Greetings damas y caballeros of disc,

We are pleased to invite you to partake in the 2nd Annual Redlands Ice Bowl being held this coming Saturday, January 3rd. Redlands is the first stage in the Golden Sombrero Winter Series 2009 (all benefiting local charities), with Palm Desert (January 10), San Marcos (January 17) and Sun Valley (February 28) to follow.

Registration starts at 8:30am, and the festivities commence at 9am. Two rounds of nine holes on our pitch n' putt extraordinaire layout, some side games and everyone will then be free to go watch lousy first round football playoffs or join some of us for lunch at the world-renowned Gourmet Pizza Shoppe (one of our fine prize sponsors) before adjourning up to Yucaipa Regional Park for some further golf.

$15 gets you entry, a Glow Ontario Roc (thank you Innova, as always!), and three mulligans. There will be some good prizes to be had, some via skill, some via dumb-luck raffle.

Did I say mulligans? Of course I did. Buy a tournament victory! Here I'd like to introduce "double your fun mulligans," the latest innovation from the free-thinkers at the Inland Empire Disc Golf Club. Not only do your mulligans get you an extra shot to potentially relieve you from that greedy-lousy putt on hole #4 that rolled all the way down into the pond, but all mulligans used will be entered into the raffle for some great prizes, the best being an Innova Discatcher Traveler, made far more affordable by the good folks at Disc Golf United (DGU).

All proceeds will go to Redlands Family Service Association, who can really use all the funds they can get, perhaps this year as much as any.

Come and de-throne last year's champ (and mulligan master) Allen "Rizbee" Risley and take home what is guaranteed to be a "unique" trophy.

More info may be had by following the links on the IEDGC website link below.

In the meantime Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, et al.

Bill Maury-Holmes

I can now confirm that I am playing, and will attempt to bring a squad from SD.

Carl was a squad of one, but it was good to see him out playing again and donating money for lots of mulligans.

Yeah, everyone was playing Morley league so it was hard to get people to come. At least Pat cruised with me. Congratulations on your victory Allen, and I felt blessed just to be able to play again. The comeback has begun!

Thanks to all who participated in our Ice Bowl yesterday. 28 players, including 6 kids, which was great in itself.

Congrats to Allen "Rizbee" Risley for defending his title with a "perfect" round of -18 due to fine shots and excellent mulligan management. (Even with mulligans that's some execution.) Tying for second place at -17 were San Diego's Carl "Beanieman" Renda, on the comeback trail from his injury, and local southpaw Tim Caldwell.

Congratulations also to Kasha Shahabi for his ace of #9, making it two tourneys in a row that Kasha has had the only tourney ace. Way to start the New Year!

Special thanks go out to the sponsors and volunteers who made the event possible: Redlands Morning Kiwanis, Innova Champion Disc Golf, the Inland Empire Disc Golf Club, the Gourmet Pizza Shoppe, Steve Chapman, Jason Hine, Robert Yocum and John Hoopes (who also was the creator of this year's "unique" trophy, undoubtedly residing at this moment on Allen's mantle).

Lots of mulligans were bought and used. This is great news for Redlands Family Service Association, our charity of choice. I will post a final proceeds amount in the next day and hopefully a picture of Allen with his latest trophy.

First round of the Golden Sombrero Winter Series 2009 is in the books with Palm Desert (Jan. 10), San Marcos (Jan. 17) and Sun Valley (Feb. 28) yet to come. Come and join us as we have fun and raise some much needed funds to benefit our local communities.

Who will wear the Golden Sombrero for 2009? The answer is yet to come...

Happy flinging in the New Year,

Bill Maury-Holmes

The 2nd annual Redlands Ice Bowl raised $385 and 16 cans of food for Redlands Family Service Association. We're really happy about that, all for having a good time throwing some discs with friends.

Great job Bill - way to start the year off helping out a good cause!!! As Chico Esquela would say: "Ford Park has always been beddie, beddie good to me!"
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