Joyful Lady Niners on the golf course (Photo by Steve Weiss)
Wanda Ross
Here we are in the midst of our most joyful holiday season, and what are the SaddleBrooke Lady Niners doing? Well, we’re being joyful!
The holiday season started with a Turkey Shoot golf tournament and luncheon on Nov. 16, a perfect time to get us into the spirit of gratitude for Thanksgiving. After a fun golf game with both individual scores and team scores, we enjoyed a delicious luncheon, starting with a garden salad, followed by crusted chicken breast with marinara sauce, tomato risotto, and roasted broccolini. Many enjoyed a specialty Frosecco cocktail: prosecco with apple and lemon juice, served in a cinnamon/sugar-rimmed flute. How festive and creative. Our dessert was cheesecake with caramel sauce. Many went home with winnings from our 50/50 raffle, or with the attractive decorations made by our talented Vicki Long, who creatively combined pinecones from our golf courses with turkey feathers, doilies, and paper towel rolls to create 70 feathery turkeys. Now that’s a labor of love for which we are grateful.
It was wonderful to enjoy this luncheon with our Niners golf friends as we gave thanks during this season of Thanksgiving. We golfers are thankful for so much here: our wonderful SaddleBrooke community with all the amenities and activities at our fingertips, the golf courses that our golf maintenance team have groomed into such beautiful condition, and the idyllic weather that invites us for golfing year-round. We Lady Niners are very thankful for our many Niners club officers, all volunteers who give so much of their time. They plan and pair us for our weekly tournaments, create fun golf games, ensure our scoring is accurate (not as easy as it sounds), and announce winners who receive prize money. They keep us informed, week after week, via emails and our website. They plan our monthly luncheons with excellent meals, decorations, and programs. They organize special tournaments, often with other golf groups within SaddleBrooke. Underlying all this work by our team of over 20 volunteers is a sense of collaboration and fun. No wonder so many new members are joining this welcoming golf club.
The holiday festivities and joy continue with our very merry holiday luncheon and annual meeting on Dec. 14. This event will start with a fun golf game, followed by a festive luncheon where we celebrate our sponsors, Coyote Golf Cars, Golf Cars of Arizona, and Morris Hall PLLC, as invited guests and express our sincere gratitude for their support. The menu for this special event is marinated skirt steak with bacon and caramelized onion, roasted potatoes with corn sauce, and oven-roasted asparagus. The specialty cocktail is a Santa Clausmopolitan. Oh, the creativity! Dessert is orange crème brûlée—yummy! We Niners eat very well at our wonderful luncheons. That’s just another reason we are joyful.
This end-of-the-year holiday luncheon is when we say goodbye to our 2021 club officers, who have brought us so much joy throughout the year. We are hugely grateful to President Kat Danner and her team of Terri Tindal, Kathy Coffman, Sandy Wagoner, Sheryl Nugent, Charlotte James, and Regina Pang. They have done a superb job for which we all have benefitted.
This is a great time to join the Lady Niners as we start a new year of golfing fun. Every Tuesday morning, we golf in friendly, nine-hole games at one of the three SaddleBrooke golf courses. Often, several of us gather together socially at the RoadRunner Grill after golf. The combination of golfing and socializing opens the doors for wonderful new friendships. Membership details are at www.sb9ers.org; then click on “How to Join.” New membership applications are available outside the SaddleBrooke Pro Shop in the posting room. We look forward to you joining in the fun with us.