Golf: SVCC Invitational marks 25th anniversary
May 15, 2008
By Todd Hummel
As Reported In The Daily Item
SELINSGROVE—May 1983 is a long time. U2 lead singer Bono still had a mullet and a little less self-importance. Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt and Joe Morgan would lead the Phillies to the World Series and Stars Wars fans were waiting for Return of the Jedi to be released. That's also when Susquehanna Valley Country Club member Frank Richards wanted to bring back a tournament that had dropped by the wayside at the Snyder County golf club.
"They used to run the Ben E. Reichenbach Invitational for a long time. I think the last year was 1970 or 71," SVCC golf professional Greg Felty said Wednesday afternoon. "Frank Richards got the idea to restart it in 1983 and it's taken off from there."
When the 84 teams tee off Friday morning, it kicks off the 25th anniversary of the restarted invitational. The invitational has always been a two-man team event with three rounds of better ball stroke play that is flighted after the first two days of the tournament. It's a format that has never changed in the history of the invitational.
Though the tournament is actually a little smaller -- it used to regularly attract 96 teams -- the teams come from all over the Eastern part of Pennsylvania.
"When we started, we had teams from Berwick, Selinsgrove, Middleburg and Danville," Felty said. "We now have teams from those areas, about 10 from the Lebanon area, a few from the Harrisburg area and from other places around Eastern Pennsylvania."
Felty attributes the drop in teams from 96 just to the age of the golfers that began the tournament.
"Those guys that were 50 when the tournament started are 75 now," Felty said. "There aren't as many younger golfers now."
Despite that bit of attrition, Felty said that there are at least 15 teams that have played in the tournament every year of its existence.
The team of Andy Gibbons and Dan Brown return as three-time defending champions. Gibbons and Brown are from the Lebanon area. The team set the lowest total for a winning invitational last year with a three-day total of 202.
If Gibbons and Brown win this year, they will become the first team to win four in a row and it will leave them one short of the record for championships in the tournament. The teams of Jim Cotner and Ben Cook and Randy McHenry and Carl Stackhouse have each won the tournament five times.
The champions will be crowned at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday after the final round.