August 2014
www.blackdiamondranch.com
A Message from Doug Egly, General Manager Dear Black Diamond Members:
CLUB STAFF DOUG EGLY
General Manager degly@blackdiamondranch.com 352-746-3440
MATT DIMASE
Director of Golf Course Maintenance mdimase@blackdiamondranch.com 352-746-0404
PEGGY GLEASON
Accounting pgleason@blackdiamondranch.com 352-746-0254
MARY NAPOLITANO
Fitness Center mnapolitano@blackdiamondranch.com 352-746-3385
BRYAN RICHARD
Director of Golf brichard@blackdiamondranch.com 352-746-3446
KERRY ROSSELET
Summer is passing by so quickly. Matt and his crew are continuing to upgrade the golf courses. He and his crew are attacking small projects throughout the golf courses from the new cart path down to the 14th green on the Quarry, to the cart parking area at the Ranch putting green. There are a lot of small projects on his list and he will continue to work on them daily. As the Greens Committee mentioned in their letter, we have spent capital dollars replacing the irrigation pumps in both the Quarry pump station on hole number 9, as well as, the pumps on Highlands number 1. The new pumps will help Matt’s team insure proper water pressure throughout the courses during this time when our water restrictions have become much more stringent. Another comment made by the Greens Committee was about you contacting Matt through the Greens Committee. Some of you took that as Matt could no longer be spoken to or communicated with while on the golf courses. That was not the intent of that statement. It was to have a tool that could help Matt with his time allotment each day to spend more time on the golf courses and not answering email requests for “can you trim the trees in my back yard” type requests from numerous residents on a daily basis. Matt is also in the final stages of hiring an additional assistant superintendent for his crew. That process should be finalized by mid-August. For those of you who have been spending time at Black Diamond this summer, I hope you have had a chance to meet our new Club Manager Chris Smilgin. Chris is already having a positive impact on the food and beverage department. His staff training and friendly attentive service will be noticed by all. Welcome Chris. On a membership note, we have paid back the first person on the resigned list and are working on the sale of the next five to pay back the second person. On a positive note, our membership numbers are up by four members from the beginning of the year. We have also had 5 members that have sold their homes and transferred the membership to the new owner. We have negotiated a new contract with Bright House Cable and with that they have supplied us with a new digital community channel. The new channel is located on channel 95 on your cable box. Please tune in for the latest happenings at the club and community. I look forward to seeing everyone soon.
Membership and Real Estate Director krosselet@blackdiamondranch.com 352-453-5473
CHRIS SMILGIN
Club Manager csmilgin@blackdiamondranch.com 352-746-3440
JENNIFER STAUFF
POA Manager jennifer.ncpm@wildblue.net 352-465-6933
KENNETH TUFO
Executive Chef ktufo@blackdiamondranch.com 352-746-3449
A Message from Chris Smilgin, Club Manager Hello Members: For those of you I haven’t met, I am your new Club Manager Chris Smilgin. I come to you from Texas, specifically the Dallas area. My education consists of a culinary degree from Johnson and Wales University and a RHIM BS from Texas Tech University. My past 20 years in the food and beverage area include time with Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch in San Antonio, Marriott Marco Island Florida/ Marriott River Walk San Antonio, ClubCorp golf in the Dallas area, American Golf at The Tribute in The Colony Texas. My family is made up of my girlfriend Sami and my children Erin 16, Tyler 14 and Zander is 10 years old. I am very happy to be here at Black Diamond Ranch and look forward to improving your relationship with the club. I am available anytime with an email csmilgin@blackdiamondranch.com or a cell call at 352.220.3477. I look forward to learning everyone’s name preferences. Thank you for having me and my family here in the Black Diamond Community.
See you at the Clubhouse! Page 2
A Message from Matt DiMase Director of Golf Course Maintenance Attention Members: While we had our challenges in July regarding aerification, I want to let everyone know that the Ranch Greens did not suffer from a disease. I have heard members mention disease, especially on the back of the Ranch, or say that’s what caused the damage and nothing else, that is false. While the Ranch was closed we sent off multiple samples for testing. Soil samples, tissue samples, and nematode assays. No turf loss disease was present. The soil samples showed high sodium, but that is due to the reclaim water. We treated greens accordingly to lower the sodium level. Our nematode counts are the lowest I have seen them in 3 years. The plan we put in place was to recover and grow grass. Aside from treating algae, we did not spray any other fungicides to target any other disease. While we faced adversity on the Ranch greens, they recovered. We were scheduled to be closed from June 30th through July 7th, but we opted to keep the Ranch closed an additional 21 days due to some thin spots. While the Ranch was closed we were able to do some tree work, reshape #16 Fairway, and apply a pre and post emergent in all of the rough as well as a post emergent on all tees and fairways. We did sod several spots on the greens. We sodded 700 square feet of turf during the course closure. We have several projects to complete this August and September. One of them is the grass bunker on Quarry #6. We are going to reshape the bowl, add a drain, and soften the faces. We will then sod and that area will be mowed at the same height as the collar and approach going forward. We began cart path repairs and will be working with our concrete company throughout the summer to repair/replace lifted and cracked paths. Irrigation retro fit has begun throughout the courses where we are removing some of the older heads and replacing with new, more efficient models. As mentioned in the Greens Committee letter we are scheduled for new equipment this fall. The new fleet of equipment will reduce some of the challenges we have seen of late with equipment failures.
Membership and Real Estate Corner
Year to date we have had 9 Full Golf Members (4 new and 5 transfers) and 4 new Social Members join with 13 real estate transactions where we participated and 4 additional real estate transaction where we didn’t participate as either the buying or selling side. The latest Full Golf Members to join are Bruce and Stacy Davidson. As many of you are aware we are in the process of building our fourth new home, The Burnham. This will be fully appointed and furnished with the help of Interiors by Design West from Naples. Feel free to visit their website to learn more about them www.designwestfl.com We plan on showcasing the home during a couple of open houses. I will keep you posted once the dates have been selected. In the meantime, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at the Welcome Center. Escalante-Black Diamond Realty LLC is pleased to announce the addition of a full time realtor, Charlene Angelo. A little history on Charlene. Charlene moved here from New Jersey in 2005 with her husband Paul, they have three children; a son who is a US Navy aviator based in California, a daughter who is an
attorney in New Jersey and a second daughter who recently married and lives in Boston. A licensed Realtor for 16 years, Charlene worked for a builder in upscale communities selling new homes as well as marketing and advertising. Charlene most recently worked throughout Citrus County in the resale market which allowed her to develop tremendous knowledge of why Citrus County is such a special place. Coming to Black Diamond allows her to use that sales knowledge both in resale homes, as well as, new homes. Please help welcome Charlene to our community! Based on our sales records for 2014 and demand for new construction, we anticipate a very busy rest of the year as well as a great 2015.
Kerry
Kerry Rosselet Membership and Real Estate Director Page 3
A Message from Bryan Richard, Director of Golf As many of you know it has been a long process with the newly formed allocations of the handicap holes. I wanted to give you all a quick update on the process that will take place within the next month. The Handicap Committee will be meeting sometime in August to review the new scores that have been received and entered into the formula calculation that was provided to us from the beginning from the USGA. These rankings along with the handicap review will be presented to the Golf Committee the 1st week of September and we hope to roll out these new allocations the 1st of October. We thank you all for your input on this matter and appreciate all of your patience. This is certainly something that takes time and effort for making certain that the correct procedures have been performed and calculated to provide the most accurate handicap allocation process for the membership.
This year’s 4th of July Tournament had a wonderful Patriotic Theme and members came out in full force for this fun event. Congratulations to the following winners on a great day of golf and comradery. 1ST GROSS
STARS & STRIPES Pam & Vlad Vlcko Brent & Debbie Mooksang
1ST NET
Alan & Lauren Sutherland Nancy & Dick Carey
124
2ND NET
John & Donna Rose Charlie Bassos & Marcia Taormina
125
1ST GROSS
OLD GLORY Bud & Linda Daly Carol & Eric Hirsch
1ST NET
Judy & Tom Bart Lew & Barbara Guthrie
124
2ND NET
Bob & Paula Hylen Ron Ritter & Fred Cox
129
146
CONGRATULATIONS Hole In One!!!
Ross McKersie Quarry Course 7-12-2014 Hole 13 — 190 Yards 4-Wood
160
Witnessed by: Bernie O’Brien, John Collick & Don Hasek Page 4
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
BDLGA AUGUST LADIES’ DAY GAMES (Some games may be switched to different days because of course selection)
AUGUST 5, 2014
Highlands to Quarry Front Individual game Do Over – 5 Mulligans Net Only
AUGUST 12, 2014
Full Quarry Make your own foursome 1 gross plus 1 net ball
A Note from BDLGA President Nancy Carey Our 2013-2014 year at Black Diamond has run well into summer. With the attendant heat we have made some changes to our customary format of BDLGA Ladies’ Day play by pairing in threesomes whenever possible in order to speed the pace of play. We have “flipped” some games on our event schedule to accommodate threesomes and will continue the policy through the hot summer months. We’ve also designated the Silver tees to be played on all courses on Ladies’ Days for the remainder of the season to encourage greater participation and enjoyment for the majority of our BDLGA members. I am happy to report that these changes have resulted in great positive response. This association is dedicated to its members and as such will continue to strive to make it one we all support and enjoy. As always we urge you to voice your requests and give us your comments and suggestions.!
AUGUST 19, 2014
SAVE THE DATE!!
AUGUST 26, 2014
October 1st & 2nd, 2014 Tallahassee, Florida 2 Person Team Golf Tournament
Highlands to Ranch Back Team Game: Lucky 4s 2BB on par 4s Net only Full Ranch Individual Game Eclectic – 1st Week Gross & Net
Details to follow
GOLF OUTSIDE THE GATES (check bulletin board or BDLGA section of website for details)
GRASSLANDS WOMEN’S GOLF ASSOCIATION
BREAST CANCER GOLF TOURNAMENT (BETTER BALL OF PARTNER)
October 16th Entries must be received by Sept 4th Grasslands Golf & Country Club Lakeland
BDLGA FOOD DRIVE Please keep your donations of non-perishable food items to the Family Resource Center coming throughout the month of August. Many Citrus County families benefit from your generosity!! Our designated BDLGA Food Drive recipient for the months of September through December will be Daystar Life Center. Page 5
Black Diamond Foundation The RIVER Project Continues to Prepare Citrus Youth for Healthy and Productive Lives By Susan Pratt, Black Diamond Foundation Board of Directors The RIVER (Reaching Intentional Victory, Expecting Reality) Project is currently the only program that addresses sexual health issues to students of Citrus County. It is an interactive, risk-avoidance program that encourages teens to make intentional, healthy decisions with regard to their goals, future, media literacy, sexual health, and relationships. The curriculum is inclusive and evidenced based, with medically accurate health information delivered to students in 6th through 9th grades. Black Diamond Foundation (BDF) was the first to provide support for the RIVER Project in 2011, when federal funding for the program was cut. Two young women in our local area committed themselves to saving this essential program in a county where 51 % of the total births between 2008 and 2010 were to unwed mothers. BDF was joined soon after by the Citrus County Education Foundation. Together, the two Foundations have formed the financial bedrock for the program, assuring 9th graders across Citrus County receive eight sessions of instruction every fall at all three high schools and the Renaissance Center. Successful fund raising activities, as well as donations from other foundations and private individuals, have helped to expand the program to provide five sessions of instruction to students in grades 6 through 8. Key fundraising events include an annual gala, and the spring Walk, Rock and Roll event held on the Cross Florida Canal trail. Although the State of Florida does not require health education instruction at any grade level in the public school system, Citrus County schools do offer one semester of health education in the 9th grade. The RIVER project is an essential part of the curriculum. In the middle schools, classroom teachers actually give up instructional time in other subject areas to provide time for the program. The RIVER Project utilizes WAIT Training, an internationally recognized curriculum from The Center for Relationship Education in Colorado. The curriculum has been approved at the district level. The following topics are covered:
• • • •
Learning about Yourself and Others Risks and Consequences Dealing Effectively With Conflict Healthy Relationships
• • • •
Cultural Influences Violence Prevention Difference Between Men and Women Commitment
Surveys are taken before and after the classroom instruction. Results indicate the percentage of students who are undecided about early sexual activity dropped from 42% to 28%. The percentage of students who think it is best to wait rose from 34% to 58%. The rate of births by mothers under 18 years of age dropped from 9 .5% in 1997, to under 6% in 2013. During the past few years there also has been a rise in the high school graduation rate in the County to 80%, which is 5% points higher than the State average. Some of the survey comments from teachers and students sum up the program most effectively: Students: • “This class teaches you a lot of accurate info instead of getting it from an unreliable source.” • “This program got me out of a crescendo-ing abusive relationship and I appreciate that.” • “Thanks for helping other people more understand my reasoning to wait for sex.” • “Out of all the days I missed this quarter, I made sure to come to school on Tuesdays because I enjoyed this class.” Teachers: • “I love the program. The focus is on educating the kids to make wise choices and while saying abstinence is the best choice, you are not preaching at the kids.” • “I have been a supporter of the RIVER Project since it started. I think it is a great resource not only for the students here at the Renaissance Center but for all the students in the school district. Most of our students do not have guidance at home or positive adult role models. The facilitators and the rest of the staff at the RIVER Project provide that for our students.” Your Black Diamond Foundation continues to look for innovative and effective ways to assist educators in Citrus County. Your donations truly do make a difference, and we appreciate your support. Page 6
August Calendar of Events Lunch Schedule Tues. - FRI. 11 am - 3 pm Sat. 11 am - 4 pm 3
4
Bible Study 11:00 am
Mahjong 12:00 pm
BRUNCH 9 AM - 3 PM
10
CLUB CLOSED
CLUB CLOSED
CLUB CLOSED
SLIDE BOTTOM GIN 6:30 PM
13
Ladies’ Day
CLUBHOUSE MENU 5:00 - 7:00 PM
5:30 – 7:30 pm Reservations Required Reservations Required
20
Ladies’ Day
WINE DINNER 6:00 PM
Reservations Required
A la Carte
CLUB CLOSED
Reservations Required
27 CHEF’S
Ladies’ Day 5:30 – 7:30 pm Reservations Required
7
LUNCH 11 AM - 3 PM
Trivia Buffet ITALIAN 5:30-7:30 pm Game Starts 6:30 pm
14
MEN’S GUEST DAY
25 Bible Study 26 12:00 pm
BRUNCH 9 AM - 3 PM
Reservations Required
A la Carte
Mahjong
31
Reservations Required
5:30 – 7:30 pm
11:00 am
BRUNCH 9 AM - 3 PM
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Study 18 Bible 19 11:00 am 12:00 pm
24
CLUBHOUSE MENU 5:00 - 7:00 PM
A la Carte
Mahjong
BRUNCH 9 AM - 3 PM
MEN’S DAY
Study 11 Bible 12 11:00 am 12:00 pm
17
Ladies’ Day A la Carte
Mahjong
BRUNCH 9 AM - 3 PM
6
5
LUNCH 11 AM - 3 PM
BRIDGE 9:00AM
LUNCH 11 AM - 3 PM
2
LUNCH 11 AM - 4 PM
A la Carte
No Dinner Service
5:30 – 7:30 pm Reservations Required
8
BRIDGE 9:00AM
LUNCH 11 AM - 3 PM
A la Carte
5:30 – 7:30 pm Reservations Required
15
BRIDGE 9:00AM
LUNCH 11 AM - 3 PM
A la Carte
9
LUNCH 11 AM - 4 PM
No Dinner Service
16 LUNCH 11 AM - 4 PM
No Dinner Service
No Dinner Service CLUB CLOSED 3PM
5:30 – 7:30 pm
21
22 BRIDGE 9:00AM 23
LUNCH 11 AM - 3 PM
No Dinner Service
28
COOKING CLASS 3:00 PM
LUNCH 11 AM - 3 PM
CLUBHOUSE MENU 5:00 - 7:00 PM
No Dinner Service
Reservations Required
1
Reservations Required
NINE & DINE LUNCH 11 AM - 3 PM
A la Carte
5:30 – 7:30 pm Reservations Required
LUNCH 11 AM - 4 PM
No Dinner Service
29 BRIDGE 9:00AM 30 LUNCH 11 AM - 3 PM
LUNCH 11 AM - 4 PM
TURKEY BUFFET
No Dinner Service
5:30 - 7:30 PM
Reservations Required
— MEMBERS — Please help us ensure that your dining experience is satisfactory by making reservations in advance for all evening dinner services. Our staffing is based on your reservations. Thank you in advance for your cooperation. Page 7
Hours of Operation
Recipe of the Month - Chef Kenny
Driving Range Monday – Saturday: 7:00 am – 5:00 pm Sunday: 7:30 am – 4:00 pm
The Perfect Roast Chicken
Golf Shop Monday – Sunday: 7:00 am – 5:00 pm ForeTees Internet: 24-Hour Access
This is a simple roast chicken recipe. It’s an essential, delicious chicken recipe any home cook can master and enjoy.
Tennis Courts Monday – Sunday: 7:00 am – 9:00 pm
Ingredients: 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken Kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper 1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs 1 lemon, halved 1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced 4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks 1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges Olive oil
Pool Monday – Sunday: 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Pool temperature maintained at 84° Fitness Center Open 24/7 with use of Access Code The Clubhouse @ Black Diamond Ranch Brunch: Sunday: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm Lunch: Tuesday – Friday: 11:00 am – 3:00 pm Saturday: 11:00 am – 4:00 pm Dinner: See Calendar Take-Out Window: Tuesday – Sunday: 11:00 am – 3:00 pm Men’s Lounge Tuesday – Friday: 12:00 noon – close Saturday: 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
TRIVIA NIGHT
Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.
WINNERS 7-3-14 1st Place: CRANIAL CRAMPS: $75.00
John & Kacey Gay Paul Siano John & Linda Kamakian Chuck & Kooky Lucas Reese Norris
Reading & Discussion Group
Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.
The Reading & Discussion book club has decided not to meet in August. We will start again on September 18th with The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, by Denise Kiernan. For more information contact Faeth Houle.
2nd Place Tie FORGET ME NUTS: $37.50
Kevin & Jan Conway George & Dianne Buck Dave & Lynn Michael Nancy Manafort Pete Perry 2nd Place Tie: NO IT ALLS: $37.50
Walt & Marge Rizzi Russ & Judy Delaney Dick & Nancy Carey Peter & Liz Blick Page 8