Judy Wolthausen

Our ladies pool league has been going strong for over 20 years. Like every other club and activity in the area, most clubs lost as much as 50% of their membership. We had no COVID-19 deaths, but several endured deaths of their spouses or other family or needed to move near family. One player in her 90s, who is still a great player, fell and never got her sense of balance back. Another ended up in an assisted living facility, as life dictates. So, in any case, we are rebuilding our team and started a new season in October. We have brought in quite a few new players over the past six months, and we are having fun getting to know each other. We would like to grow to a maximum of 16 players.

In addition, we made some big changes. Our Billiards Room, outfitted with four regulation Olhausen pool tables, was just remodeled. It’s much brighter, and although they’re not quite finished getting things back up on the walls, it’s nice to have a great room to play in. All the tables look like new and play like new and are regularly fitted with new felt tops and cleaned. The room has a nice selection of one-piece cues to use if you don’t have your own. The room is on the far left side of the Oakwood Country Club building.

Secondly, we discarded a lot of formality and rules. We do follow the rules for 8-ball, 9-ball, and cut-throat, and we have these for you, but we don’t have rules that were created 20 years ago that don’t match today’s environment. The only rule we kept was to expect each player to stay for the full session, not running off to another activity/club and leaving their partner in the lurch. We can always miss playing to have work done on our homes, go to a doctor’s appointment, or other needs that always come up. And there are also players who go back to their out-of-state homes quite often during the year who can still play with us when they are in town. We start at 9:15 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday, practice for 15 minutes, and then randomly divide into a group of four for each table. We play until 11 a.m., and then we check to see if anyone wants to go out to lunch together. The weather is cooling down, so this is the best time to sit out on the restaurant patios and take in the beauty that surrounds us.

Thirdly, we decided to try not having a president or vice president. At the time, everyone in the club had already held the positions and, in any case, we are giving it a try. The goals of our league are to have fun, enjoy playing, hopefully grow a little bit, and get to know each other better. Where else can you so easily make some brand-new friends?

Meeting on Tuesdays has always effectively prohibited many from joining pool, because they golfed, played pickleball, or attended some other club. So, this season we are starting with play on both Mondays and Tuesdays. Many of our regular players would like to switch to Mondays, and others would like to get some more practice. So, we will be playing both days until we decide as a group to move to one day for the rest of the year.

So, if you can play both days or only one, come on over at 9:15 a.m. If you’ve played before, it will all come back quickly, just like getting back up on a bicycle. If you need more information, don’t hesitate to call Judy Wolthausen at 630-728-5937. Everyone is welcome.