Golf tournament's popularity continues to rise

PINE PLAINS — One hundred   forty-eight golfers turned out for July 30’s third annual Thomas J. Berlinghoff Memorial Golf Tournament, held this year at the Carvel Country Club.

That’s the biggest yet, up from 122 registrations last year when the tournament was held at James Baird State Park.

Tommy Berlinghoff died in January 2008 of a brain aneurysm at the age of 23. The idea of a fundraiser, his mother Kathy explained, really started with a core group of friends and has since expanded outward.

Those friends still come out in numbers to support the annual golf tournament, which has raised funds for a variety of causes.

The first was the Webutuck Central School District. The first tournament raised enough money to purchase a scoreboard for the Webutuck soccer field, and last year funding was raised for all the equipment necessary to make the board solar-powered.

The memorial fund also contributes to several scholarships each year for graduating Webutuck seniors, as well as makes donations to the Sunday in the Country Food Drive.

“We’ve really been able to benefit a lot of local people,� Kathy Berlinghoff said. “Tommy would have been so proud.�

This year the tournament brought in about $10,000, which is as successful as the tournament has been since its first year. Berlinghoff said a good amount of money would go into a fund to ensure that scholarships will continue to be awarded for “years to come,� and that the family would have to sit down and come up with a new project to work on with the rest of the money.

“If our tournament is going to be this successful every year, we want to have something we can consistently be working on,� she said. “The turnout was amazing, and it’s an absolutely wonderful experience for us to see how much the community and our friends and family are supporting this.�

The golfers headed out to the Carvel greens at 9 a.m., with the many four-person teams playing a shotgun-style tournament with the best ball dictating the team’s next shot. There were also contests for the closest ball to the hole as well as the longest drive.

“The tournament’s fantastic and I hope it continues,� said John Macura after putting out his team’s opening hole. “It’s a great cause and Tommy was a good kid.�

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