What a difference a year makes.

Before last year’s 41st Hollywood Slots Greater Bangor Open Golf Tournament, organizers decided it would be the last one because there were too few directors to accomplish the work and a competing event that was expected to draw off a large number of pros who normally played in the GBO.

People decided to become involved again in order to save the tournament, and the results have been impressive, according to GBO tournament committee president Rob Jarvis, who is an assistant pro at Bangor Municipal Golf Course.

This year’s GBO is July 24-26 with the pro-am on July 23 at Bangor Muni GC.

“There have been a number of past directors that came back aboard,” said Jarvis. “And some of the management team of Hollywood Slots has pitched in to do some of the soliciting.”

Fundraising is up over last year, enough so that the prize structure for the pro-am tournament has quadrupled, from $1,000 last year to $4,000 this year. The total purse is still being advertised as $50,000, but it’s actually closer to $53,000, said Jarvis.

“We have 12 corporate sponsors alongside Hollywood Slots,” said Jarvis, “and seven of them are new.”

Corporate sponsorships are $1,000 each, and the second level is $300.

Some things are more important than money, though.

“The money is great,” said Jarvis, “but the caring concern for the tournament has been fantastic.”

The difference between last year and this has been “like night and day,” he added.

Some of the veteran players have even been helping get the word out, according to Jarvis, and entries are starting to reflect that.

“Entries right now are 50 or so,” said Bangor Muni head pro Brian Enman on Monday.

By Tuesday afternoon, that was old news.

“I got five or six today that I haven’t even processed yet,” said Jarvis.

The North American Pro Golf Tour had scheduled an event the same weekend as the GBO last year, dropping the GBO field, but then the NAPGT event was canceled due to lack of its own entries as some players chose to compete in the GBO anyway.

Now, there is a Golfers Warehouse Tour, but Jarvis said it’s run completely different.

“They have a nonconflict schedule,” said Jarvis. “They only have five or six events, and they fill in the blanks between [the New England] tourneys.”

Enman said, “Everyone plans on coming up. We’ll have 110 to 120, as far as pros are concerned.”

They will again be playing for a top prize of $11,000.

The rest of the field will be made up of amateurs who will have handicaps of 5 or less.

The entry fees are $375 for pros and $200 for amateurs and senior division pros.

“When I thought it was the final curtain [last year], it was a little depressing,” said Jarvis. “I think this is only the beginning to improving every year.”

Rocky Knoll still expanding

Golfers interested in taking a crack at the new nine holes at Rocky Knoll Country Club in Orrington will have to wait a while.

“We’re coming along on it,” said owner Bob Phillips. “It’s taking longer than I thought it would.”

Phillips thinks it may be this fall before anyone will play on the new holes, and play will be limited, too.

“We’ll probably just let members play them at first,” said Phillips. “We might not get to a situation this year where the general public can get out on it.”

There’s a slight possibility that no one will be able to play them this year.

“It might be best to wait until next year,” he said.

Phillips said the greens have been built and the fairways are growing in.

He did have to adjust the layout of the original design, which had No. 16 as a par 3 and 17 as a par 4.

“We changed 16 to a par 4 and 17 to a par 3,” he said.

The original setup would have had players coming off the 16th green and heading back about 120 yards to the 17th tee.

“It would have been a bottleneck,” said Phillips. “Players coming off 16 would have been waiting for 17 tee to clear, and players teeing off on 16 would have been waiting [for the ones who just finished to move].

“It’s better when you keep play going in the same direction.”

While most of the trees that have been cut down were dropped months ago, or even last fall, there are more that are still being felled and trimmed.

“A lot of what we’re clearing out now is between the holes,” he pointed out. “We’re opening the air lines. They [the holes] aren’t so isolated now.”

Phillips has employed a number of high school students to help with the clearing.

“When they start hauling brush, they earn their keep,” he said with a wry laugh.

The other result is large wood piles, including cherry, apple and other hardwoods.

Phillips is more than willing to let people haul it away for firewood just for the asking.

“It has to be picked up sometime,” he said.

dbarber@bangordailynews.net

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