2025 was the 24th year for the Valero Golf League, play continued on the Blue Rock West and East courses. The league continued to be nine hole team play starting officially at 4:30 pm every Wednesday. Playing were 6 teams of 8 players each. Steve Duff continued as the League President, Ken Hoehn continued as the League Statistician. 2025 started out with the Birds in first place after weeks # 1 & 2. The Seadlings and Rovers took over in week # 3, then the Seadlings alone in week # 4 and continued to hold first place until the end of the regular season. This year as it was last year a change in the playoff format now has the first place team at the end of the regular season select which 2nd, 3rd or 4th place team it wants to play in the first round of the playoffs, the remaining two teams playoff for the second first round in the playoffs. In late August the first place team (the Seadlings) chose the 4th place Rovers in the first round leaving the second place Mulligans playing the third place Birds in the other playoff spot. The Rovers won their match over the Seadlings and the Mulligans won their match over the Birds. The Championship match was played on Sept. 3rd with the Rovers winning over the Mulligans 6 to 5 claiming their eighth league championship. The finals match was videoed this year by Mike Cook. The Rovers finished first, the team consisted of Steve Duff, Nick Alexander, Frank Hartig, Alexander Gerber, Tyler Mortensen, Tony Schiwal, Brad Stephens and Nick Vollmer. The Mulligans finished second, the team consisted of Jason Allen, Ed Colonna, Mike Burzynski, John Cupp, Ron Hall, Shawn Sladek, Eddie Pereira, and Gary Van Vianen. The Birds finished third, the team consisted of James Johnson, Pete Asselin, Ray Castro, George Cruz., Daniel Ghiringhelli, Brian Engell, Jim Minkel, and Jesse Jordan. The Seadlings finished fourth, the team consisted of Ken Hoehn, Brian Fien, Glenn Campbell, Josh Lundholm, Bill Quessenberry, Rueban McGoings, Mike Trevino, and Matt Covert. The Tennis Pros finished fifth, the team consisted of Doug Nelson, Fred Foote, Chris Kruszynski, Ben Osborne, Eddie Pereira Jr., Pat Ponce, Dale Ramirez and Antonio Santiago. The Hackers Unlimited finished sixth, the team consisted of Ben LaFountain, Jake Finnegan, Sean Hall, Thomas Larkins, Sean Ward, Bradley Rupert and Danny Weir. In the individual rankings this year; Ray Castro started out the year as # 1 and held it through week # 2, Pete Asselin took over # 1 in week # 3 and held it through week # 7, George Cruz achieved # 1 in week # 8 and held it through the regular season to finish the year and be the # 1 ranked golfer for 2025. Yearlong individual honors went to George Cruz who tied the record for the match point winning percentage in the regular season and tied the runner up record for the most match points won in the regular season. Pete Asselin who broke his own record in the regular season for low gross score on Blue Rock – West, back nine, white tees with a 32. Jesse Jordan who tied the record for the low net score on the Blue Rock East, back nine white tees. The teams of Castro – Johnson and Duff – Schiwal who set the initial course records in the two person scramble tournament held at the Blue Rock – East back nine. The most improved handicaps for the year were; 1st – Pete Asselin, 0-+1, 2nd – Gary Van Vianen, 25-17, 3rd – Mike Burzynski, 10-8, 4th – Alexander Gerber, 25-19 and 5th – Nick Alexander, 5-4. In post season play the two person scramble tournament was held at Blue Rock east, back nine, the winning team was the Ray Castro – James Johnson team with a net 29. The SOLO CUP was not held again this year. Ken Hoehn retired as the league statistician after four years, a job well done. The VGL completed another entire season and with all the changes coming at the refinery we look forward to another great season in 2026. Mike Cook