To John Wortman, the 60th anniversary of Blueberry Hill Golf Club is the perfect time to reflect on some very special history.

“The club championship records for Blueberry Hill Golf Club were never centrally located,” said Wortman. “Going back through newspaper articles gave us an opportunity to put this data in one place.

“I’m a member at Conewango (Valley Country Club) as well, and Nate (Sandberg) was a member at Jackson (Valley Golf Club) as well,” Wortman added. “In the restaurant at Conewango and the pro shop at Jackson, they have their (annual club champions) listed. We know most of them at Blueberry. We are still missing the following years and would like to discover these winners to make sure the project is complete. The missing years are 1994, 1993, 1990, 1989, 1986, 1975, and 1969.”

Creating an official plaque with each and every past champion is far more important than just updating an official record.

Times Observer photo by Jon Sitler From left are Nate Sandberg, Gary McCullough, and John Wortman discussing the 2021 Blueberry Hill Golf Club club championship dinner and event.

“Many of the people who have won the (annual) Club Championship at Blueberry Hill Golf Club have had a large impact on younger players who have subsequently won the event,” said Wortman. “This event is a way for us to honor recent and more distant winners.”

Wortman, Sandberg, ‘Fuzzy’ Merenick, and club pro Gary McCollough would like to host a dinner on Friday, Sept. 3, the night before this year’s club championship event — honoring past winners and longtime club members.

“Recently we’ve had younger people win,” said Wortman, including he and Sandberg. “Nate was 16 when he won. We’ve just had this really cool dynamic here where people like Mike Smith, Sam Marek, ‘Fuzzy’ Merenick, Mark Silvis… They have helped us learn the sport and we want to make sure the people who taught us are remembered. Fuzzy has impacted so many golfers as (Warren Area High School) golf coach. He revived the golf program in Warren County School District. Gary McCollough, who played for Merenick in the late 1980s, is the club pro now; he helps us with the junior program. He was assistant high school coach. Dan Passmore also played for Merenick and is the current head golf coach at Warren. Nate’s the assistant coach now.

“Golfers who have won this event have had great success elsewhere in this sport,” said Wortman. “They have won the Post-Journal, CVCC Club Championship, CVCC Steeplechase, JVGC Club Championship, a District 10 (high school) title, and other tournaments.”

Steve Bancroft, club champion in 1973, is excited to come back to the area for the reunion of sorts.

Times Observer photo by Jon Sitler Prior to an official plaque to be placed at Blueberry, Wortman, Sandberg and “Fuzzy” Merenick have researched all past club champions, missing a few names/years.

“It matters enough to him that 48 years later he’s going to come,” said Wortman.

For McCollough, it was extra special to see his son, Jake, win in 2019. He can’t remember exactly when he won his own club championships, but he will remember that one.

“We spent days this summer at the library on microfilm going back through the years to extract as much of this as we could,” Wortman said.

Extracting names means extracting memories. Wortman’s first of two club championships included a sudden death playoff in 2018 with Andrew Gignac. They each shot a two-day 145 over 36 holes so a five-hole playoff decided the winner.

Wortman said this year’s event will be special. He’s received about 10 RSVPs to the dinner, “which is pretty good because we’ve had golfers who have won it six or seven times. There’s been 60 years of tournaments, but I don’t know how many different people have actually won it. We’d really like to make this complete. We have a plaque being created as we speak; it’s being very generously paid for by Conklin Restoration/Tim Conklin and Ron McClement at Park Avenue Motor Car. Neither won of them have won this tournament, but they both realized how important this was to this club.”

For information on past club champions at Blueberry, text or call Wortman at (814) 688-5270.