Results Of Nan Ryan Invitational

It was a great day for golf – and Estes Park Junior golfers were again the big winners in the 20th annual Nan Ryan Invitational, held Saturday, July 29, at the Lake Estes Golf Course!

scholarships for season passes. Our goal is to grow the game, and having Nan’s tournament support means a lot to us and the many young people who have participated in the program over the two decades of the tournament.”

“Austin divided his time between the two golf courses – on the busiest golf day of the year -- and really made the NRI a success,” said Ryan. “His welltrained staff of Karen Riley, Wally Wester, Frank Zambrano Michael Blankenbecler, and Paul Engels were responsible for keeping things running and on time.”

Hats off again to Andy and Cindy Morgan at the Dunraven for the $25 gift certificates that each player received.

Greg Anderson and his maintenance crew had the golf course in tiptop condition, and received many compliments from the players.

And a big thank you to Marsha Sypher for checking players in, and to Judith Praul and Ollie Smith for an excellent job with the raffle!

Womens and Booth Hayes Junior Boys.

Virgil Yarbrough walked away with fewest putts for men with six, while Carla Spreng-Webb won for Women and Cayden Hajek for Juniors.

Chris Berve (Mens), Jennifer Gergen (Womens) and Cayden Hajek (Juniors) won the ‘Guess the Number of Tees’ contest.

Winners in the Raffle were Mark Brage (Callaway Stand Bag), Paul Drouin (Callaway Driver), John Glover (Masters Cap), Ingrid Drouin (Masters Towel), Brian Belleau (Masters Ball Marker), Carla Spreng-Webb (Masters flag) and Casey Burke (Precision Putter).

“A record 38 teams competed in the 9hole scramble event in perfect weather, on a perfect day, on a perfect golf course, ” stated Nan Ryan, tournament organizer. “As always, our goal was to beat last year, and we did it!! Thanks to the golfers and wonderful donors, we made a record $8300 for the Estes Park Junior Golf Program. This bring the total raised by the tournament over the past 20 years to $64,455.”

“Thanks go to Nan Ryan, who tirelessly puts this golf event together year after year”, said Austin Logan, PGA Golf Professional and Manager of Golf Operations. “It’s a “major” in our small town’s golf community, and we are always amazed by the outpouring of support for the program,” he added. “Nan’s tournament has helped us so much with golf in Estes Park. In 2023 we were thankful for strong participation from 70 junior golfers in the program. We were able to purchase 16 new sets of clubs and four

The team of Ben James, Don James, Mike Manson and Bobby Daisy shot two under par 29 to successfully defend their Men’s Team title, while the Longmont team of Casey Burke, Susan VanHorne, Patti Moroney-Hoag and Julie Kopp took Women’s Team honors.

Judi and Mike Cunningham and Carla and Drew Webb successfully defended their Mixed Team title, while the Loveland team of Ray Sanchez, Josh Brage, Mark Brage and Mike Dan took Junior team title after eight-year-old Josh chipped in for a birdie!

The Firestone team of Booth Hayes, Dom Calvetti, Cayden Hajek and Aiden Wood won All-Junior Team honors with a one-under-par 30.

Chris Berve of Denver won Men’s Long Drive for the second consecutive year, while Pat Vorreiter was the long hitter for Women and Booth Hayes for Juniors.

In the Closest to the Pin event, Marty Gergen won Mens, Sybil Eberhart

Thanks to Elements of Touch, Alpenstrong PT, Estes Park Chiropractic, and Hunter’s Chop House for Door Prizes, which went to Kim Anderson, Gail Albers, Hulda Bachman, David King, Drew Webb, Clark Gibbons and Donny Davison.

“Without the help of all participants and generous people who donated money for Junior Golf, we couldn’t have set this record,” stated Ryan. “Juniors hold the future of this great game of golf, and their contributions make it possible for golf to continue to grow.”

Plans are already in the works for the 21st annual Nan Ryan Invitational, scheduled at the Lake Estes Golf Course, Saturday, July 27, 2024. Mark your calendar now!

By: Judi Smith

Priorities

I remember as a child, perhaps even more as a teenager and as a young adult, hearing the comment (directed at me), “You need to get your priorities straight!” I took that to mean, “You need to agree with me!” and ignored it. Realizing that priorities are a very personal preference, I tried to avoid saying that to my children and grandchildren, employees, and other acquaintances, even when I thought it. Personal preferences and goals also differ, family to family, person to person. My mother often repeated, “If two people always agree, one of them is unnecessary.” From that, we learned to tolerate, even to welcome, difference – on a very personal level. However, this realization did cause me to consider, often, my own personal priorities. As day-today events, challenges, opportunities, possibilities, and necessities occur … we classify them as worthwhile or useless, doable or impossible – but pinpointing the most essential is a difficult operation. It is easy to say, on multiple levels, “Oh, that is valuable. I hope it succeeds.” It is quite another to decide where to invest your own limited time, talent, and treasure.

Since this column concerns community sustainability, I choose to limit my list, for today, to the dreams, endeavors, and projects within that realm. Sustainability includes Social, Economic, and Ecological aspects: some popular, some not –and they differ within, community to community and silo to silo. These subjects each span the community strata and force consideration of, not only your own standing, but that of others, encompassing different economic levels, different languages and customs, different educational backgrounds, different generations, different interests – all coming together to form one interwoven, interdependent community.

A few years ago, there was a concentrated effort to improve local childcare, and a prominent bumper sticker that read, “Everyone depends upon someone who depends on childcare.” Recent changes which devastated the available workforce clearly demonstrated how true that was and is. Until we regain previous employment levels, increased patience has become a part of social sustainability. We have an unusual community comprised of year-round locals, recurrent half-timers and drop-ins, some daytime only workforce, and hordes of visitors who came to play. Supplementally, individuals who first arrived during various decades want to preserve the Estes that they originally chose. The challenge is to develop and maintain a community that melds all these different segments of society. Perhaps due to the number of retirees who reside in Estes, we have a wide network of opportunity to donate to our fel- low humans, to the wildlife, to the environment, to just about any cause of interest. Anyone who wants to contribute can contact EPNRC and find some project that needs attention. No-one in Estes need feel useless. This, too, is an important part of sustainability.

Crossroads offers temporary support to those individuals who are “down on their luck” and the rest of us support Crossroads in this endeavor. To this end, we are all very lucky to live under their protective wing. However, the high cost of housing (including rentals) precludes much of our workforce from living where they work, which makes it difficult to maintain a trained and efficient workforce, meaning too many locals find solace in shopping down valley, even when items needed are available here. We have all been disappointed to see local businesses close their doors. Stores that offer office supplies, electronics, appliances, window and auto glass, repair shops, car dealerships, … … due to lack of public interest.

Ecologically, we can all agree that we would like to get rid of the minute plastic bits in our breathable air (tested over RMNP), that the threat of fire and flood wears us out, that August is not the right time for constant rain, that the murky skies of Denver and the Front Range have diminished the Colorado experience. The urban wildland interface of the Estes Valley is a unique and treasured experience. Providing we do not get too close; the animals allow us to live here. However, as the Earth warms, the animals (starting but not limited to the pika) must move to cooler climates for their own protection. This will eventually change our culture with no effort on the part of humans.

If we want to reduce or eliminate these changes, then we have choices to make. Do we address the clutter of our trash, establish circular reuse and recycling patterns to “leave no trace” upon the Earth? Are we willing to give up the convenience of single-use plastic? To step back in time to when we reused, repurposed, and repaired instead of buying new? Do we care enough to walk (or drive) to an appropriate disposal site? Can we eliminate our dependence upon energy created from fossil fuels? Is it worth it to convert to an electric vehicle? Can we move away from coal, oil, natural gas to depend upon the energy generated by sun, wind, and water? And, beyond that, what is the best way to effect change? Do we, as a community, band together to make changes or does each household change the world individually? And, in either case, which changes come first?

Setting priorities is very personal, whether addressed as an individual, as a family, or as a community.

Agree? Disagree? Comments?