Hidden Valley golf event raises money

HAINESVILLE — More than 20 years ago, Hidden Valley Ski Resort skiers decided to celebrate the end of another fun ski season by holding a golf outing which they decided to call “The Hidden Valley Closed” because the resort was closed for the ski season.
The decision was made to make the event fun by following a 4-player team scramble format and female friendly so the female skiers would feel welcomed at the event. To encourage the recruitment of lady golfers a rule was made that every team had to have a lady on their team or one of the male players had to dress up like a lady.
The 22nd annual Hidden Valley Closed Golf Classic was played at the Hidden Acres Golf Course on Saturday May 14 with many of the participants longtime supporters of this golf outing.
For many of the participants this golf outing is their favorite because of its fun format, modification in the rules of golf to include a “designated do over” to be used by the team when they are not happy with the results of a shot played by the team, “The Father Francis Gimmie” which allows each team to invoke this rule if each player has missed a putt within one club length of the hole, and a two-stroke penalty for any team not having fun.
Over the years the event has raised thousands of dollars which was in past years donated to the Hidden Valley Ski Racing Program. The past two years the money has been donated in the name of Matt McDermott, Chris Heidebrecht and Jack Powers three skiers and event participants who have passed away, with the money going to support the development of the Adaptive Sports Program as Mountain Creek.
Following the playing of golf at the beautiful Hidden Acres Golf Course in Layton, the group retires to the Flat Brook Tap House to celebrate the day, enjoy a few adult beverages and the delicious pizza and calzones cooked by owners Elaine, Carl and their staff, award prizes to the winners and listen to the music of Jimbo Paulovich.
Although all of the participants in this fun event would claim to be winners, awards were given to the top performers. The teams of Michael Greiner, Gary Schultz, Ralph Winand, and Jason Worley and the John Whiting, Buffy Whiting, Rick Hyer and Bill Emery both scored a 5-under-par 65 requiring the winner to be decided by a match of cards which resulted in the Greiner Team being declared the winner.
Additional prizes were given to the “Most Fun Team” pof Shelby Sarnowski, Jan Sarnowski, Karen Sarnowski and Bill Sarnowski for their most hones score of 5 over par 75. The trophy for the men’s longest drive went to Shelby Sarnowski with Buffy Whiting taking the longest drive trophy for the women. Jason Worley took the trophy for closest to the pin and Jan Sarnowski’s putt that came to rest 2 feet from the cup was good enough to win the putting contest,
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