#9 Cherry Valley Country Club (CVCC)

Growing up in Dos Palos, I played golf at a run-down 9-hole course out in Oro Loma called Eagle Field. It closed many years ago and mother nature has reclaimed its alkaline soil. Becoming a member of a fancy private golf club was not in my DNA.

All that changed when we sold Ettl Farm and started looking for our next permanent home. We heard mixed reviews about Cherry Valley and were not sure it was what we wanted. But after a couple of house hunting trips and one round on the golf course, I became convinced it would work out okay.

For all intents and purposes, I stopped playing serious golf when I left for Belgium in 1970. Thirty-four years later, I told myself it was time to go back to the sport I love most. First thing I did after joining CVCC was get fit for a new set of clubs by one of the assistant pros. I then began playing 2-3X per week and joined the Wednesday morning men’s group which gave me 30+ new instant golf buddies. It didn’t take me long to find my game.

By the end of the 2004 season, my handicap was mid-single digits and I was winning my share of money in the men’s group and the Friday Skins game where all the A players got together for a fun evening of golf, drinks & dinner.

I didn’t know anything about how country clubs were run before joining CVCC. All that changed very quickly. I attended the annual meeting in February 2004 and heard some shocking news. The President of the Club announced that they had lost upwards to a million dollars last year and that the reserve fund had been depleted. He then announced his resignation and introduced the new President. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

It never occurred to me that I should do some due diligence on CVCC before joining. I innocently assumed you just pay the initiation fee and that they knew how to run their business. That was a bad assumption.

At the end of the meeting I approached the new President, introduced myself, and said I thought I could probably help him figure out how to get the Club’s finances back in order. He called me the next day, and I went to work for what turned out to be a seven-year stint as volunteer CFO and, a few years later, Board member.

I will write in a future post all the things we did to turn around the finances at CVCC in spite of the financial crash of 2008. And it all started by my telling them they needed to fire the old controller and hire someone new. I interviewed and approved the hiring of Lisa L. a few weeks later. She was young, relatively inexperienced, but very teachable. I took her under my wings and together we got the financial house in order. She has since moved on to several other golf clubs in New Jersey and has a stellar reputation among golf club professionals.

After we left New Jersey to move to Arizona, CVCC was sold to a publicly held golf course holding company called ClubCorp. All the money CVCC owed to former members (like me) was repaid and all the people I told to be patient were rewarded. It’s a story with a happy ending.

Meanwhile, back on the golf course, I was playing the golf of my life, reaching the finals of the Club Championship not just once, but twice. I lost both times on the 36th hole but will forever cherish the accomplishment of qualifying and winning match after match to reach the finals.

In retrospect, I really found myself during the seven years (2004 to 2011) at Cherry Valley. Golf. Bridge. Key Volunteer. Golf Buddies. Great Food. CVCC had it all. It prepared me well for the next chapter of my life in Arizona.