Tournament Time Arrives at Peninsula and Idlewild

Peninsula State Park Golf Course pro Jason Daubner (center) poses with the winners of the 2021 Resorters Tournament, Scott Jardine (left) and Jill Trider (right). Daubner will welcome local and vacationing golfers to the 98th Resorters Match Play Tournament the week of Aug. 7. Submitted.

Multiple championships are up for grabs early next month during two of Door County’s most competitive golf events.

Teams of players ages 55 and older can vie for prizes and either of two titles during the 31st Jocko Rader Senior Outing at Idlewild on Aug. 4. The senior scramble typically draws more than 30 four-person teams overall to compete in the low-handicap Nicklaus Division and the higher-handicap Palmer Division.

Then the 98th Resorters Match Play Tournament gets started less than a week later at Peninsula State Park Golf Course. Following the example set by the professional Masters, the historical Resorters kicks off with a par-three tournament. That tune-up event takes place Sunday, Aug. 7, 9 am – 12 pm, on the short course; and the Aug. 8-10 matches get started Monday, Aug. 8, 7 am. Find out more at peninsulagolf.org.

The Resorters Tournament attracts local players and vacationers who compete for trophies and bragging rights in several divisions based on handicaps and ages.

“People interested in signing up can either stop by the clubhouse to pick up an entry form, or they can go on our website under “Resorters Match Play Tournament” and print an entry form from the “Events” section,” said Jason Daubner, Peninsula’s general manager and PGA professional.

To the south at Idlewild, the senior scramble was named the Curly Paul Open prior to its renaming in honor of the late Rader, an avid golfer and longtime sportswriter, golf writer and insurance professional. Both Paul and Rader were familiar to sports fans throughout the region because they spent much of their free time at athletic events – Rader as a reporter at events such as Door County League baseball, and Paul, owner of Curly’s Cleaners, as a fan and sportsman who helped with Little League and rarely missed a Sturgeon Bay High School game.

“Curly Paul was a really avid golfer and sports promoter,” said Eugene Jacobs, longtime senior open organizer. Paul not only started the best-ball event, but he was also a longtime sponsor of the gone-but-not-forgotten Cherryland Open. 

“At one time, it was a three-man scramble, and then it was expanded to a four-man scramble, and now we routinely have 32 teams,” Jacobs said. “It’s been going strong. I took it over for Jocko when he passed away, and Mark Jinkins said he would take it this year. I’m relieved that he did because I’m going to be 90 in a couple of weeks, and I don’t need this extra thing. It requires quite a bit of work,” Jacobs said on a day when he was volunteering at the hospital in Sturgeon Bay. Still, he provided some assistance to Jinkins.

Jacobs said Rader did an amazing job of persuading area business owners and clients to donate door prizes for the senior scramble.

“He was a salesman, and he stopped at all these places. I don’t have nearly, nearly the door prizes that he had,” said Jacobs, who nonetheless secures quite a few prizes for the golfers, such as rounds for foursomes at area courses, golf balls and a free haircut. “There might be 15 door prizes. And that’s plenty. Jocko used to have a prize for everybody, I think.”

The Resorters Tournament owes much of its popularity to tradition because some local golfers and many vacationers and summer residents never miss the event. The senior scramble has built its own tradition, and the competitors know they’ll be competing to win back all or more of their entry-fee money. 

“On the golf course, they have 18 special events,” Jacobs said, “so if you’re a good or bad golfer, everyone has a chance to win something.”

He said golfers ages 73 and older can move up to the forward tees at Idlewild, which gives them more chances to contribute to their team.

Jinkins said Jacobs provided him with information about running the senior open, and he’s realizing that it does indeed take some time and effort. Jinkins said it helps that the event has good support from the golfers, and Idlewild and traditionally has received event-day help from volunteers such as Rader’s former coworkers and managers from the Stoneman-Schopf Agency.

In addition to helping with the senior open, Jinkins helps to organize the Thursday senior league at Idlewild. 

He said teams must sign up by July 27 for the senior scramble, and the rules and other information will be available at idlewildgolfclub.com and at the course.