Full field expected for 42nd ABC golf scramble Friday

A full field of golfers will tee it up next Friday in the 42nd annual Rhinelander Athletic Booster Club golf scramble. Which four-person team will shoot the lowest score remains to be seen, but it’s guaranteed that the area’s athletic programs, and the kids they benefit, will walk away winners.

This year’s event moves out to Pinewood Country Club in Harshaw. Following the momentum of last year’s recording-breaking event, which raised roughly $15,000 for the club, the ABC is hoping for just as strong of a turnout this year. 

“We’re looking to break that record this year if we can, it’s by far and away our biggest fundraiser and our biggest event. Everybody always has such a great time with it. We’re hoping to keep that tradition up,” ABC president Brandon Karaba told the River News. 

Spots for the tournament filled up quickly once the calendar hit July. As of July 20, Karaba said the event was one or two teams shy of capacity and the remaining tee times filled up last week. 

After being played out at Rhinelander Country Club for its first four decades, the event will visit its third different venue in as many years. Last year’s event was held at Northwood Golf Club in Rhinelander. Karaba credited PGA head professional Kyle Christian for much of last year’s success. When Christian left Northwood to take the same position at Pinewood over the offseason, Karaba said it was a natural choice for the ABC to move and continue working with Christian.

“Kyle has done such an amazing job for us,” he said. “Last year, he just hit it out of the park with the organization out there, with the amount of teams that we had — all the carts, the food, everything just went so, so smoothly. When he changed venues, it just made sense for us to follow him, knowing how well it went last year and the amount of teams that we had. He does such a great job out there. It just made sense to us. 

“Being out a Pinewood, it’s a great venue, just like Northwood. There are so many scrambles that are out there. It will be a good day.”

As it has the past several years, Rhinelander GM Auto Center, will serve as a co-title sponsor for the event and offer up a new car, courtesy of Wisconsin Chevy Dealers, should any lucky golfer score a hole-in-one on a designated par 3. Boyd Financial Services will serve as the other co-title sponsor while Charter Next Generation (CNG) has taken over sponsorship of the putting contest, which will have golfers vying for a nice cash prize. 

“GM has been with us forever. We can’t thank them enough. Boyd Financial Services stepped in this year as our co-title sponsor. We’re looking forward to having a good, long relationship with them as well,” Karaba said. “Then CNG is going to be our putting contest title sponsor. CNG stepped up for that. The putting contest will be half the take. It will start with $100 in it and then half the take from there. I know a lot of people enjoy doing that.”

The event will feature plenty of raffle and door prizes donated by several area businesses. 

The money raised from the scramble benefits the ABC, which has given back in excess of $370,000 to the community since 2002. Most of that comes in the form of monetary grants and donations. Karaba noted the ABC recently made one of its largest contributions ever when it donated more than $15,000 toward the batting cage project at Hodag Park last year. 

“With us having such a great golf scramble last year and being teed up to have another great golf scramble this year, it’s really going to open the doors to be able to help out with really anything and everything when it comes to what they need — whether it’s training aids or equipments or weight programs, anything like that,” Karaba said. “It’s going to be a lot of good stuff.”

Karaba said the positive momentum of the ABC scramble goes hand-and-hand with the overall momentum of the Rhinelander sporting community since the construction of the Hodag Dome in 2020. 

“Rhinelander, as a whole, the community is growing,” he said. “The kids have all sorts of possibilities between the Dome, being able to practice. Having the financial support behind each of the teams just makes things a little more stress-free for each of the coaches. We’re just super pumped that we’ll be able to be there for them. 

“I feel like a broken record every time I say it, but Rhinelander is such a great community. We’ve got a huge following when it comes to athletics and they’ve already supported us with the golf scramble or anything else we’ve been a part of. They really support all the kids any way they can. I just can’t thank the community enough and all of our sponsors. Every year they step up and I can’t thank them enough.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].