I’m sure many of you local golfers saw, last week, the interesting, heavy-duty high-lift machine next to the driving range. I’m sure you also saw it in operation with a skilled operator manipulating the lift from high up in the basket. The lift machine was used to repair rips and tears in the driving range netting. I asked Pro-Shop manager Kathy Shepley, who the golf course had hired to do this work? “That’s Terry Stratton operating the lift,” Kathy informed. Wow, I had no idea that the course manager, Terry Stratton, was a heavy equipment operator. Terry said the machine was rented from Herc, formerly Hertz, Rentals in Ukiah. It is transported from Ukiah on a semi-flatbed truck. Terry speculated that it weighed numerous tons in order to counterbalance the lift platform, which has a maximum extension of 60 feet. Terry said he “learned to operate it by the seat of my pants and reading the instruction/warning labels on the machine. I received no training from Herc Rentals. Very exciting up that high, and I wasn’t scared, provided it wasn’t windy. You are hooked in with a safety harness and the handrails on the working platform are high.” Terry revealed he was surprised the height didn’t scare him because his knees turn to Jello when standing close to our brittle ocean cliffs. The machine cannot be operated on much of a slope, so the Little River Golf Course will need to hire a tree climber with a bucket truck to repair netting and damaged cables in areas on the hill.

Visiting the Pro-Shop last Sunday, I saw a Kirkland golf ball lying on the carpet about 12 feet inside the front door. “Whose ball is that?” I asked Mike Bradley, who operated the check-in desk. I don’t know if Mike answered. The course does not sell Kirkland golf balls, so it was finders/keepers. Ironically, I play Kirkland’s. Bill Gibney, standing at the Pro Shop door, said he remembered years ago, a ball, hit from the eighteenth fairway, had bounced in through the open front door, coming to rest about where my Kirkland was. In those days, Bill said, Elmer Rogers was running the golf course. Elmer was leasing the course from the Little River Inn. Bill said he was a very good golfer, about a 2 handicap. When the player who had hit the errant ball walked into the Pro Shop seeking his ball, Elmer opened one of the south windows and directed the player to chip the ball through the window to the eighteenth green. Bill doesn’t remember if the gentleman followed Elmers advice.