FORE! GET READY FOR A GOLF OUTING

For the past three years, Newton alumni have returned to their hometown to participate in a golf tournament named after a renowned coach. The Jack Chadwick Best Shot Golf Tournament makes its return to Alumni Weekend this year, and the event will include two separate tee-offs for participating teams.

The first round of flights will be held 8 a.m. June 11 at Westwood Golf Course, and the second round will begin at 1 p.m. If there is rain, the event will be moved to June 12. Lunch will be provided. Teams of four cost $300, or $75 per person paid on the day of the event. Call 641-792-3087 to reserve a spot.

If there are not enough teams to make two flights — a full flight is 18 teams — then there will only be one flight at 1 p.m.

The Jack Chadwick Golf Tournament was officially created in 2019. Several former Cardinals were already scheduling golf outings during the annual Newton Alumni Weekend, so it made sense to play to those golfers’ interests. While folks are smacking the ball across the green, they’re catching up with old friends.

Who is Jack Chadwick? To most Cardinals he was known as “Coach,” on and off the greens. Chadwick led the high school golf team to two state championships and 12 conference titles and was twice nominated for National Golf Coach of the Year, according to the Iowa High School Coaches Association.

Ed Ergenbright, the former head football coach and longtime educator at Newton High School, organized the tourney in Chadwick’s honor. The same year the tournament launched was also the same year Chadwick was recognized at the NHS Hall of Fame ceremony.

“We really need to honor Coach Chadwick,” Ergenbright said in 2019. “So I decided that I would take responsibility for organizing the tournament. I bounced my idea off the other members and they thought it was a great idea … I know a lot of his former players have heard about it and decided to come back and play.”

Chadwick died on April 1, 2021, at the age of 81. Despite his passing, his passion for coaching and golf lives on in his student athletes, who have, in part, taught their children the same game. Loved ones said Chadwick’s passion for the game is contagious, and there is no denying that.

The alumni association memorializes the beloved coach’s legacy with this yearly tournament, which champions competition and fellowship among Cardinals.

Koni Bunse, vice-president of the Newton Alumni Association, said Chadwick was such a big part in Cardinals’ lives. Bunse said Chadwick was able to attend the first year the association held the tournament. He just beamed, she said, and was so genuinely touched to have a golf tournament named after him.

“That was what it was all about,” Bunse said. “We just wanted to honor him as a teacher and coach.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com