Berwick Invitational Golf Tournament
As a lifelong golfer (it feels lifelong, it’s been 35 years!), I have always enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of competitive golf especially when I can partner up with friends or family. For the past 6 years I’ve played in the Berwick Invitational at Berwick Golf Club in the Poconos, Pennsylvania with my step-father. He is a member of the club and each July is a great experience for the both of us. We spend 4 days golfing together and enjoying time out on the course with each other and the other golfers at the club. Even though we’re playing together on the same course every year, we never have the same golfing experience.
The Berwick Golf Club was built in 1920. The Club originally only had enough money to build a 9 hole layout. The remaining owned acreage was used to grow and sell wheat, corn, potatoes, and board cows. The revenue from farming provided the funding for the final 9 holes of the course in 1955. With over 100 years of rich history, BGC has provided me with many memories from learning to play golf to competing annually in the invitational. Berwick Golf Club was the proving grounds for 15 time PGA tour winner and 2x Ryder Cup participant Mike Souchak. This year marks the 62nd playing of the Berwick Invitational. The par 71 course will play between 6200-6400 yards from the white tees. The challenge continues to get more difficult, and despite my partner being over 70 years old, we still love to compete and face the competition head-on.
At the end of June 2024, the golf course had winds in excess of 100mph that uprooted trees and/or snapped limbs off 20 feet in the air. More than 80 trees were reported down or damaged during the microbursts or straight-line winds. The members, grounds crew and local tree professionals made the golf course banned together to clean up the damage in order to make the course playable in less than a week. The course will thankfully be in excellent condition for the invitational.
This year will mark yet another adventure with my step-father. We have battled through heat, rain, wind, and our own (sometimes inconsistent) golf games to win our flight. Last year’s day 3 adventure included at least a 2 hour rain and wind delay. We finished 7 holes just prior to Mother Nature reminding us she can have a temper and make golf even more challenging. The wind and downpours made play extremely difficult as the storm approached. The practice green was submerged in runoff making us contemplate finishing the round for all competitors. After a 2 and a half hour rain delay we completed our round.
Eventually, the calm restored and play resumed for the 61st Berwick Invitational. We squeezed out a top 5 finish in our flight. The weather forecast for this year is saying high 80s to low 90s for the 4 days of play. There are slight chances of afternoon thunderstorms but we have earlier tee times most days and hopefully this plays in our favor. I’m looking forward to another great tournament!
My biggest surprise of the tournament is always the golf ball designs by my children. I have always had my children mark my golf balls prior to any major tournament. The fun and creativity creations on my golf balls always make me smile. I find the Titleist golf ball ad campaign “How do you mark your Titleist?” funny since my kids have always made my competitive golf balls unique. I’ll continue to do this, even as they get older because the unique markings make my golf ball easily identifiable during competition. I am looking forward to see how creative my youngest is this year.
Do you have a favorite tournament that you play in year after year? If so, comment below and tell me about it!
For the love of golf,
Ryan
