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River Forest Estates
The Allegheny Township Planning Commission voted 5-0 in favor of the RFE housing development. A public meeting on 11/30 will culminate with a vote of the Allegheny Township Supervisors in December or January. The development plan includes about 440 single and multi-family housing units on the former "upper course" area, along with about 80 units that will surround the golf course. Infrastructure work is expected to begin in 2007, with the first homes available in early 2008.

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RFCC Club Championships
“Championship Flight.”
Our 2006 Championship featured the return of a previous champion. Don Marchese defeated Paul Sciullo II 3 up to gain his second championship in the last three years, in the “Championship Flight.” “First Flight” was won by Mark Pinchok winning over Jeff Schlegel to capture his first championship. Congratulations to the winners and all the players in our Club Championship.

Billy Clark, a charter member of RFCC, was awarded a life membership at River Forest after a round of golf with his friends. He is shown here with his son, John, and grandson, Bill. Billy is a former club champion and has 'shot his age' at RFCC several times. Billy remains very active and plays many weekends with the "SWATS" group, including many of RFCC's best players. River Forest is honored to have loyal members with such love for the course.

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40 Years of Great Golf

As River Forest members and staff celebrate the 40th anniversary of this country club, we’re also celebrating the heritage of golf, as well as the heritage of the beautiful landscape that forms RFCC. The land where we now golf, and dine in the Grille Room, and hold family and community functions, was once owned by Andrew Carnegie, a historical connection that links RFCC even more tightly to both the heritage of western Pennsylvania and to golf’s important Scottish origins.
As a way of commemorating this important milestone, River Forest Country Club, along with development partner S & A Homes, will celebrate the past forty years of great golf with more golf, project announcements, receptions, and of course birthday cake!
Please join us the weekend of August 25, 26 & 27, and meet the members and staff of RFCC, who are looking forward to another forty years. More details about the anniversary weekend will be announced soon.
First, we'd like to introduce you to some of the earliest members of RFCC, starting back in the mid 1960s when there were only four holes open!

above: Jim Kromada and Buddy "Fuzzy" Fazekas


left to right.: John "Campy" Comperatore, John "Jano" Kovac, Jim Fair , and George Rich

Thank you to our many long-term members, and to the many new members joining the River Forest Family each year. We appreciate your loyalty and the opportunity to be your favorite golf club.
RFCC 40th Anniversary & History page

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The Pro Shop, from Tim Conroy

Finally got a hold of Joe DiNardo, and if we continue to send him our $$, he promises to change our weather patterns. Eight days of 90º dry weather and then six days of down pours caused many problems for our course.
A reminder to all golfers: when we have dry weather, we will water two or three times per day. This is necessary to maintain our course. Please understand our irrigation system is a computerized cycle and not controllable manually. And the opposite situation, when we have 6” of rain in three days, we cannot cut the greens, fairways, and roughs as necessary. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
Option to Improve Your Score: There shall be no such thing as a lost ball. The missing ball is on or near the course and will eventually be found and pocketed by someone else, making it a stolen ball. The player is not to compound the felony by charging him or herself with a penalty stroke.

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River Forest Golf Leagues

The RFCC leagues are a great opportunity to play competitively and also to meet other RFCC members.

- for 4pm Tuesdays Ray Tomer 724-339-8254,
- for 4pm Thursdays Bill Orr 724-226-3035.
- for 8:30am Mondays Patty Swaney 724-226-3898
- 8:30am Tuesdays Maureen McGinnis 412-828-5585

• There's also an an opportunity for a RFCC Ladies league or even a “Ladies Event” on either Monday or Thursday starting at approximately 5:00pm.

And, what do you think about an open league or event night on Mondays or Wednesdays at 5:00PM?

• Sign up sheets will be posted in the locker rooms to confirm your interest, or contact Tim Conroy in the Pro Shop for availability.

RFCC Leagues website http://www.golfweb.ws/6678/

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Poa Annua-- What is it?
Mark Zendarski - Golf Course Superintendent

For about six weeks this Spring you will notice the greens may look a little lighter and play a little slower. This is caused by the dreaded “POA” grass that you may hear golfers talking about. Since Poa Annua is a type of grass, I should first explain grass. Grasses are living plant monocots (one leaf) that include parallel venation, a single seed leaf in their seed with vascular bundles in its roots. All grasses are members of a single family of plants (gramineae) and within this family are six subfamilies containing 25 tribes, 600 genera and 10,000 species. This diverse group ranges from small fine textured one-inch grasses to 100-foot bamboo with stem diameters of one foot. Only a few dozen form a contiguous plant community tolerant of mowing and traffic and thus are adapted for use on golf courses.

There are three types of Poa Cultivars. Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa Pratensis L.), Roughstalk Bluegrass (Poa Trivialis L.) and the one that populates over 95% of River Forest (and most western PA courses - including Oakmont) - Annual Bluegrass (Poa Annua L.)

There are several important characteristics that distinguish Poa Annua from other grasses such as its bunch style growth habit, cold hardiness, ability to tolerate close mowing, and it forms compact dense turf.

Poa Annua is a genetically diverse plant species, and different subspecies of it exist. As you could guess by its scientific name it behaves as an annual plant meaning that it germinates from seed, grows vegetatively and then flowers producing seed for future generations, followed by plant death. It is my job not to let that last part happen. The plant flowers at any height of cut, predominantly in April through May, and the production of whitish seedheads is one of the major objections golfers contend with in this region and why some superintendents categorize Poa Annua as a weed.

So the next time you miss that four-foot putt and are ready to blame those Poa seedheads, remember -- with the exception of a short period in Spring, Poa Annua is the best, smoothest, truest putting surface around.

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Life Member Awards: RFCC has two new life members.  Fred Corsi is a 35-year member who also served as General Manager of River Forest from January, 2000 until his retirement in November of this year.  Ron Petrunney is a 37-year member and ten-time Club Champion.  Both men were honored for their dedication, loyalty and service to the members of RFCC.  Congratulations Fred and Ron!

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The RFCC 2005 Club Championships were completed September 25 with Paul Sciullo II defeating John Clark, 1-up after 20 holes, for the championship flight.

The first flight was won by Jim Lawson, winning 1-up over Ted Artkowsky, while the second flight winner was Steve Rove defeating Steve Klein. It was a great tournament with matches requiring “sudden death” holes, to determine winners.

Congratulations to all three winners and the entire field who played in our Club Championship.

The format for the 2006 Club Champions will be changed, and new flights will be added for Women, Juniors, and Seniors.

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2005 Junior Golf Program

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 From the RFCC Kitchen: Chocolate Revel Bars
Dough
1 cup margarine
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups rolled oats

Chocolate Filling
15 oz condensed milk
12 oz chocolate chips
1 cup margarine
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup nuts (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350º
Cream sugar and margarine
Add eggs and vanilla
Add dry ingredients and set aside

In heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt chips, milk, margarine and salt together.
Remove from heat
Add vanilla and nuts.

Pat 2/3 dough into a 13X9” pan.
Spread chocolate mixture over
the dough.
Dot with remaining dough.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes

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