From left to right: Duffers President Ed Pope, Lady Niners President Cheri Sipe, Head Golf Professional Joel Jaress, Ladies Golf Association President Chris Gould and Men’s Golf Association President Tim Philips.
In the spirit of mutual cooperation among all of the Quail Creek Golf Associations, the group presidents got together to share new safety cards for all golfers. The development of this new emergency response safety placards for all golf carts was a result of an emergency incident on the course.
In late summer of this year, one of the Quail Creek Desert Duffers experienced a serious heart attack on the tee box of Roadrunner No. 9. With the aid of three other golfers, and a quick response from the Green Valley Fire Department, he was rushed to the hospital and came out the other end of this incident doing well and back to golf.
The incident brought to light a shortcoming on options for ambulance response to golf course incidents. Duffer Dan Cerny, formerly a member of the Green Valley Fire Corp, arranged a meeting with GVFD Chief Chuck Wonder and Battalion Chief Joe Kozlowski, along with a work group to explore assisting the Fire Department response in times of need on the course. Amongst some other addressing issues, the work group identified what would be the best and most expedient street locations where emergency personnel and equipment could access the holes on the three courses. And in an effort to make the process more specific, they identified such access points for three points of access to each hole, to include the tee box, the fairway and the green for all 27 holes.
These recommendations were forwarded to the Green Valley Fire Department which was very receptive and appreciative of the public involvement. They reviewed all the recommended access locations and made a few changes. They have now adopted the location list as the most effective access points for emergency response on the golf course here at Quail Creek. They are also working with their Dispatch Center to be able to receive the information from callers and identify which site to use.
The previously issued safety emergency placards were modified to now include, when calling for emergency assistance on the course, directions to provide Dispatch with the designation of the location as the hole number and whether the incident is closer to the tee, the fairway or the green.
Special thanks to the Green Valley Fire Department and those Quail Creek Duffers golfers involved in the work team. That would include Dan Cerny, Russ Sipe, Ed Pope, Jim Ratley, Denny Amdahl and Bob Van Dyke. Safety placards for golf carts can be obtained now through all golf associations and from the Pro Shop.