The 96th Williamsport Invitational is underway. The premier better-ball partners golf tournament is fantastic. It is one of the best in the state. I haven’t teed it up in several years, but many of my friends are in the field. There is always a nice mixture of talent. Young and old. The very best amateurs in the area and then some. There is a ton of history and tradition. Several great memories. The tournament started in 1928. It has endured the test of time. She only took two years off, back in 1945 for WWII, and again in 2020 due to the pandemic. I am still blaming Canada.

I swung by the club earlier this morning. I shook a few hands and snapped some pictures. Everyone knew why I was there. ARE YOU WORKING ON AN ARTICLE? That made me smile. I still have many ties to this great tournament. I know most of the names on the leaderboard. The Championship Flight is loaded. Matt Spooner and JP Pawlikowski were medalists. These two youngsters are legit. They are the top seed of the 16 teams that qualified. The other flights are also strong. Everyone can play. You cannot hide. The format now switches to match play. You win. You advance. The Championships are slated for Sunday.

I have to give some love to some others. Chris Walzer and Tommy Hanna are dangerous. Coach Rob Lytle and David Myers are battle-tested. It is good to see my man Ryan Nittinger back in contention. Al Kline of Lewisburg had an ace on Thursday. He is playing with Deron Zendt of Florida. They have an interesting first-round matchup with Parker Everett and Tony Stopper. Scott Hanna and Greg Notz are cool. They kicked our tail a few months back. Stevie Less and Mike Braniff can hit it far. The same with Zach Prowant and Kyle Deisher. I love seeing Sean and Cole Duffy in the mix. This father-son duo is a team to notice.

Ryan Ault and Tre Lesperance are my guys. They play golf for me at Lycoming College. I was thrilled to hear that they wanted to golf. These guys make me look good both on and off. The incoming sophomores qualified with a 64 and earned the number 2 seed. I was so happy and proud. Hopefully, they will continue to play well. The Warriors have a tough opener with John Zurich and Niall Donnelly. Zurich and I go way back. Fantastic dude. I used to be his caddy. Niall is a great lad from Ireland. Outstanding young man. Cool accent. I will do my best to sneak over for a few holes.

Ryan and Tre are having a blast. You might have heard about Ault’s amazing shot in the practice round. Incredible. Ryan holed out his second shot from 242 yards on the par-5 16th. An albatross. A double eagle. Unbelievable. Driver. 3-hybrid for a deuce. Unheard of. Extremely rare. You have a better chance of catching a shark in the Susquehanna with a fly rod. Dead serious. Tre also holed out his second shot on the difficult 13th in qualifying. An eagle from 100 yards. Insane. Save a few.

I believe I have played in 11 of the 96 Invitationals. I paired up with Jim Sargent when I was fresh out of college. Eric Loudenslager and I turned some heads one year. We actually made it to the semifinals. We were the people champions. I also had two great years with my man, Craig Dell. He was a beauty. Unfortunately, Delly passed away two years ago. I still get goosebumps thinking about the big fella and our time at the Williamsport Invitational. Here are a few lines from my ODE to CRAIG.  

“We both felt our golf games were legit. What were we thinking? I don’t recall much from that week. Everything was a blur. I remember scrambling to find big Craig Dell a pair of golf shorts. WCC doesn’t allow cargoes, and that was Delly’s usual. This was well before Amazon. TJMaxx didn’t have anything in his size. Oh my. We finally scored at the very last minute. Maybe KMART? Then, to make matters worse, they made Craig tuck in his collared shirt. The children ran for the woods.

“They announced our names on the first tee, and Delly was so dang nervous. He snapped, hooked one OB, and almost hit a car that was traveling north. He was in the pocket of those brand-new pleated shorts. Original Coors was his beer of choice. WCC had none. But we arranged with management to run to Mid-State for the back nine. They went back for the next three days. You can’t make it up. Delly had to drive the cart the entire week because he couldn’t fit on the passenger side. He had a mighty swing, and I remember the extra-large divots he took. We ran out of sand. Craig and I didn’t play well, but we won the crowd. We were never contenders, but we shook the most hands. Again. Everyone loved the big fella.

“I recall a match that came down to the last hole. A thunderstorm came out of nowhere. The sirens called everyone off the course. We marked our balls and went to the bar. It continued to pour, and we were told that we needed to come back to finish at 6 a.m. I was on the green, sitting pretty. All I had to do was two-putt for par. Most folks would say we were good. Congratulations. But our partners didn’t think we would make it back the next morning. They actually picked up the next few rounds. I seriously don’t remember, but we found a way. Delly and I could hardly move, and we both had the whiskey shakes. Many folks were watching as I approached the green. I hit my putt, and it vanished. Dell and Spencer birdie. They will advance. My partner smelled like Coors, and he gave me the greatest hug. He laughed for the next three hours. That was how we rolled.”

Best wishes to my friends and fellow golfers. The Williamsport Invitational is the premier better-ball of partners. I am looking forward to seeing who prevails. Another team to add to this tournament’s long history. Enjoy the memories. Cheers.