Revived golf tournament a hole-in-one

After a 20-year hiatus, the LRI Golf Classic returned in June, bringing together 94 alumni, friends and colleagues, all teeing off for a worthy cause.

The Wannamoisett Country Club’s stunning 69-par course in Rumford was the site for the tournament’s revival. The event raised more than $30,000 for LRI’s programs and initiatives.

As hoped, the tournament attracted a combination of active alumni and some who have not engaged with LRI in decades.

Eric Anderson, 2011 Eta II, says the prospect of a great day of golf lured him to re-engage for the first time in the 13 years since graduation. “I play in tournaments every year and was excited to see LRI host one — especially at Wannamoisett.”

Anderson, president of Enviro Clean Restore in Smithfield, says he registered solo, deciding to leave the selection of golfing partners to chance. Chance paired him with Jason Coppa and James Lineberger, two fellows he didn’t know.

But, in an “only in Rhode Island moment,” the three quickly learned  that they were all friends of someone who wasn’t there: Ted Shallcross, CEO and president of Amica Mutual Insurance, one of the tournament’s sponsors. Anderson and Shallcross were Eta II classmates and have golfed together off and on since their 2011 graduation.

LRI organized its first golf tournament in 1994 at the Agawam Hunt Club, and kept it going for a decade. The reasons the popular tournament faded away in 2004 are fuzzy.

But the reason golf re-emerged, first on a limited scale, is clear: You can’t beat a summer day on the links if your goal is to build and maintain relationships. In 2018, that’s what  Xi II classmates, Bill Fitzgerald and Sam Bradner, were thinking when they discovered they were not the only golf aficionados in their class. There were at least 20 others — enough to convince them to organize an Xi II golf outing that very year. The  Xi II tournament has been held every year since, raising more than $8,000 for LRI.

The suggestion of bringing back a full-scale tournament came up in 2023 during a casual conversation at the annual March luncheon when LRI’s Executive Director Michelle Carr, 2014 Kappa II, joined Fitzgerald, a new board member, and Jane Nugent, 1995 Omicron, who were chatting enthusiastically about the start of another golf season.

Carr was receptive to the idea. She was not only impressed with the success of the annual Xi II tournament, but also thought the revival of an LRI tournament would re-engage alumni, especially those from earlier classes, one of the goals in LRI’s strategic plan.

The day after the luncheon, Carr sought the opinion of Kristin Zosa Puleo, LRI’s director of alumni engagement and development, who gave the idea a resounding “Yes!”  “I’m all fore it,” she quipped.

Carr, Zosa Puleo and Fitzgerald met with the LRI’s 12-member development committee and eventually the full board.

Although golf is often perceived as an elitist sport, Zosa Puleo says the official reaction was far from wary.  “When we brought the idea to the development committee and the board, there was excitement around the table and a sentiment that this could be a way to re-engage alumni who have not been engaged in decades, which ended up being true.”

The planning committee for the revived tournament included Fitzgerald and Angella Franklin, 2013 Iota II, who agreed to be co-chairs, board member Ting Barnard, 2015 Lambda II, John Harpootian, 1988 Theta, who helped plan most of the annual tournaments during the 1994-2004 phase, and Nugent, who played in what turned out to be the original tournament’s final year.

The 2024 tournament was more than a fun, sunny day on an exquisite  course; it also was a day for mini-reunions, making new friends, and a warm gesture.

After chatting with fellow board member Brett Gerstenblatt, 2017 Nu II, and his father Steve, a veteran, Ernie Almonte, 1988 Theta, who is the Rhode Island Ambassador to the Army Reserve, gave the elder Gerstenblatt an Ambassador’s challenge coin to thank him for going “above and beyond” in service to the country. The Gerstenblatts were there as volunteers to help the golfing event run smoothly.

In the “new friends” category, Falvey Insurance, a North Kingston company, not only sponsored a foursome, but nominated a staff member for the 2025 core program.

During the luncheon, attention turned to raffles and prizes, including the awarding of the 2024 LRI Golf Classic trophy to the Somerset Scramble Team of Steve Smith, Mike Derosiers, Joe Lajoie, 2018 Xi II, and Ray Lajoie.

It was also a day for making memories.

The best memory took shape when the threesome of Anderson, Coppa and Lineberger were nearing the end of their back nine. Four months later, Anderson willingly recalled what happened.

“We were all warmed up with some swing juice — people will know what I mean — and were starting to play great. We were at a par 3;  the one by the road.  We could see the green; it was about 130-135 yards away.”

“I swung and, yes, it felt good. We all stepped back, watching and  saying ‘Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!’.” The ball rolled to a stop an inch from the hole.

Would that have been your first hole-in-one? “Yes,” Anderson says, his voice revealing just a hint of disappointment. He quickly noted that he won the “closest-to-the-pin” prize, a $100 pro-shop gift certificate.  “I bought a pullover.”

Participants are already looking forward to the LRI Golf Classic of 2025 and LRI staffers, hoping to build on the momentum, are mulling ways to include non-golfers into an even grander summer social.