Author: Howard Hoffman

Steve asked to share the below with the league.

Hey gang!

I want to take a few moments to share with all of you some health issues I’ve been dealing with for these last few months.

Back in September I was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Since that time, I’ve taken various chemotherapy measures to fight the disease, but unfortunately, my cancer is of a very progressive nature. 

We’ve recently changed the program to abandon chemo, and I’m now in hospice care. For the most part, I actually feel relatively comfortable, but I’ve lost a bunch of weight and now also deal with fatigue, etc.

Unfortunately, it looks as if my days of swinging the club are over, but I’m still hoping to feel good enough at some point to stop by and say “hello” in person. 

I’d like to make clear just how significant being part of the Brookview League has been over these last 15 or so years. Fantastic competition, lots of laughs, and even a little bit of victory sprinkled on top.

Not sure exactly how much fairway I have in front of me, but those in the know are predicting somewhere between 2 and 4 weeks. 

I appreciate you guys keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. 

-Steve Binenstock

On behalf of the BMGA board it is with a very heavy heart we note the passing of Larry “One Putt” Larson this morning. Many of us have been Larry’s teammate during his 32 years in the BMGA. Larry was a great friend on and off the course. Helping many of us navigate the tax world throughout the offseason. Larry’s presence on the course and grabbing a drink after the round will be missed.

Funeral info:

Memorial service Friday 10/6 at 11AM with visitation 1 hour prior and fellowship following at: Washburn-McReavy.com Glen Haven Chapel

5125 W. Broadway, Crystal

763-533-8643

A beautiful Saturday afternoon at Brookview hosted 24 guys in our season ending shootout. With about a dozen spectators watching the action, the following 10 Players, at net 38 or better, advanced to the final 9 hole shootout. Ted Roberts, Curt Medina, Sheldon Silberman, Matt Grove, Doug Paquette, Ben Zurn, Tyler Nelson, Randy Milbert, Howard Hoffman, & Matt Haws.

10th Hole – Net 5’s Hoffman, Haws, Nelson and Grove chipoff with Grove being eliminated

11th Hole – Silberman hits one in the water and is eliminated with a 7 net 6

12th Hole – Net 4’s Roberts & Milbert chipoff with Milbert being eliminated

13th Hole – Net 5’s Paquette, Zurn, Medina chipoff with Paquette being eliminated

14th Hole – Medina is eliminated with a 6 net 5

15th Hole – Nelson is eliminated with a 8 net 7

16th Hole – Roberts is eliminated with 8 net 7

17th Hole – Net 4’s Hoffman, Haws, Zurn chipoff with Hoffman being eliminated

18th Hole- Zurn and Haws both hit perfect drives in the fairway. Both pull their second shots a little. Haws clears the left trap is just about hole high in the fringe. Zurn hits the bank left of the green and ends up in the back of the trap. Haws comes up short on his birdie putt but makes a great 8 footer for par. Zurn burns the edge on his par (net birdie) and makes the 3 footer for 5 net 4. Chip off for the title is from back right to a back middle pin. Zurn wins with a chip ~2′ closer to the hole than Haws.

Below is hole by hole scoring Gross and Net:

The following payouts for the shootout.

Ben Zurn	1st Place	$                 100.00
Matt Haws	2nd Place	$                   75.00
Howard Hoffman	3rd Place	$                   40.00
Ted Roberts	4th Place	$                   25.00
Tyler Nelson	5th Place	$                   15.00

Congrats to our overall money winners for the 2022 season!

Sheldon Silberman	1st Place	$344.00
Howard Hoffman	2nd Place	$311.00
John Bolduc	3rd Place	$280.00
Matt Haws	4th Place	$254.00
Brent Lindstrom	5th Place	$250.00

On behalf of the BMGA Board it is with great sadness that we learned Phil Iskierka passed away last night.  Phil is a BMGA Past President and BMGA Hall of Fame Inductee.  Phil was in the BMGA for 10+years before moving to Tampa Bay FL area with Kim Straw in 2021. Phil was always welcoming to new players to the league and extremely influential in making the BMGA membership as strong and dedicated as it is today. The best of the BMGA Guest Day tournaments can all be attributed to Phil and his dedication to the league.

Rest peacefully Phil, you will be missed by all who met you!

Thank you to everyone for making this a successful year! Seven months ago we had to cancel the Spring Meeting and we were concerned we would cancel the season. Everyone did their part, keeping their distance and allowing us to play every week.

Unfortunately we are unable to have a banquet this year, but we are hoping we will be able to turn the 2021 Spring Meeting into more of dinner and award ceremony. There will be a online slide show coming out shortly with a recap of the 2020 season. All trophies will be handed out at the Spring Meeting in 2021.

Great appreciation goes out to the board. This league would not be what it is without the dedication of all 9 board members. A special thank you to both Chuck and Richard. Running Wednesday night and weekend events is a ton of work. Both were run amazingly this year and weekend events had our highest participation in quite a few years!

Finally, BMGA 2021 Board Elections are complete. The three members who will be starting a 3 year term next year are: Erik Swanson, Howard Hoffman and Larry Jocelyn. Tim Lueder will move into the roll of President of the BMGA.

Have a great offseason. Stay healthy and work on your game! See you in the spring!

Please cast your votes for the 2021 BMGA Board. Please type your name on the left side and vote. You may pick up to 3 people. Voting will stay open through Sunday October 18th.

https://doodle.com/poll/sha2xcz3h47zdc6r

If you are interested in running for the 2021 BMGA Board please send me an email and let me know.

howard.hoffman@gmail.com

All,

With the upper deck opening last week, we understand the excitement of getting back to socializing with teammates and having league beer on Wednesday nights. However, the league’s behavior last Wednesday drew some complaints.  Some of us did not go up on the deck last week due to the number of players up there and the lack of distancing, so it is no surprise that complaints were made.  In order to keep that upper deck open, we as a league at a public facility need to do a much better job of abiding by the social distancing guidelines.  It is very important to set a good example and not provide the city or Brookview any reason to second guess their decision to allow us to use the deck, as the city can quickly close the deck based on our behavior.  

Per Ben:

The deck can handle 36 people on it at one time based on current distancing guidelines.  We will step up our signage on the deck.  We have intentionally set out seating for 36 people only.  If there is not a chair available, the deck is full.  No leaning on the railings, etc.  We are also increasing seating on the south side of the restaurant (where scoring is done on some weekends) and on the north side of the restaurant patio.  Additionally, lawn bowling is not scheduled to open for at least the next 2 two weeks and that is a great area to maintain distance and gather, at least for now.  The restaurant staff won’t service these areas but they do allow us to spread out more.  Ideally gathering #’s will increase as we get through this summer, but that has not been approved as of yet. 

Again, please be more aware of your surroundings and be smarter about your behavior.  It is not business as usual.  If you are on the deck tomorrow and see behavior that is questionable, please remind players of their responsibility to abide by the guidelines set by Brookview.

Thank you,

BMGA Board

Today the board received the go ahead from Brookview to start play on Wednesday May 13th, week 2 of our schedule. Due to the 1 week delay we will play the week of August 26th which was previously being held as a rain-out date. We are planning to move the week 1 match-ups to August 26th, pending any rainouts during the season and if those are division match-ups.

The changes we mentioned in the previous post will be enacted, with a potential exception on scorecards. We are hoping to find a way to have a stack on 1 and 10 tee for use. Players will still need to send in a photo of the final card to both team captains.

Thank you for your patience as we worked through everything to get our season started as soon as we could, and very large thank you to Brookview staff working with the City of Golden Valley to give us the go ahead!!

Until we hear more from the Gov. there will not be any hanging out after our rounds. (This may change between now and May 13th.) We are waiting to hear if beer /food will be available for us and how that will be handled.

Thank you,

2020 BMGA Board

2020 WNL Members,

While we were unable to be together tonight for the spring social the board got together for a board meeting tonight with Ben Disch, Brookview’s manager, giving us an update on what we are able to do.  The board and Ben agreed the number one goal is to get the league in and started as soon as possible. 

We are planning for a May 6th start date for league play, however it is up to the City of Golden Valley attorney to give Ben the go ahead for leagues to play at Brookview.  Ben is working very hard and pushing to allow all leagues at Brookview to move forward. Captains will be creating schedules with a May 6th start date as week 1 and playing for 16 weeks.  With social distancing in mind and limiting common touch points we have modified league rules:.

1)  There will be no rakes in bunkers, which might create lies that are worse than expected, however we will “Play it as it lies.” Please be courteous to other players and smooth out the sand as best you can with your foot.

2) There will not be scorecards available when we tee off.  Captains will send out scorecards and we will post them on the website to be printed by individuals at home. A player from each group should keep a card for the foursome.  At the end of the round both teams must take a photo of the card and submit their scorecard to their captain.  The captains on both teams will review and submit the scorecard to the league.

3) All nearies, longest putts, and closest to the pin in 2 games will not be used.  Instead the money that was awarded to those games will be paid out to the team with the high point total each week.  The 8 members who played that week will receive $10 each

4) The hole in one prize will be in play this year. The cups are being installed upside down to limit common touch points which can cause a ball to pop out of the hole.  For a Hole in One to be counted it must remain within the cup.  

5) Food sales and beer are still up in the air.  Given our league runs over dinner time, members should plan accordingly.  We may also be limited on staying at the course afterwards to “socialize” even if at a safe distance.  We’ll work with the course to determine safe and appropriate options as more information becomes available.

Many people have asked about the checks they have sent in.  We started to hold off on cashing checks until we knew more.  While we are still in limbo, but planning/ hoping for a May 6th start, we will not cash the remaining checks until we know the league will move forward.  In the event we are unable to play WNL all summer, we will refund all payments. 

We hope everyone is excited for us to get going as a league with these modifications and will play honorably given the conditions we are under and the adjustments we need to make.  Please be checking the website www.BMGA.org frequently or your email to stay updated on the league.  This is the most effective way for us to communicate to 176 players.

Weekend events will also be moving forward, with minor updates to come later this week.

Thank you,

2020 BMGA Board