Chili Open golf scramble is set

Snow or shine event tees off 9 a.m. Jan. 27 at Black Brook Golf Course

Snow or shine, Mentor’s Black Brook Golf Course is planning an annual Chili Open Jan. 27.

The event, which features a four-person scramble format, gets underway with the first tee-offs at 9 a.m. at the facility, 8900 Lakeshore Blvd., organizers report.

Black Brook’ manager and head golf professional, Tim Ausperk, said the event is usually a sell-out and is a fun, light-hearted affair, snow or no snow.

“It’s great,” he said in a Jan. 23 phone interview. “I mean, they have a good time, even when there’s no snow.”

He said, based on the forecast for Jan. 27, it looks like participants will play the course at or near normal yardage, while when there’s snow they play 65-70-yard holes.

When there is snow, he said, folks add their own special twists, often towing their clubs on sleds and dressing up for the occasion.

“Yeah, when there is snow, people will bring their golf clubs on a sled and kind of dress up for it,” Ausperk said. “It’s just kind of lighthearted and fun.”

For $18, participants get three orange golf balls (better seen in the snow) and, when they’re done golfing, there’s a culinary spread including chili, hot dogs, coffee, hot chocolate and cookies — “all the fixings,” he said.

He added that the course drains well, so management

keeps it open year-round and the weather dictates whether golfers may golf.

Ausperk added that, because this year’s Chili Open will be played sans snow, participants won’t be limited to a single club, as is often the case when there’s snow.

“We’ll be playing the course under regular golf conditions without the snow,” he said. “So everyone can bring their full set of clubs.”

The event, which is usually a sell-out, routinely attracts over 200 participants and benefits the Lake County United Way.

Tee times run until 1:40

“Yeah, when there is snow, people will bring their golf clubs on a sled and kind of dress up for it.” — Tim Ausperk, Black Brook Golf Course manager and head golf professional

p.m, Ausperk said.

For more information, visit the Black Brook Golf course website or call 440974-5720. Preregistration is required.

THE NEWS-HERALD FILE Black Brook Golf Course professional Tim Ausperk works with students in the course’s junior golf program.