After Lunch Bunch golfs; recalls boulder markers

After 20 players teed off Friday morning in the weekly After Lunch Bunch game, members of the group reminisced on the origins of the unique boulder hole markers.

The groups headed out for a Partners Best Ball competition, a format that often allows one partner’s great hole to cover for the other’s challenging one. With any luck the pair can “ham and egg it” and post a low below par net round.

Bobby Gunter and Walt Popper play Hole 8, just past one of Canyon Lake’s unique hole markers, during the After Lunch Bunch golf group’s weekly matches Friday. Photo by Chris Poland.

Tom Fuhrman and Bill Sullivan won the A flight with a net 66 and Leroy Nelson and Phil Coughlin finished with a net 65 to take the B flight prize. Clive Taylor, Vern Kelch, Carlos Ramirez, Jim Musser and Walt Popper took home skins for the day. Chuck Furry and Leroy Nelson were closest to the pin on holes 8 and 15 respectively. The day concluded with 10 winners and 20 happy golfers.

Bob Stinson, the group organizer, chatted afterward about the tee markers that were replaced about 10 years ago by a group of volunteers he marshalled. Each hole has a unique boulder that supports a bronze plaque.

“The boulders are natives, harvested from the golf course area, some from the surroundings and others retrieved from where they were buried years ago,” Bob said. “The course was literally groomed out of a rocky base by volunteers picking up and burying rocks as they played the early rounds.”

That tradition continues today with the Tuesday Work Group, the group’s Chris Poland said.

“Canyon Lake golfers take great pride in our course,” Chris said. “Canyon Lake has a beautiful course that many say is in the best shape of the other golf courses in our area. Thank you Mark Louder and your Brightview crew for this.”

Chris said all golfers are invited to join the After Lunch Bunch golf group, which plays every Friday morning. Participants do not need to be a member of any other local club or be an annual golfer, he said. To play, call Bob Stinson at 951-249-4565 by the Thursday evening before.