The annual Gary Mazzie Memorial Golf Tournament made its return earlier this month at Valley Country Club and hosted a large field of alumni as it continues to raise funds on behalf of the Johnston High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
This year’s tournament hosted over 130 golfers, topping last year’s 120. As always, golfers received plenty of food, drink and apparel along with a fun-filled 18 holes on the course.
Although the final numbers have yet to be recorded, it is estimated that the tournament raised over $4,000, with proceeds going toward funding the Gary Mazzie Memorial Scholarships, which are given to outstanding student-athletes at Johnston High.
Along with the support from the participating golfers, the committee also received plenty of support from local businesses once again who purchased tee signs. This year’s tournament featured 80 sign sponsors.
Longtime committee member John Graham headed the operation this season and was thrilled with the turnout, especially when seeing the range of alumni that made the trip.
“It was great and I’m excited to see us getting some younger groups get involved. We saw classes from the 80’s, 90’s, even some from the 2,000’s. That’s important because we want to keep this thing going. That’s what Mr. Mazzie would have wanted,” said Graham.
This year’s event saw a two-way tie atop the leaderboard in the open division. The foursome of Brandon Parillo, Mike Catanzaro, Chadd Ramtimi and Joe Pingitore shared first place with Mike Hauman, Craig Nelson, Jim Sylvester and Dan McGloin. Each team shot a minus-12 on the day.
Ron Lamoureux, Lisa Lamoureux, Bob Plasse and Brenda Plasse teamed up to take first place in the co-ed division, shooting a plus-3 as a group.
Stay tuned as the JHS Athletic Hall of Fame gets prepared for its induction ceremony later this year. The committee expects to once again host a ceremony along with a dinner to celebrate its latest class.