Let me explain. The format for the outing is not your normal scramble format, which you’ll find at many of the area fundraising events. The Kiwanis prefer to call their format a “shamble.”
“It’s unique in that you get to play a lot of your own ball,” said Otto Larson, the tournament director for the past eight years. “It’s more like real golf. You play the best ball off the tee. Then you play your own ball into the hole, and the two best balls score. So if you have a player who can get them out there to position A (off the tee), you can get a lot of excitement going for the team.
“There’s so many scrambles, probably one each day, and the scramble is a good format,” Larson continued. “But it’s nice to have a different format. We’ve played this format for probably six or seven years, and everyone seems to like it.”
The event’s new name, the Luther-Bradley Memorial Golf Outing, certainly is no shamble. It is renamed after two deceased longtime Kiwanis members, Bob Luther and Bob Bradley, who were instrumental in getting the outing going and keeping it going.
As Luther’s son Matt put it, “It was kind of their baby.”
Bradley, father of two and grandfather of five, died in January at the age of 76.
“He would be so proud to find out that they did that,” said Mickey Bradley, Bob’s widow. “He loved Kiwanis. He belonged for 40 years and was a past president, and he hardly ever missed a meeting.
“He loved the camaraderie, the band, the atmosphere, the friends he made. He was a fun-loving guy.”
For the Luther family, the renaming was a surprise — and not just because their father and grandfather had passed away (at the age of 79) back in 2004.
“Otto had told me about his intention (to rename the outing) a couple of years ago, then it sort of fell out of my memory,” said Matt Luther, who still lives in Springfield and is the youngest son of Bob’s 12 children. “To get a phone call a few weeks ago, it was a nice surprise.
“It was a real tribute to both of them,” he said. “We’re honored the they’d think that much of their work to rename it after them. They were both very active Kiwanians.”
The mission, and the reason for the shamble, are clear.
“It helps us run the Kiwanis Club all year long, and allows us to do the work we do in the community with the kids,” said Larson. “And those guys were instrumental in getting the event going and keeping it going.”
If you are interested in playing or helping out, call Larson at 399-5500.
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