June 28 was a full and lively day of competition and camaraderie for more than 221 players who went to either the Wilshire Country Club or the Los Angeles Tennis Club to participate in the 8th Annual Howard W. Koch Memorial DGA Golf Tournament and the Inaugural DGA Foundation Tennis Tournament. The tournaments raise money for the Directors Guild Foundation, a nonprofit charity that funds Guild educational programs, grants short-term and interest-free loans to Guild members in crisis, supports the conservation and preservation of more than 524 modern films thus far through the DGA-Motion Picture Industry Conservation Collection at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and provides financial support toward the expansion of the Motion Picture & Television Fund's Country Home and Hospital retirement and assisted-living facility.
The "Own-Ball" Club Championship flight kicked off the day with 31 players competing for best gross for first, second and third places and net individual first, second, third, fourth and fifth places. The afternoon was dominated with the traditional Scramble format, with each golfer playing the group's "best ball." One hundred and thirty-four golfers competed in foursomes for first-, second- and third-place team awards.
Meanwhile, at the Los Angeles Tennis Club, three tiers of players, segmented by skill level and with a round-robin format of doubles, engaged in four-game mini-sets to determine the winners and runners up of each flight. The top place teams then vied with the winners and runners-up of the other flights in their skill level (Novice, Intermediate and Advanced) in an eight-game pro-set format to determine the eventual winners of each skill level group.
The tournaments concluded with a cocktail reception and awards ceremony at the Wilshire Country Club where Mel Damski, who served as Tournament Co-chair with director Michael Zinberg, handed out prizes to raffle winners and trophies to the top golfers and tennis players.
In the "Own Ball" competition, the gross winners included: 3rd place, Jim Jacobs with a score of 81; 2nd place, Joe Stone with a score of 78; and 1st place, Don Michael Paul with a score of 74. The net winners of the morning were: 5th place, Jayson Merrill with a score of 70; 4th place, Jay Chandraskhar with a score of 70; 3rd place, James Quinn with a score of 68; 2nd place, Bruce Simon with a score of 66; and 1st place, David Phinney with a score of 65.
The Scramble format team event results were as follows: 3rd place, Mannon Kaplan, David Kaplan, Michael Kaplan and Jeff Kaplan with a score of 52.65; 2nd place, Glen Cline, Sandy Williams, Richard Mahoney and Dan Smith with a score of 52.15; and 1st place, Scott Syring, Greg Mason, Pam Digiovani and Teri Smith with a score of 51.85.
Additional awards were presented for "Long Drive" to Cleve Landsburg (#2) and for "Closest to the Pin" to Chris Rowland (#4), Bill Young (#7), Gary Fox (#10) and Don Michael Paul (#14).
In tennis, Novice category winners were Joe Nimitzki and James Spencer; Intermediate category winners were Wickham Irwin and Kevin Arkadie; and Advanced category winners were Cyrus Nowrasteh and Jim Wilson.