Author: Sheldon Silberman

The Metro Seniors Golf League starts next week, April 25 with the first matches at Gross National. Your BMGA sponsors two teams in the league. The only requirements are 50+ years old and a BMGA member. (It’s also pretty important to have an established handicap!)

The Golden Team is captained by Dan Olson and the Valley Team is captained by Sheldon Silberman. We received interest from 32 members of about 100 that potentially qualify. If you did not respond to an email sent to all 50+ year old BMGA members we either missed you because your profile has a wrong or missing birth date or a bad email address. If you meet the requirements and want to participate, contact one of the captains as the schedule is nearly complete.

Here are the teams, so far:

Golden	Valley
Tom  Aamot	Darin  Allen
Dave  Bialke	Charles  Bernardy
Bob  Boufford	Richard  Courtney
Steve  Couture	Douglas  Giron
Chris  Gaspard	Larry Jocelyn
Jeremy  Hagen	Mike  Manion
Roger Hamm	Doug  Paquette
Tom  Hansen	Dean  Penk
Stan  Hop	Ted  Roberts
Mark  Lange	Dave  Schoeller
Brent  Lindstrom	Sheldon  Silberman
Curtis  Medina	Mark  Steinhauser
Dan  Olson	Jeff  Towey
Jim  Sanford	Emmy  Yates
Steve  Slivken	Randy  Zejdlik
Paul Yakshe	Benjamin  Zurn

More info on the league rules, schedule and results can be found on the Metro Senior Golf Website.

Weekly results and standings will be posted on this site. We will be hosting the league at Brookview on Friday, June 20 (Valley Team host) and Friday, August 1 (Golden Team host.)

Go Brooky!

The greens were fast and a cold wind blew out of the north for the Twin Cities Metro Senior League position round hosted by Braemar at Oak Marsh Golf Club.  Unfortunately, the BMGA Golden and Valley teams were competing in the lower part of the standings. Valley played a 12-12 tie against the last place team, Como. Golden lost 10-14 to the host Braemar club allowing Valley to take the season lead between the two BMGA teams by 3 points.

Dean Penk led the way for Valley sweeping all six points with a cool net 69. Chris Gaspard shot a net 82 but took 4 points winning the back and the match after struggling early in the match. Jeff Towey and his opponent both shot a net 72 but Jeff could only manage win on the front for 2 points. Team captain, Sheldon Silberman struggled with his putting and shot a net 81 against his opponents net 72 and was skunked. Valley tied the match 12-12 moved up to 12th place. Valley finished the season with a win and three ties against only five losses for the season.

For Golden, Jim Sanford did not have a good day shooting a net 83, but his opponent shot the best round of the league with a gross 69. Jim was skunked. Dan Olson shot a net 75 but made all the shots count sweeping all 6 points in his match. Golden team captain, Roger Hamm captured 4 points with a net 73 with a comeback winning the back and the match as his opponent faded. Gary Scharmer played OK with a net 77 but it was not enough as his opponent shot a net 72 handing Gary a skunk. Golden lost to Braemar 10-14 and finished the season in 13th place, 3 points behind Valley.

Current Standings  This week’s results

Congratulations to the league overall winner Columbia Golf Club. Look for information about joining the league and representing the BMGA around the Twin Cities next spring.

It was slow and hot at Como this week – nearly a six hour round for the Valley team! But the Valley boys withstood the test and split the match against Daytona (although there is still a dispute over 1 point) moving them up to 11th place, one point above the Golden Team.  

The Valley team was lead by Dean Penk and Randy Zejdlik both sweeping their matches with a net 73 and and net 67 respectively. Jeff Towey apparently was swept but thought he tied the front nine. (He was given the wrong handicap by the league director – but we are disputing the after the match change.) Chuck Bernardy shot a net 75 but was unable to secure any points against a net 68. Valley tied the match 12-12 (pending the dispute) and moved up to 11th place.

Mick Krause joined the Golden team and picked up 2 points with birdie on #18, finishing with a net 77 in his inaugural Metro Seniors outing. Dan Olson also shot a net 77 but could only muster 1 point, missing a par putt on 18 which cost 2 points. Steve Silken got on the board winning the back nine for 2 points with a nifty net 73. Unfortunately, Jim Sanford had to give up 4 strokes to his opponent, who shot a net 68 and got no points. Golden lost the match to Bunker Hills with three of their opponents players shooting sub-par net scores. The 19-5 defeat opened the door for Valley to move up in the standings.

Current Standings  This week’s results

Next week we play at Brookview where Golden hosts and plans to stomp 6th place Daytona and Valley plans to take down 3rd place Gross. If we can’t win the league, we can play spoiler!

Valleywood made a few tee box changes and with “Purple” and “Green” tees but retained the mixed par settings between the two. But that was not the reason for slow play or less than stellar golf by our metro senior teams.  

There is only a 16 point spread from first to sixth place.  However, the BMGA teams are not in the top four. In fact, they remain in the bottom four places in the 14 team league. It looks like the league will not add makeup dates for the three rainouts this season so there remains only three more weeks to make a charge. Although we may still play some “fun” matches at the clubs we missed. With 24 points available each week, neither team is mathematically eliminated, but….

The Valley team played some good golf against the team from Como with all of the players garnering points in their matches. Ramiro Sifuentes swept all 6 points while shooting a pedestrian net 77. But he won more holes than his opponent. A net 85 by Dean Penk wasn’t nearly enough but he won the 18th hole to tie the back nine and earn 1 point. Steady Ted Roberts shot a net 77 but lost by one hole on the front. He came back strong on the back winning the last two holes with a bogey and a birdie to take the back and the match for 4 points. Chris Gaspard was down 3 after five holes on the front but exploded on the back to win the back six up and win the match for a total of 4 points. Valley won the match 15-9 but is still stuck in 13th place.

The Golden team could only muster 8 points against Hiawatha leaving the team tied for 11th place and just a slim 6 points ahead of the Valley team. Dan Olson swept his opponent taking 6 points with a nifty net 72. The rest of the team struggled as captain Roger Hamm was able to come back on the back nine for a win and two points while Steve Silken and Larry Jocelyn were both swept.

Current Standings  This week’s results

Next week we play at Como where Golden takes on 8th place and Valley takes on 6th place Daytona. A couple of wins would certainly stir up the standings.

The Green Haven course is in excellent shape and the greens were rolling true. This worked out well for the BMGA Golden Team, but not so much for the Valley team.

Competing against Wirth, The Valley team, with a shortage of A players struggled to gain 7 points. Ted Roberts swept his missing opponent by shooting a net 70 taking all six points in the match. Captain Sheldon Silberman played well with a net 74 but could not beat a net 69, loosing on the last hole of each nine and getting skunked. Doug Diedrich’s struggles continued with a net 83 and 0 points while Doug Paquette shot a nice net 72 that was just not enough against a net 71. Doug tied the front nine for 1 point. The 17 points Wirth garnered vaulted them into 1st place in the league. 

The Golden team jumped up a couple places in the standings to 7th but is still 25 points out of 1st. Playing against the last place Como team they took care of business with a 13-11 win. Dave Repinski stumbled a bit on the front nine shooting a 44 and loosing down-4. He came back strong on the back shooting a 39 and winning up-1 for 2 points. Steve Shellenbaum did not have his best stuff and lost the front down-2. He hung close on the back for a tie but only 1 point for the match. Dave Bialke, in his first Metro Seniors win, shot a net 69, coming back on the front with a dramatic match tying par on #9 and going on to win the back shooting a 42 and winning up-2 taking 5 points for the match. Not to be outdone, Richard Courtney shot a net 70, tied the front by hanging on the last two holes and going to a 2-up win on the back with four pars giving the team a 13-11 win.

Current Standings  This week’s results

Next week Valley hosts the league at Brookview where they play the Golden team. It could get ugly!

Wirth Golf course was plenty wet before the start and additional rain didn’t help. Lift, clean and place helped but finding a non-flooded stance was a challenge. Golden held their own with an 11-9 win over the three-player team from Valleywood. The Valley team took it on the chin with a 7-17 shellacking by the 1st place University team.

Dean Penk was the bright spot for the Valley team shooting a great net 74 and skunked his opponent for 6 points. Mark Steinhauser and captain Sheldon Silberman were both shut out, each with uncharacteristic net scores of 87. Emmy Yates came through with 1 point tying the front nine when his opponent pulled two shots in the trees and water on number nine.

The Golden team faired a bit better but could have done more damage. Playing in the D spot, Gary Scharmer was playing the card as he had no opponent. Unfortunately, Gary did not have a good day shooting a net 83 and only got the minimum 3 points. Rahul Tamhane also struggled on the wet course with net 85 and was skunked. Steve Silken shot a very nice net 70 but was only able to win the front for two points against his opponent’s net 73. Mark Deede came through for the team with a sweep of 6 points on the strength of a net 74 when his opponent just could not get things going in the wet conditions.

Valley dropped to 13th place overall and Golden held at 7th.
Current Standings  This week’s results

Next week we play at the University Les Bolstad course where Valley plays 8th place Fountain Valley and Golden will tackle 3rd place Gross.