Since its inception in 2002, the Vineyard Golf Club Foundation has distributed more than $1,300,000 in funds to more than 30 local nonprofit organizations. The foundation is now accepting applications for grants and donations from Island nonprofit and charitable organizations.
President Obama went to the beach in the morning and played golf in the afternoon on Sunday.
A large entourage of some 15 vehicles in the Presidential motorcade exited Blue Heron Farm just before 10, bound for Pohoganot in the rural coastal perimeters of Edgartown, where the Obamas spent the late morning on a private, Atlantic-facing south shore beach. Mr. Obama left the beach between 12:30 and 1 p.m to head back to his favorite vacation haunt, the Vineyard Golf Club, a short distance away. Mrs. Obama and the children stayed at the beach.
A draft report of the long-awaited Massachusetts Estuaries Project study of Sengekontacket Pond sketches a profile of a coastal pond that is at once troubling and hopeful.
Although the vast pond that spans the towns of Oak Bluffs and Edgartown has undergone significant ecological changes with increased development in the past half century, including a drastic decline in eelgrass beds, specific steps could be taken that would restore the pond to nearly its original state, the report finds.
The Vineyard Golf Club won permission this week to convert six rooms in the clubhouse for overnight use by members and their guests.
The Edgartown zoning board of appeals voted unanimously to amend a January 2000 decision that restricted the rooms for employee use. Board of appeals member Richard Knight, who chaired the meeting, praised the private, nonprofit club for living up to its promises over the years.
Halfway through his Vineyard vacation, President Obama has turned to Island links and basketball courts for his downtime, while the operation of the reform-minded White House carries on.
A rainy, windswept Monday afternoon found Mr. Obama shooting hoops at the Oak Bluffs School with longtime Chicago friend and former Illinois public health director Eric Whitaker along with UBS chief Robert Wolf and his two sons.
Few people know their way around the Island links like local wunderkind Tony Grillo. As President Obama settles into a vacation in West Tisbury that is almost certain to include a few rounds, Mr. Grillo leaves for Seattle to compete in the U.S. Amateur Championship. Before leaving, though, he spoke with the Gazette at his home course, Farm Neck, about what the duffer-in-chief can expect on Vineyard fairways.
