This Fall Edition of the Del Norte Place Golf Invitational was played on Saturday, November 9th, 2024... Veterans Day weekend.  As always, we enjoyed the relaxed event on the patron grounds of our neighborhood Encanto Short Nine Golf Course.  The weather was perfect with very little wind, clear skies and temperatures in mid 70's.

We are please to say it was It was another successful event, with an 80% increase in players and a whopping  250% record increase in money raised for the support of our Del Norte Place charitable foundation.  75% of these proceeds are directed to the K9's for Warriors Foundation, which has a two fold benefit.  They find rescue dogs who are then trained to become service dogs for veterans who suffer from PTSD.  This project has made a measurable difference in lowering suicide rates in veterans who can access this opportunity.  We are please to say our $1,400 donation also enjoys the value of a doubling grant which K9's4W has from another group, so our donation will actually provide $2,800 toward the K9's for Warriors cause.  

I know that pace of play was held up a bit due to a couple of groups ahead of our event so next fall I'll make sure we start a little earlier.  Considering the beauty of the day, the bright side of all this allowed everyone to enjoy each other's company a little longer between holes.  Competition finished before sunset, and we enjoyed a nice sunset/twilight gathering of pizza, beer and an extensive prize awards ceremony.  We had wonderful support from local businesses who donated over $1,500 in retail value for gift certificates and other merchandise prize items which were awarded to our contestants.  We thank all these donors their generosity and encourage everyone to visit their fine establishments listed at the bottom of this report.

The event competition was very close.  The format was a 9 hole simple team scramble with the added benefit for those purchasing mulligans(3 per player max).  We had a 3-way tie for first place with a score of -4 under par. 

Team "Cotto" made a late charge by making birdies on the last 4 holes...
Team "Friends of Tim Smith" (my hockey buddies thought that one up)...
Team "Fore Fairview", missed an eagle putt on the 9th hole to win outright. 

A scorecard playoff was used to determine the winning team, and it took us 6 holes to get the winner, "Friends of Tim Smith".  Full disclosure, I got no residual for them for using my name in their team identification.  3 of their team members had to leave early, so the jacket and trophy ceremony was only able to decorate one of their members seen in the pictures.  

I greatly apologize that I was so busy with this event and the number of teams we had, that I did not get any pictures like I normally do, so if any of you who participated have pictures you might have taken, I'd love to get copies of them from you.  Email them to: timsmith@delnorteplace.org

I want to continue our efforts to build this semi annual event and look for your support through finding sponsors to donate prizes and entrants to participate and play for the prizes.  Everyone wins and we’re happy to entertain any worthy causes you might want to suggest.  As we continue to grow, I constantly have a need neighborly assistance to help with our next event coming in April 2025.  I thank our 2024 Fall event volunteers: Rick McClary, Dalon Westergreen, Sharon Torre and Michele Smith. Rob Gale, who has always been a great neighbor has a hand in designing our doghouse that we used for a prop for our pre-tournament putting contest, and for the course "closest to the doghouse" holes.  

Again, we thank everyone who showed up to participate and assist in running this fun event and look forward to our spring edition in April 2025.

Tim Smith
Event Chairman