The monarch teams have just wrapped up a fascinating season – raising, tagging and releasing 196 monarch butterflies – 137 females and 59 males (and “no”, we have no idea why such a discrepancy between males and females – more to research! )

The monarch season in Mattapoisett started out unusually strong.  By early July, Bay Club members were remarking on the many monarchs on the course and in gardens. Our collecting and tagging teams, which hadn’t expected to be needed until August, hastily assembled, locations were picked for our three screened in enclosures and the procedures of raising the butterflies began.  And then we realized our mistake.  The butterflies we were raising were part of the generation that precedes the migrators. These were their parents.  And we learned that there is a significant difference between the two generations.  The earlier monarchs, which are slightly smaller, mate, lay eggs and die within 6 weeks.  The later ones suppress the urge to mate for 6 months(!) seek forage to build up strength for their journey, familiarize themselves with the GPS located in their two antennae and, if all goes well, do not die until after their flight to Mexico and back to Texas, some 6 months later.

But it turned out that our mistake was fortuitous. Most of our team members had had no previous experience with monarchs, let alone with feeding and tagging, so raising this early generation was just the experience we needed to prepare us for the work to come. The article Making the Bay Club into a Butterfly Waystation posted in August 2020 details the specifics of the raising experience, so we won’t repeat that information here.  But we will acknowledge two valuable byproducts of the three and a half months of concentrated effort – first, the educational benefits available to Bay Club members (and their visitors) and second, the friendships that resulted from working together to raise the butterflies.

Because of their locations, the three enclosures received a host of visitors.  Tennis and Croquet players passed by a cage every day.  Golfers finished nine holes at the Halfway Cafe cage and anyone on foot or in a golf cart on Bay Club Drive was bound to run into a team member tending to the caterpillars near Hole 17.  In their golf sessions, Pee Wee campers begged John and Ben for golf cart visits to the enclosures, where they took turns reading out loud from the Monarch Butterfly signs and trying to spot caterpillars and chrysalides on the milkweed foliage.  And some interested individuals made daily visits to look for changes.  The following was written by a young girl who lives near the 17th Hole enclosure. 

All that is left for the 2021 monarch teams is to send Monarch Watch the specifics of each of the 196 releases – the tag number, the date and location of release, and the gender of the butterfly.  Monarch Watch, a University of Kansas organization which collects monarch data from all the states East of the Rockies, maintains an arrangement with Mexicans living near the migrators’ destination – the Oxymel Fir trees in the mountains of Central Mexico.  For each tagged butterfly found in Mexico, the finder, usually a Mexican native, receives $5.  The payment provides the local villagers incentive to search for tagged monarchs and discourages the natives from lumbering the forest which is crucial to the future of the butterflies. 

In late winter 2022 Monarch Watch will post and continuously update a list of all the tagged butterflies that have been recovered.   Considering the odds against a tiny butterfly completing this journey of over 2,000 miles, it is quite a thrill to discover one’s number on that list.  Last year a Bay Club butterfly released on September 6 was discovered in El Rosario, Mexico.  Will any of ours make it again this year – who knows?

The Bay Club wants to thank everyone who participated in the 2021 Monarch Project as well as all Bay Club members for their enthusiasm and interest.

Despite favorable weather and abundant flowers, the Eleventh Hole honeybees had only a so-so year.
 
The success of a beehive depends on several factors – the most important being the existence and vitality of the resident queen.  In our case, this past summer started off with queens in all three hives (sometimes the queen dies over the winter), but all three were old and no longer laying the 2,000 plus eggs daily that lead to good honey production.  Even when her pattern of egg laying becomes spotty and the hive population is dwindling, it’s easy to put off pinching (killing) the queen.  Eventually the worker bees will replace her through a process called “supersedure”, but often by then the hive is weak and barely able to make honey for their next winter, let alone providing a surplus for the beekeeper. 

So, by August it was clear we had to replace all three queens.  The bees were not going to do it for us and, with winter coming, it was imperative that the queen build up a supply of young, winter bees that could keep the hive, and particularly the queen, warm through the winter.

Finding a queen in order to “pinch” her can be easy or arduous.  Because she resembles her offspring in most ways, she can easily hide among the many thousand bees that remain in the hive.  To make her easier to identify, beekeepers who raise queens mark the queen with a spot of color on her back.  For some months this works, but often the color wears off before it is needed.  That was the case with all three of our queens.  But we finally found and were ready to replace the queens with young, vibrant Carniolan queens from Wetlands Apiary in Brockton. 

The act of physically replacing a queen is another interesting part of beekeeping.  The hive is very territorial and won’t accept a new queen unless they know they are queenless.  They figure this out when they can no longer sense their queen’s pheromones in the hive.  But still bees can be suspicious of a new queen, and, if she is simply placed in the hive, the bees will often gang up and kill her.  For that reason she is introduced by enclosing her in a tiny wooden box with one screened side.  The box is wedged between two frames in the hive.  From the safety of this box she exudes her pheromones, which slowly replace those of the former queen.  In another wall of her box there is a hole that is stuffed full of marshmallow, which the worker bees slowly eat through.  After several days the marshmallow has been consumed, the new queen’s pheromones fill the hive and she can safely walk out of her cage.

Now, in mid October,  the Eleventh Hole Hives all have young queens and a growing workforce which should get them through the winter.  Stop by the Golf Shop for a jar of Eleventh Hole honey, or watch the menu in the restaurant.  Mary and Eric are finding ingenious ways to use our honey in cocktails, paired with cheese and on desserts. 

The Golf House restaurant recently acquired a new Wood Fired Brick Pizza Oven and members have been enjoying Pizza Nights each Wednesday for in-person dining or take-out. 

Bay Club Chefs have been perfecting their pizza making skills over the past couple of months and experimenting with various toppings.  Some favorites include Steak and Cheese with White Sauce, Peppers and Onion; Fungi with Truffled Duxelles, Roasted Mushrooms, Pickled Red Onion and Alpine Cheese Blend; and Margherita with Fresh Mozzarella, Roasted Tomato and Fresh Basil.  Traditional Cheese and Pepperoni can also be found on the menu each week.

The chefs plan to use the new oven throughout the summer at the restaurant as well as for private events.

Members have a Pizza Making Demonstration Class to look forward to later in the spring, where participants will learn how to make Chef Nick’s dough as well as forming and cooking techniques.

The Bay Club has been a member of the Audubon International “Signature Sanctuary Program” since its opening in 2004 and is one of only two certified sanctuary golf courses in the state; and the only one with a “Silver” status.  The Club and it’s members are proud of this certification and hope to continue it well into the future.

For this reason, in recent months a group of dedicated members have formed the Bay Club Conservancy (BCC), with their goal being to maintain and improve upon our wildlife environment and help inform fellow members of their efforts. 

The initial work by the BCC will be to focus on our bees, birds and butterflies.  The Club grounds are currently home to honeybee hives, found on hole #11.  And in August 2020, a monarch “waystation” was created to help our monarch population flourish, from the egg through butterfly stages.  (More information on these initiatives can be read in previous blog entries, found here.)

We’re excited to see what more will come from the conscious and concerted efforts of the BCC!

The Winter Golf Center at the Bay Club is a bright spot during those long, cold months in the off season that the membership looks forward to each year.  It provides golfers who stay in the area during the winter a place to practice and stay on top of their game – even when there’s snow on the ground. 

When the course closes in December, our Golf Cart Barn is converted into the Winter Golf Center with amenities including simulator and three additional hitting bays, putting green, and a basketball hoop for those looking for an additional workout.

The Foresight Sports GCQuad launch monitor and simulator allows a user to play a full golf round.  It also provides ball speed as well as tracks club head data.  Additionally, a player can compete in national and local competitions…virtually!

Bay Club Head Golf Professional, Ben Egan notes that practicing indoors allows golfers to focus on the dynamics and techniques, rather than the outcome of their shot.  Another benefit is helping to keep the focus on the process, not the immediate results.

The Winter Golf Center is open daily, and due to capacity limitations currently in place, members are reserving their time in advance.  Ben is available for pointers, lessons and fittings for members looking for additional training.

The Bay Club recently began a new initiative in our continuing efforts to help the local monarch butterfly population.

Each fall, millions of monarchs migrate over 2,500 miles from Canada and the northern US to the mountains in Central Mexico.  But every year, fewer make the migration.  Not because its an arduous trip, but simply because monarchs experience more and more difficulty in finding their required habitat in preparing for their long journey.

What is increasingly lacking in the monarchs’ summer breeding grounds is milkweed.  Stands of milkweed provide:

• Nectar for adult monarchs
• The only place the mother monarch will lay her eggs
• The sole food source for the developing monarch caterpillar

With this in mind, our Golf Course Maintenance team has worked hard to protect the stands of milkweed on the course; mowing it only where it directly impedes golf.

The wooden, hutch-like structures constructed and placed on the property will house and provide protection for monarch eggs so they can safely mature into butterflies.  A group of Bay Club members, loosely named Monarch Protect, will:

• Identify eggs on milk weed leaves on the course
• Bring the leaves on their stems, each in its own water jar and place into the structures
• Tend the stems while the eggs hatch and the caterpillars mature into butterflies
• Tag and release each butterfly to begin its long migration.

The tags are part of a program developed by the national organization Monarch Watch; monarchwatch.org.  The goal is for the group to tag 100 butterflies by mid-September and if any of them are recovered in the Mexican mountains, Monarch Watch will be notified, and the Bay Club will be listed in their list of recoveries.

As the only Audubon International Silver Certified Sanctuary in Massachusetts, The Bay Club is pleased to provide the resources these creatures need to survive, and hopes to continue increasing the monarch numbers in the years to come.

The 2020 Acushnet Golf NEPGA Pro-Assistant was played on Monday, June 29 at the Bay Club and the Bay Club teams proudly represented the host Club.  This is the 13th consecutive year the Bay Club has hosted this section and player favorite event.

John Paesani and partner Greg Yeomans tied for first place with a seven under par, 64 in the team better ball competition.  They tied with Kernwood Country Club (Dully/Bramlett).  John and Greg played bogey free golf and, for the most part, each had looks on every hole, which is always the key in team golf.  Birdies at 2, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13 and 15 along with a key par saver at 5 propelled them to the top spot.  This is the second time John and Greg have won the Pro-Assistant title, having previously won in 2017.  Greg also won with Tracy Djerf in 2012.

The Bay Club team of Ben Egan and Kyle Dobbs rebounded from a slow start to rip up the back nine with a team better ball of 30 to post a four under par 67 and finish tied for seventh.  The duo, bogeyed the opening two holes but rallied with birdies on 6, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 18 to turn things around and finish strong.  The teams had an especially impressive moment on the 13th hole when all four approach shots were within 8 feet of the cup as they surrounded the flag.  All in all, a T1 and T7 finish for the Bay Club against 81 other teams from 50+ Clubs around New England is an impressive feat.

The Bay Club teams were cheered on by a large member contingency that certainly kept the host pros excited and motivated to perform.  Greg commented that on the 4th hole it felt like one of the Club’s member shoot-out events, having all the members gathered around.  And it was especially extraordinary to see so many members return to watch the finish following a 90-minute rain delay.  The staff was very appreciative of the member spectators and as always values their support.

Congrats John, Greg, Ben and Kyle on the solid showing!

Love was in there air this past weekend at the Golf House restaurant as Bay Club members sat down to an exquisite Valentine’s Day dinner.

Diners received a complimentary Sparkling Toast upon arrival to enjoy as they pondered the Prix Fixe menu which featured entrees including Pistachio Crusted Lamb Chop served with Lentils, Eggplant Puree, Romanesco and Mint Yogurt; Potato Gnocchi with Preserved Cherries, Foie Gras, Marsala and Fine Herbs; and Seared Filet Mignon with Mashed Potato, Roasted Winter Vegetables and Bearnaise.  And their festive meals ended on a sweet note with dessert choices such as Red Velvet Lava Cake with Molten Milk Chocolate and Strawberry Mousse with Berries Romanoff.

In addition, all the women guests received a red rose as they departed for the evening.

It was a lovely night had by all and we were delighted to be a part of our couples’ Valentine’s Day celebrations.

Bay Club members recently enjoyed our annual Member Holiday Party held in December at the Golf House restaurant.  A near record number of members and their guests gathered to celebrate the holiday season with old and new friends.

The restaurant and patio were festively decorated with trees, seasonal florals and a seahorse ice sculpture.  And party goers were entertained by local singer/songwriter Rebecca Correia as she sang holiday favorites throughout the evening.

Our talented Food and Beverage team put together a wide array of passed hors d’oeuvres including Bacon Wrapped Scallops, Blue Cheese Tartlets and Bluefish Pate.  In addition, stationary displays of cheeses, bruschetta and a raw bar were available prior to the meal.  The dinner buffet featured Tenderloin Wellington Roast and Halibut and was served along with side dishes including Fondant Potatoes and Roasted Winter Squashes.  And yummy desserts such as Pecan Tarts, Thumbprint Cookies and Apple Cider Muffins along with a decadent Chocolate Display rounded out the food portion of the evening.

This is always one of our most popular events – one our members look forward to year after year!

Bay Club Sports and Activities Manager, Matt Beatty is at it again! The Winter of Wellness has returned to the Club, with one key difference, just two teams will compete this time around in a Battle of the Sexes!  And instead of waiting for the New Year, the program began December 1 – just in time to help fend off that “holiday weight.”

Points are earned through Fitness Center visits and classes; personal training at the Club; attending bi-monthly Wellness Walks and monthly Wellness Dinners; completing Weekly Challenges and playing paddle tennis.

Over the next three months, participants will work toward their health and wellness goals, while focusing on two areas they have chosen to improve upon:  Weight Loss; Balance; Flexibility; Muscle Strength in Upper Body; Muscle Endurance in Upper Body or Lower Body; Core Endurance; and Cardio Endurance.

With nearly 90 members and staff on board, this should prove to be a fun, team building Battle of the Sexes challenge.  The Fitness Team is excited with the enthusiasm already shown and is looking forward to the friendly banter and competitive streak that is sure to emerge as we dive further into the program.

Santa Claus recently took time out of his busy schedule to visit the children of the Bay Club during our Breakfast with Santa and Gingerbread House Decorating event.

The morning began with Chef George’s delicious Pancakes, served with a variety of yummy toppings including Fresh Berries, Bananas, Maple Syrup and Home-made Whipped Cream.  A scrumptious Quiche and Bacon rounded out the menu.

Santa made his arrival as everyone finished their meals, and led the group in singing a rousing rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  The children then had a chance to sit on his lap, pose for pictures and share their Christmas lists with him.

Santa had to be on his way, but the fun continued as the kids moved on to decorate their gingerbread houses.  The provided frosting, fondant and a wide variety of candy, paired with their creativity, made for a fun time.  And those with smaller children were happy to help in the decorating.  No two houses looked alike!

This enjoyable family event is always a favorite for the children – and this year was no different.  Everyone left with big smiles and a little more holiday spirit!

Every summer, Bay Club members enjoy Family Night at the Pool, a fun, weekly event for all ages.  During these evenings, the Food and Beverage team serves a unique themed buffet by the pool while children and parents alike enjoy an evening swim along with games and music.

In addition, a game of Bingo is played every other week.  These nights always draw a large crowd – no one can pass up a chance to win Bingo!

Menu themes this summer have included Cheesesteak, Flatbreads, Chinese Take-out Favorites and Taco Bar.

Members love this opportunity to gather their families and friends together, enjoy a great meal and have fun at the pool!

Another Fourth of July Celebration has come and gone at the Bay Club, but not without many fond new memories for the record numbers of members and their guests in attendance.

As in years past, the carnival-style atmosphere didn’t disappoint.  Children enjoyed the return of the dunk tank, inflatable obstacle course, face painting, bounce house, and individual and team races.  Our Mini-Golf Spectacular was once again a big hit for all ages.  And what has become the biggest attraction in recent years, our famous Egg Toss drew a large crowd of both participants and spectators.  In the end, the highly contested competition saw a new pair of champions.

Food choices consisted of member favorite Fried Chicken, Hamburgers, Grilled Sausage, Vegetables and Summer Salads.  And the kids enjoyed Hot Dogs, Popcorn and Cotton Candy.

And lastly, the highlight of the evening saw the best fireworks display in the event’s history, with more than 20 full minutes of brilliant color lighting up the night sky.

The compliments are still rolling in, and we’re of course already thinking ahead for next year’s big event!

In June, many Bay Club members enjoyed a beautiful evening on the patio for “Cocktails with Eric.”  During this event, Golf House Bartender, Eric Marshall demonstrated how to prepare eight different cocktails including a New York Sour, Blood Orange Paloma, Basil Cucumber Gimlet, Spanish Coffee and Pistachio Shots.  Eric showcased technique, as well as the use of fresh, quality ingredients throughout.  In addition, he provided a brief history on each of the drinks.  Participants then had the opportunity to sample each of the cocktails.

It was truly a fun evening in which attendees thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and many laughs.  And some of these special cocktails are now offered on the menu at the restaurant for all members to try!

The Bay Club fitness enthusiasts are at it again!  On the heels of our highly successful Winter of Wellness program, Sports and Activities Center Manager, Matt Beatty designed a second wellness program entitled Summer Sh(r)ed that began June 2.  Differing slightly from the winter portion which featured teams captained by staff members and focused on total points throughout, the summer segment is individualized, with participants earning a set number of points each week.

Points are earned in similar ways: Fitness Center visits; walking, running, biking, or elliptical; stretches and resistance training and private or group training.  In addition, the active golf, racquets and swimming members can earn points by enjoying these seasonal activities.

The objective this time around is for everyone to meet their point goal each of the 13 weeks for recognition at the close of the summer.

With nearly 80 members and staff taking part, it’s sure to be a summer full of fitness!