August 1, 2022 at 8:30 a.m.
New look ABC scramble set for Friday
Biggest fundraiser of the year for booster club
New look ABC scramble set for Friday
Ultimately, the group settled on a new day, a slightly different format and a new venue for its 41-year-old event.
This year's edition will take place Friday at Northwood Golf Club in Rhinelander and serves as one of the biggest fundraisers of the year for the ABC, which supports Rhinelander High School and area youth sports programs through monetary grants.
The club canceled the event in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the turnout for last year's event was down. Last winter, the group decided to move the event across town from Rhinelander Country Club - where it was held for its first four decades - to the city-owned Northwood.
"We absolutely love the Rhinelander Country Club. They've always treated us exceptionally well," ABC president Brandon Karaba said. "After looking through things and taking into consideration what we've seen with other golf scrambles in the area and how well they do, the board decided to take the vote (and make changes)."
Karaba cited what he believes to be positive changes in the management of the course over the last five years under the guidance of PGA professional Kyle Christian. Additionally, the YMCA of the Northwoods moving its scramble to Northwood made Karaba take notice.
"Kyle's been here for five years and, in five years, we've seen a big change out here as fast as how many people are coming out," he said. "Seeing the YMCA making a big move the year before and just how well things have gone with Kyle being here, it was just a no-brainer for us to keep it within the area and allow people get here."
Christian admitted that the ABC scramble was not initially on his radar. "It's one I didn't think we'd get, but I'm happy to have it," he said.
Overall, the number of outings at Northwood has trended upward over the past several years. Christian said the course has gone from eight or nine annual outings his first year to 15.
"We've got a real reasonable rate for outings to get them our here," he said. "The course conditions are always good. COVID helped too, when you couldn't do outings for two years and now everyone wants to fire them back up. That helped as well, and golf's up in general."
Another factor is the course itself. Being 18 holes it allows for twice as many players on the course at one time compared to a nine-hole venue.
The two other major changes to the event come in the date and the format. This is the first time the event has been held on a Friday. Also, for the first time, everyone has created their own team prior to the event, instead of registering individually and being assigned to a group based on handicap.
"Looking at how things were with the original scramble, when it first started 40 years ago it was on a Sunday with two flights, then we noticed that not as many people were going to Sunday scrambles especially with people from out of town because they couldn't stay for the raffles or dinner. So we moved it to a Saturday," Karaba explained. "That went well for a while and then we noticed the current trend of people that golf and family life. Weekends are very important to families, combined with how other local scrambles were doing on Fridays. Then with us always getting feedback of people wanting create their own teams vs being placed on one. Everyone has a different level of comfort when it comes to golf and we want to be able to cater to as many people as we can."
Karaba admitted all of these changes at once are a bit of a risk, but one the ABCâboard hopes will improve the long-term health of the event.
"There is a bit of a leap of faith to go with it, because after 40 years of having a scramble the same way, would it come back and bite us or was it time to change to something to what could be seen as the more common trend of golf scrambles," he said.
While there are plenty of differences, there will be plenty of familiar features, too. Rhinelander GM Auto Center and Aspirus Health have teamed up to co-sponsor the event once again, which gives the club a chance to get a head start on its fundraising efforts as the event typically brings in roughly $15,000 for the club, annually.
That money goes back to the community. With a recent $10,000 donation to the YMCA of the Northwoods for sport equipment, the ABC exceeded $350,000 in grants awarded to area sports programs since 2002.
"Rhinelander GM and Aspirus have stepped up again huge as title sponsors. Because of that, we get to offer the same great event. They step up every single year for our event," Karaba said. "We've got a lot of good things going for Rhinelander athletics and just Rhinelander in general. Being able to have our scramble, make it bigger and better just gives us the opportunity to donate more back to youth athletics."
The event will feature a putting contest, sponsored by Aspirus, a hole-in-one prize on one of the par-3 holes provided by Rhinelander GM, as well as raffles, betting holes, skins and pin events.
"Will have the typical betting holes, Packer tickets. We have an Aaron Jones signed football," Karaba said. "On Hole 7, we'll have a rifle where you can shoot for a drive. The (RHS) Trap team will actually be out running that. They're going to have their own little side raffle as well."
Karaba said registration is already up from last year, though there is still room to add a couple of more teams to the field. Standard registration is $95 per player and covers the round of golf, a cart and dinner afterward. Premium registration is $125 per player and also includes entry into the skins competition, betting holes and pin events, along with valuable mulligans that can be used during the round.
Information can be found on the ABC's website (RhinelanderABC.org), its Facebook page (Facebook.com/RhinelanderABC) or by contacting ABC golf committee chair Dave Mannikko (715-499-3283, [email protected]).
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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