The Silver Bay Golf Course wrapped up one of its busiest summers in recent memory with Saturday’s M-Club Scramble, an annual fundraiser that brings alumni, families and former athletes back to the course. This year’s event drew dozens of golfers, filling the fairways with familiar faces and a steady mix of competition and community.
Co-organizer Mike Guzzo said the scramble has become one of the course’s most dependable fundraisers for Mariner athletics.
“We had like 79 golfers, 20 teams of four,” he said. “It’s a good money maker for the Mariner athletes.”
The event also brought in about forty non-members, giving the course a boost on a day that stretched nearly six hours. Guzzo said the weather helped, with a forecast that looked cold and wet turning into a sunny afternoon in the low sixties.
Norma O’Leary also helped to organize the scramble, as she does with all of the course’s events. She added a nursery green putting contest this year, giving golfers a chance to play a nine-hole scramble putting round and a nine-hole best-ball putting round. Guzzo said the extra activity was well received.
“I think the golfers really liked that,” he said.
The scramble follows a format that keeps the focus on participation. Only the first-place team is awarded based on score. The rest of the prizes are drawn at random, with second through fifth place pulled from a hat. Proximity events on six holes worked the same way. Golfers who landed within a certain distance were entered into drawings, rather than awarding the prize to the closest shot or longest drive.
“Some people are lucky and their name gets drawn, some people are unlucky and their name doesn’t,” Guzzo said.
The event also included a small challenge in hole eight, where baseball coaches Ward Wallin and Mark Small offered golfers a chance to throw five dollars for a shot at the green. Anyone who hit the green earned ten dollars back. Many donated their winnings, adding to the fundraiser’s total.
The M-Club Scramble typically raises between $2,500 and $3,000 from entry fees, raffles and contests. The larger portion comes from hole sponsors, which Guzzo said can bring in seven to ten thousand dollars each year. Wade LeBlanc organizes the sponsorships, calling businesses and contractors who have supported the event in the past.
“It turns out to be about a nine to ten thousand dollar event for the Mariner athletes,” Guzzo said.
This year’s scramble also included a moment of Mariner tradition. Before golfers headed out, Mayor Wade LeBlanc had the entire group sing the Mariner song. Athletic Director Kelly Ollila printed cheat sheets and tucked them into the Mariner glasses given to each golfer, along with small candy treats. Guzzo said it added a lighthearted start to the day.
The M-Club Scramble capped a summer that saw nine scrambles hosted at the course, each one drawing its own crowd and supporting a different part of the community. The season opened June 14 with the Disabled Veterans Scramble, which brought in fifty-five golfers and raised money for the local veterans home. Three days later, the Women’s Club held its two-ladies scramble with thirty participants.
Bay Days weekend brought two of the course’s largest events. The Alumni Scramble on July 10 drew seventy-six golfers, followed the next day by the Zupancich Memorial Family Golf Scramble, which filled the course with nineteen teams and more than eighty golfers. Guzzo said both events remain popular and bring back groups who play every year.
On July 15, the Hunger Hero Scramble raised money for the Hunger Hero program with sixty-four golfers. Later in the summer, the Ollie at the Bay Scramble brought in eighty golfers, and the Par 3 Scramble drew fifty-two golfers to a course temporarily converted into all par-three holes.
The Men’s Invitational closed out August with one of the biggest fields of the year. The three-day event, held August 21 to 23, brought in one hundred thirty-two golfers. A new event, the Vargas Memorial Scramble, debuted June 27 with fifty-five golfers and will return next year.
Guzzo said the course’s busy schedule is a reflection of the community’s support and the work that goes into each event. He credited O’Leary for the organization behind every scramble.
“If she didn’t help with all of them, they would definitely not be as successful as they are,” he said.
The summer’s final scramble brought alumni back to the course once again. Guzzo estimated that fifty to sixty of the golfers in Saturday’s group photo were former students, many of whom return each year to support the sports they once played.
As fall arrives, the course will settle into quieter days, but Guzzo said the summer’s turnout shows how much the community values the events and the people who run them. The scrambles will return next year, and he expects the same steady support from golfers who treat the course as a second home.
