email happenings. We look forward to seeing you at the club to partake in Chef`s offerings. Norwood Hills annual stockholders meeting will commence on November 1st at 6pm. Stockholders are encouraged to attend, and proxies have been mailed out. We ask that you please mail your proxy back or vote electronically. We have a great group of candidates up for nomination to serve a 3-year term on the Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors are a group of dedicated members tasked to grow the club now and into the future. The future is looking extremely bright at Norwood! In this newsletter you will find a list of many upcoming events at Norwood. We have a great Octoberfest planned in the Champions Courtyard, a Boo-tastic Halloween party, a bountiful Thanksgiving feast, followed up with our new event, a child centered Breakfast with Santa as well as our traditional Christmas with Santa dates. Along with our traditional holiday events we are in the works of scheduling wine dinners and other specialty events to enhance your membership experience. More information on all these events will be upcoming. My team looks forward to seeing everyone out to club for many of our upcoming events and also continuing to utilize the golf and tennis facilities. Your continued support is what makes Norwood such a wonderful place and we want you to tell your colleagues and friends how much fun we have. Enjoy your club, Dane McLaird 2
Membership Norwood Hills Membership, What a beautiful start to Fall! The Ascension Charity Classic was another huge success and brought many prospective members to the Club over the last several weeks. I believe it will once again serve as a great way to bring tremendous exposure to the Club. Hopefully, we will see a lot more new faces who were able to experience Norwood Hills for the first time because of the tournament become members. With the weather as beautiful as it’s been, we’ve seen continued outreach with those interested in membership, even heading into the Fall months. With not much changing currently in the forecast, we should see a consistent amount of interest heading into winter. This year we’ve been able to welcome so many wonderful new families and individuals to the Club. As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or if you have any family or friends interested in discussing membership. Always happy to help in any way I can. We’ll see you around the Club! All the best, John Wright Membership Director/Tournament Director Welcome New Members Mr. Mark Johnson & Ms. Angie Balencie Rev. David Hogan Mr. Steve Hong & Mrs. Dorian
Clubhouse News Credit Card Fees Due to the increasing costs of credit card processing fees, effective November 1, 2023, the fee charged for dues and fees paid with credit cards will increase from 2.75% to 3.25%. Change in Payment Processing A few months ago, Norwood Hills changed the processor for ACH and credit card payments. This required a member to update their banking/credit card information in the new system. We have had a few instances where a member had not yet updated their profile and thus became late in the system. If you pay by ACH/credit card, make sure your information is up to date in the new system. If you have any questions on how to update, please contact Christine in accounting. Thank you! Preservation Foundation Revitalization Campaign Update In July, the Norwood Hills Preservation Foundation made an appeal to all our members to consider donating to enable us to pay for two important projects: tree removal across the entire property and the East Course bunkers. The estimated cost for these projects is $500,000. Any money raised will take pressure off the Norwood capital budget. • For golf members, we asked each member to voluntarily donate $1,250 or more. • For social members, we asked each member to voluntarily donate $500 or more. As of September 15, 33 members have responded with donations totaling just over $47,000, which is 9% of our $500,000 goal. Obviously, we have a long way to go, but we are making progress. We need the support of all Norwood members. Your donations to the Preservation Foundation are tax deductible. Please donate today. If you have already mailed your donation, we thank you. If you have had your donation returned to you by the U.S. Postal Service because of an address issue, please contact George Keller. If you have questions, please feel free to contact George Keller, president of the Preservation Foundation, at 314-749-5133. 4
Hello Norwood Hills Members & Family, As the sun begins to set on another summer here at Norwood Hills, we want to take a moment to reflect on the incredible memories we have made. Some of our favorite moments include cheering on all of the kiddos as they represented Norwood during the swim meets, watching an amazing firework show down by the driving range on the Forth of July, and of course hanging out with everyone at the Friday Night Patio Parties! Since Fall is officially here, we are delighted to talk about the fun events we have planned for the rest of 2023. First, I would like to let you all know that the 2nd and 4th Sundays of every month will be Norwood’s Fried Chicken Night! It has been so enjoyable seeing everyone’s families join us in the dining room and we are delighted to keep the tradition going. In October, mark your calendars...our 1st and 3rd Friday Happy Hours, the Oktoberfest Patio Party, and the Kids Halloween Party. We are already excited to see all of the costumes! Moving into November, we hope you choose to bring your family and friends out to celebrate what your thankful for during our Thanksgiving Day Brunch. And before too long, December will be here and we will all be getting dressed up for the Christmas Gala, supporting our members at the Christmas Boutique, bringing the kiddos to brunch with Santa, and ringing in the new year on New Years Eve. There are many fun times ahead, and we look forward to seeing you and your families around the club. Please be sure to RSVP and make reservations so we can best accommodate you all. Sincerely, Jordan Boettcher and the F&B Team Food & Beverage 5
Save the Dates! Christmas Gala Friday, Dec. 8 December 16 & 17 11:00am - 1:30pm New Years Eve Sunday, Dec. 31 Separate parties for the adults and kids!
I hope you all had the chance to attend the Ascension Charity Classic. We were blessed with beautiful weather, a good turn out, and fun by all who were there! As we approach the final months of golf for the 2023 season, we are looking forward to our remaining events. Mandy Hammel and Mary Beth Fox have been working hard on our TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME play day to take place on September 20. They have a lot of fun activities planned as we help support our struggling Cardinals. On October 18, our close-out event of Halloween Hoot will be celebrated. Susan Ryan and Meeaeng Park have a fun day planned as we play “around” obstacles on the course. Don’t forget to dress up in costume! Our Fall meeting is scheduled for October 25 at 10:30am, with awards and lunch to follow a short wrap up of the season. We have enjoyed a fun season and are always looking for new members. Anyone interested in joining, please call Sharon Winget at 314-602-3591. See you on the course! 9-Hole WGA HARD 18 Saturday, October 28 Turkey Trot Saturday, Nov. 11 Mark Your Calendars! 7
18-Hole WGA The Norwood Hills Women’s Golf Association Invite You to Join Us This Holiday Season at the Christmas Luncheon & Boutique Wednesday, December 6 ____________________________________ 10:00am | Shop from Over 2o Vendors 12:00pm | Lunch in the Ballroom 12:15pm | Raffle Drawing (must be present to win) 1:00-2:00pm | More Shopping! ____________________________________ All Members & Guests Invited! $33 per person Official Registration Form will be Available Soon This August we held the Dottie Linsin Two-Day Tournament. Betty Kraeger was the Winner with a two-day net score of 140! Congratulations Betty! FLIGHT WINNERS Red Flight: Jo DiSalvo, Nannette Baker & Beth Schasteen White Flight: Eileen Barry, Claire Boevingloh & Mary Gentsch Blue Flight: Christy Mudd, Suzy Andersen & Diana True Low Putts for two days: Kristin Volmer Low Gross Total: Nancy Walther Dottie Divot: Dolores Boehmer Congratulations to Terry Milne for winning the Past Chairman’s Tournament this year. We have weekly golf thru October 18 with a start time of 8:30am each Wednesday. Our Fall Meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 25. At the meeting all prizes and awards for the year will be presented. We will also have installation of our new officers. Don’t forget to make a reservation for this special luncheon! Our final event of the year is our annual Christmas Lunch and Boutique. All Norwood members and their guests are invited to enjoy a morning of shopping with over 20 specialty venders followed by a holiday lunch. Mary Jotte & Terry Milne Past Presidents (back row pictured left to right): Gerry Wisniewski (2007), Peggy Linsin (1985), Claire Boevingloh (2022), Barb Abbett (2009), Lisa Hillenbrand (1999) (front row pictured left to right): Mary Jotte (2012), Christy Mudd (2019), Pat Fuqua (1989), Mary Beth Rodgers (2021), Terry Milne (2011), Beth Schasteen (2013), Sharon Byrne (2010), Sylvia Schulte (1996) 8
Norwood Seniors Our 2023 Norwood Seniors Organization played its Fall Tournament on Thursday, September 21, on a perfect day on Norwood’s Championship West Course with pin placements in the same locations as the Sunday round of the Ascension Sr. PGA Tournament. Sixty-two Seniors participated on two-man teams. Congratulations to the flight winners, it won’t get any better than this. Hopefully, you were able to join us for our five Norwood Senior events this year along with the 142 other Norwood Seniors, who are members of our Norwood Seniors Organization. Each event this year had about 50-60 players including guests. Due to scheduling around the Ascension Sr Tournament a suitable date was not available for a Senior’s Closing Day event. All Seniors are encouraged to play in the Norwood Tournament Committee Closing Day event on Saturday, October 14. All Norwood Senior events are planned to be played as two-man teams, with some events having both Team and Individual awards. All play will be with a 1:00pm shotgun start with awards and Dinner following. The August “Breakfast on the Range” will be a 9:00am shotgun. Watch the Norwood News for the 2024 tournament’s details Guests Are Encouraged Guests are always welcome at each tournament, and you are encouraged to invite a playing Guest partner or join with another Norwood Senior. This is an opportunity to show off Norwood’s excellent golf courses and Club facilities. Tournament Guest green fees are $95 West and $60 East. Sign for carts and cocktails. No Green fees are applied for our Member Guest in June Membership and Dues All Norwood Members age 49 and older are invited to join the Norwood Seniors group and participate in tournament events. Annual dues are $50 payable on your monthly statement for February 2024. Dues are applied fully in support of our Tournament golf awards, pro shop items, and a portion of dinner costs. Thank You to Norwood’s Professional Team for supporting our Senior Organization. Brandon, Matt, and the Pro Shop Staff for organizing and planning our golf. Mike Null for giving us a Championship East and West Course, Norwood’s Catering Staff for fulfilling our dinner planning and scheduling, and Anthony Greff for communicating with the Seniors about our events. Looking forward to seeing you in 2024. We welcome comments and suggestions! Norwood Seniors Committee Ed Goedeke / Terry Knox/ Jim Randall
Grounds & Greens The Ascension Charity Classic is behind us and we are in the middle of repairing the West golf course. The tournament went well - we were in fabulous shape for the players and comments acknowledged that. You may have heard some stories complaining about greens, but that had nothing to do with what we had prepared. There were four greens we were told not to roll because of the green slopes: #2, #7, #11 and #14. I tend to agree with the players who mentioned this. I prefer to treat all greens the same, but it is not our ballgame. Honestly, I thought the set-up was incredibly easy, which lead to the record-breaking scoring. All-in-all, it was a successful event and showed very well on television. Moving forward into the Fall, we have several outside events left to deal with, while putting the West course back into shape. We will be aerifying, seeding, and sodding the damaged areas and will also get back to re-building East course bunkers starting with #10 and #18. As we get deeper into the Fall and early winter, removal of dead and dying Pin oaks will also become a priority in our work schedule. The crew and I have somewhat caught our breath following the Ascension event. There are still many great golfing days ahead of us....I hope you will get to make good use of them! October is here and it looks like we are going to have some great Fall weather! Now that October has arrived, we would like to remind everyone of a few things.... New Fall apparel has arrived in the golf shop. This year’s selection is better than ever so come shop before they are gone! Through the rest of the month, take advantage of our Thursday guest rates on both the East and West golf courses. The East course has $30 guest fees all day while the West course has $50 guest fees after 2:00PM. These rates will be current until October 31. Friendly reminder for all to use their bundle rounds by the end of the calendar year. After December 31, all unused bundle rounds will expire. There are a few events that we have coming up this month as well. TaylorMade has a demo day coming up in the next few weeks. They will be here on October 13, with the Tour Van to create a unique experience only a few country clubs in the area will get to enjoy! October 5 Enterprise Golf Outing (Golf Courses & Facilities Closed) October 14 Closing Day Golf Event October 19 Hucks Convenience Store Outing (Golf Courses & Facilities Closed) October 28 Hard 18 Golf Event November 11 Turkey Trot Golf Event Golf Shop News upcoming events 10
Ascension Charity Classic Third Time’s a Charm for Ascension Charity Classic presented by Emerson In its third showing, the Ascension Charity Classic presented by Emerson proved once again that Norwood Hills Country Club and its members know how to host a first-class, professional golf tournament. Puns notwithstanding, the third time was a charm: great golf, great weather, and great efforts by everyone involved. Champion, Steve Flesch (pictured on the cover) shot a course record 9-under 62 on Sunday, coming from two shots back to win by a three-shot margin over Kevin Sutherland and 2009 PGA Champion Y.E. Yang. The victory was especially sweet for Flesch as his son, Griffin, served as his caddie. “We just had a ball out there,” Flesch said. With temperatures ranging in the low 80s during the three-day PGA TOUR Champions event played on Norwood Hills’s legendary West Course, players and patrons alike reveled in the September splendor. The week was filled with golf-related activities, including a pairings party, a putting challenge, and a participatory youth clinic that featured the future of the game. The annual celebrity challenge, which featured greats from golf, hockey, and baseball, lived up to its hype, and was punctuated by a sterling musical performance to close out the evening. Jay Delsing, our hometown ambassador, said the players were impressed with the course conditions and heaped nothing but praise on Superintendent Mike Null and the grounds crew. Staff in the Pro Shop and Clubhouse received accolades as well, Delsing says, because of their willingness to go the extra mile to exceed player expectations. But the line share of the tournament’s success lies with Norwood members and those who served as tournament volunteers. The members were enthused, they were engaged, and they were energized to see their course in the limelight, as more than 2 million viewers saw the beauty of Norwood Hills Country Club on Golf Channel. As members are taking a well-deserved, momentary bow for a job well done, it won’t be long before they are back in action and planning for Year Four of the Ascension Charity Classic, scheduled for September 2-8, 2024.