Folsom’s golf club recognized as ‘model club’

Featured in NCGA magazine

FOLSOM — Empire Ranch Men’s Golf Club is lauded as a ‘model club’ and is being featured in the January Blue Book edition of the Northern California Golf Association Magazine for its unprecedented 28 percent growth in 2012.

With a growing membership of over 460-plus golf enthusiasts, the Men’s Club features an active schedule of 12 home tournaments and 12 away tournaments, contributing its success to making tournaments exciting by mixing up the playing formats and booking great away-course venues with some of the area’s private courses such as Serrano, Granite Bay, Cameron Park and Catta Verdera.

“We’ve been able to make some fantastic deals for our members by building good partnerships with the area’s private courses who have been more than willing to work with us to put together affordable tournament packages,” said Leo Goshgarian, away tournament director. “Most guys wouldn’t be able to play these beautiful courses without being part of a club and I think that word of mouth helped to draw new members.”

With a mix of low and high handicap players, the Men’s Club worked with Empire Ranch Golf Course to develop special tournament tees, asking the NCGA to re-rate them. With a mix of nine blue and nine white markers, the course is set to challenge the lower handicap players yet fair enough for high handicap players.

“We solicited feedback from our membership and recognize that developing tournaments that meet the needs of every skill level is important to keeping our members happy and coming back for more,” explained Steve Vaughn, 2012 handicap chairman.

The Men’s Club generally draws more than 100 players per event and offers a wide variety of tournament formats such as stroke play, two-man best ball, scrambles, 3 club plus putter two-man best ball.

“Keeping things fun and fresh makes it enjoyable for everyone,” said Dan Russell, president of the Men’s Club.

Average prize money for flights, skins, and two-hole games is $3,000 per tournament. Brent Cohen, general manager at Empire Ranch Golf Course boasts that the men’s club is very active and the events are large which is a huge plus for attracting new members.

For more information about Empire Ranch Men’s Golf Club visit empireranch.ghinclub.com.