N.A. Country Club Tournament Marks Diamond Anniversary
 Golfers play through the morning rain Saturday in the tournament at North Adams Country Club. Friday was a washout but the weather turned sunny by Saturday afternoon. |
For the North Adams County Club's Invitational Singles, the chance to match your skills against the best golfers in Berkshire County has been enough to make the annual tournament a success since 1935. This weekend, the NACC celebrates the 75th anniversary of its marquee event, making it the oldest tournament of its kind in New England.
According to NACC Vice President Pete Cowlin, it's both the competition and the camaraderie that makes the Singles Invitational one of the more popular events in the county each summer.
"I'd say a big factor in the success of the tournament is the competition, but there has to be something said about the longtime friendships you make with people," Cowlin said. "Some people you only see once a year, but that's OK. You look forward to this tournament and seeing those people every year. I met a guy from Worcester 17 years ago and we've remained friends ever since. He liked out tournament so much that he designed a similar tournament for his club down in Worcester."
Cowlin's friend, Jack Ackert, is one of 52 players in the field this weekend, including many members of the North Adams Country Club along with several other golfers from around the county, and even one player from as far as the state of Florida.
"The competition should be very good. At one point, we used to have a full tournament with a total of 72 people. It's our goal to get it back up to 72, and we are starting to creep back up on that number."
The tournament was to begin with an 18-hole qualifying round on Friday. But Friday's rain cut play short, said Cowlin. "We had to seed according to handicap." Those 16 players will advance to Saturday's match-play championship round, when they will play two different matches to narrow the field down to four players.
The semifinals will take place Sunday morning, with the final pairing scheduled to tee off around 2:30 p.m. The two finalists will have to play four match plays in a span of two days, and if the scores are close enough, could be subjected to up to 90 holes of golf in a three-day span.
Whoever wins the tournament this weekend will have to battle through a field featuring several past champions. Jim Peace tops the list as someone who has won the event 10 different times over a span of four decades. Eight-time NACC champion Chris Baran, who won the singles invitational twice in ’05 and ’07, will also compete, as will three-time singles champion John Dawley.
 The club's hosted the Singles Invitational for 75 years. This year, the tourney winds up Sunday with a $1 million hole in one. |
"It was nice to see Al, one of our club members, win the singles title last year," Cowlin said. "He was the first club member to win the event since Steve Kawa in 1972. Chris Baran and Kevin Lamb are also former members here, so it will be nice to see everyone come back and play the course this weekend."
In addition to the stiff competition, this year's singles tournament will offer something new and exciting for the first time. To celebrate the tournament's milestone, a million-dollar, hole-in-one contest will be held after the championship match late Sunday afternoon. The hole-in-one contest, sponsored by Deep Insurance and Pat's Gun Shop, will feature the three golfers who won the closest-to-the pin honors on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each contestant will get one shot on the ninth hole from 165 yards out to have a chance to walk away with a whole lot more money than what it cost for the entry fee.
"We're going to set up a tee location on the sixth fairway pointing to the ninth green, so everyone can watch from the clubhouse porch," Cowlin said. "It's a special treat we're offering this year, and we really want to thank our sponsors for making it happen."
Update with the tournament's winners:
After afternoon showers washed out Friday's qualifying round, NACC was forced to seed the top 16 golfers according to handicap index. Each golfer played two match plays on Saturday, narrowing the field down to four for Sunday morning's semifinal round. Peter Baran, the No. 9 seed from Waubeeka Golf Links, drew the fourth-seeded Frank Cipollino in one semifinal match. Baran took a two-shot lead into the final two holes, but Cipollino rallied back to tie the match after 18. The two men then played three more holes before Baran sank a birdie to punch his ticket to the championship match.
The other semifinal match featured 10-time NACC Singles champion Jim Peace against 16-year-old Tom Gilardi of Skyline Country Club. Youth prevailed in the semifinals, but Gilardi was unable to knock off the more experienced Baran in Sunday afternoon's final. The match remained even for the first nine holes, but Baran pulled away by sinking four straight birdies on holes 12-15.
Ironically, both Baran and Gilardi each defeated their older brothers in Saturday afternoon's quarterfinal round.
