The Southeast High School girls golf team received new sets of clubs from the Ohio Girls Golf Foundation prior to the start of the 2023 season.

By Susan Jenior

Staff Writer

The 4th annual Birdies and Charity sponsored by Smucker’s was hosted by the Northern Ohio PGA to raise funds for several charities and the NOPGA Foundation.

Always wanting to give back to golf, as well as play golf, the golf professionals in the Northern Ohio Section worked for several weeks to obtain sponsors for the birdies they accomplished during an 18-hole round of golf at Avon Oaks Country Club in Avon.

Encouraged by a $10,000 donation from Smucker’s, the golf professionals fired an amazing amount of birdies on their way around the fairways and earned $165,655 for the NOPGA Foundation.

“I am extremely proud of our PGA Professionals and their dedication to our NOPGA Section Foundation and growing the game in Northern Ohio,” said David Griffith, executive director of the NOPGA.

Among the groups the NOPGA Foundation supports is the Ohio Girls Golf Foundation that puts golf clubs in girls hands and sponsors clinics in the Spring.

Additional support is provided to: The Turn, serving people with physical disabilities throughout Northeast Ohio; Cleveland Clinic Challenge Golf; Evans Scholars Foundation, providing full tuition and housing scholarships to golf caddies; Clearview Hope, started by PGA Hall of Fame member Renee Powell as a free, year-round recreational and therapeutic golf program for women veterans; and PGA Works Fellowship, providing valuable entry-level employment opportunities for individuals from diverse backgrounds to gain experience in all facets of golf.

MITCHELL-HASKELL TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

Randy Dietz

The Northern Ohio PGA hosts tour championship at The Country Club in Pepper Pike on Monday and Tuesday.

Golfers who have won events throughout the season as well as past winners are eligible to compete.

Qualifying competitors from Portage County include Gary Trivisonno of Aurora and former Kent Roosevelt and Kent State University stand-out, now teaching professional at Windmill Golf Center, Randy Dietz.

Dietz is the defending champion in the regular division. Tom Atchison, who just revisited the Fairways at Twin Lakes with former golf professionals as they remembered when the course was a country club, is the defending champion in the Senior Division.

Play gets underway at 9 a.m. on Monday.

A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE GOLF COURSE

Two events are hosted by area golf courses that provide a unique view of golf courses and a fun night for everyone.

•      NIGHT GOLF

If you haven’t played night golf, you are in for a unique experience as The Fairways at Twin Lakes hosts its final night golf event of the season on Sept. 39.

Limited space is available for the event that is $220 per foursome for nine holes walking. Glow golf balls, prizes, pizza and drinks are provided.

Registration is at 6:15 p.m., with golfers heading onto the course for a shotgun start at dusk. Food and awards take place at 10 p.m.

Call 330-673-7888.

•      CROSS COUNTRY SCRAMBLE

At Olde Dutch Mill Golf Course in Lake Milton, the Cross Country Scramble is an unusual and fun, nine-hole experience on Oct. 15.

Golfers are not playing the front nine or the back nine. They are stepping onto the 10th tee and maybe hitting toward the ninth green.

It is a new layout every year for the event that has golfers hitting over trees and maneuvering the fairway in a completely different pattern.

It’s a 9 a.m. shotgun start for the event that includes golf, food, drink tickets and prizes.

Registration is $220 per team. Call 330-654-4100 for additional information.

TOURNAMENTS AND OUTINGS

SEPTEMBER

• SEPT. 30 — Big Cup Night Golf, Fairways at Twin Lakes, Kent. (9-holes walking, $220/foursome.) Limited space available. Call 330-673-1888 for more information.
• Sept. 30 — Riders Junior Golf Tournament, Raccoon Hill Golf Club, Kent. (18-hole tournament for ages 6th, 7th and 8th grade golfers.) Email ashaheen@kentschools.net.

OCTOBER

• OCT. 7 — Wound Warriors in Action Benefit Golf Outing, Raccoon Hill Golf Club, Kent. (Four-person, 18-hole scramble; $440 per team.) Call or text Chad Brazill 330-289-7414).
• OCT. 7 — Caddyshack Open, Olde Dutch Mill Golf Course, Lake Milton. (Four-person, 18-hole scramble, 9 a.m. shotgun start, $75 per person.) Call 330-654-4100 to register.
• OCT. 15 — Cross Country Scramble, Olde Dutch Mill Golf Course, Lake Milton. (Nine-hole, four-person scramble across the 18-hole course, $220 per team.) Call 330-654-4100.