President’s Message: (Erica Reilly)
Welcome to 2020!  Last year was a great year.  Thanks to the efforts of past Board members, the club is in good shape.  We are set up for another wonderful year with a full calendar of tennis and social events (see below), as well as some improvement projects around the club (see preliminary details below in Brian Desler’s House and Grounds column).

I want to thank our outgoing Board members for their service and many contributions: Peter Stevenson – Membership Chair (President 2018, Tennis Events 2017), Bryan Welsh – Treasurer (Tennis Events 2018) and Angie Kwan – Secretary (Social Chair 2018).  It was an honor to serve on the Board with you all last year.

We will also be welcoming three new members to the Board: Kate Belding – Social Chair, Reynold Harbin – Tennis Events, and Gene Trainor – Secretary.  Members staying on the Board for another term and their 2020 Board positions are David Bressie – Treasurer, Jackie Sage – Membership Chair, and Brian Desler will continue to run House and Grounds.

In other PTC news, I'd like to give a BIG shout out to PTC’s own Pablo Alvarez, who was voted 2019 USTA Coach of the Year – we are fortunate to have him run our teaching program.  Congratulations Pablo!

Finally, a huge thank you to Lona and Jeff Tateosian starting the year with the new “email-only” Drop Shot.  The inaugural version last month was very well received with beautiful design and easy to read format.  We are excited to finally go paperless and save the club quite a bit of money in the process.

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Manager’s Message: (Lona Means)
Club Reminders:

Please contact me or Steve if you have any questions or concerns: peninsulatennisclub@gmail.com 650 347-1439.

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Club News: (Jeff Tateosian)
Our Annual Chili Cook Off / Super Bowl Party on 02-02-2020 was a super success!  About 70 of you huddled up in the club room to taste 10 different versions of homemade chili, munch on endless bowls of tortilla chips and many different versions of delicious dips, imbibe all sorts of libations from icy cold Gatorade to keg beer, chow down on adorable football cookies and yard-line cake, laugh and catch up with pals, shout and scream at the tv screen, bet your cash away and cheer on the players.  Congratulations to The Chiefs, whom at least 1% of the room was cheering for, and better luck to our beloved 49ers next year.  Congratulations also to Don & Perissa Clark for winning the big competition of the day with their "Kittle's Touchdown Chili."  Yum Yum!  My Special Team of Andrea Sobel, Yana Maloney, Teresa Post, Gabrielle Zaits and Perissa & Don Clark really showed off their teamwork skills by coming together to help pull off this event with me.  I am grateful for the offense and defense skills they put into the day.  There was a great vibe in the room, thanks to all of them and all of our members who attended, and to Jeff Tateosian, who, as usual, did an A+ job of coordinating the bets and narrating the day's events.
(Submitted by Elise Brand)
 
Congratulations to the many winners of the Super Bowl football pools and betting sheets.  Winners in the football squares pool were: Matt Maloney (twice), Tom Trainor (twice), Bob Wren, Laura Hesselgren, Kristie Mendelsen & Gene Trainor.  The football prop betting sheets saw the following big money winners: Steve Williams, Tom Trainor, Matt Maloney & Ryan Paz. 
 
Congratulations to Mila Mulready (age 13) for winning the 14 and under Diamond Hills Oakley Championship in October, winning all five matches without dropping a set.  Her younger sister Shea (age 10) won the Palo Alto Green Ball Championship, losing just two games in 3 matches.  
 
Recently opened - the next time you are in Half Moon Bay, check out Gulino Gelato, a new gelato shop opened by former PTC tennis pro Jean Paul Gulino's (JP as we all knew him).  The address is 643 Main Street, Suite 6.  He'll appreciate the visit.

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Tennis News: (Reynold Harbin)
I am very excited to serve as the PTC Tennis Committee Chair along with Peter Stevenson as my co-chair this year.  We are planning all of your favorite events from last year like the Spring Fling, van Dillen Doubles Championships, Betty Cookson Doubles Championship, and of course, the Calcutta.  
 
We are also excited about bringing some new event formats using UTR, or the Universal Tennis Rating, to the club.  You may have heard of UTR during this year‘s Australian Open.  UTR is a new platform for tennis players with investors like Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer’s Team8, the Tennis Channel, and Larry Ellison.  In full disclosure, I lead product management for Universal Tennis and I would love to share what I’ve learned working with others in the tennis ecosystem.  Overall, I think it will be a fun experience for our club!
 
You can help make our tennis events great by “serving” on the tennis committee!  We have roles to fit everyone’s schedule.  Please let me know if you can help.
 
USTA Team Tennis News
The Spring 18+ USTA playing season is quickly approaching.  Please let Lona know if you would be interested in captaining a team.  Team registration is February 3rd through March 2nd with a playing season of April 6th through June 28th.  
 
USTA League update:  The Adult 40 league format has moved from a 5-line league to a 4-line league to remain consistent with the National Championship format adjustment.
 
The tiebreak procedure will work as follows: 

•  #1 doubles will be worth 2 points.  The other positions - #1 singles, #2 doubles and #3 doubles will be worth 1 point each. 
• The "team win" and "individual wins" will not be declared or shown in the standings.  Instead, the total points for each match are summed and entered in the column labeled “Points.”  Points are accumulated throughout the season.  The team with the most cumulative points in local league play will be in first place in the flight.  The following shall be used to break the tie in the order listed until the tie is broken: Head-to-Head, Fewest Sets Lost, Fewest Games Lost.

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Membership News: (Jackie Sage)
No new activity for this month.

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House & Grounds News: (Brian Desler)
Many thanks to everyone who responded to our club enhancement survey.  To date, we've received 144 responses, including 67 with specific comments.  The highest percentage of first and second place rankings were for enhancing the fitness room, followed by making improvements to the barbecue area.  Board member Gene Trainor is taking the lead to reach out to fitness room users to get further feedback.  We are also looking into some other items mentioned in the comments, in particular fixing the waterlogged cabinets under the ice machine.  I'll be sending out more details about the survey later this month.    

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Social News: (Kate Belding)
Greetings from your new Social Committee Chairperson!  First of all, many thanks to Jackie Sage and Elise Brand for all their hard work organizing last year’s Social events.  They did an amazing job.  I am looking forward to many fun-filled events over the next year and welcome help from all who would like to join in the fun.  To kick off the new year, I will be hosting a cocktail party at my house to tell you all about the events for the coming year.  It would be great if we can get a lot of people willing to help out with even just one event.  Please email me if you are interested in coming to the party, or if you’re interested in helping out at any of our events in 2020.  Kate Belding - kate@belding.com
 
Our first event will be the Spring Fling on Saturday, April 18.