June 17, 2012 7:00 a.m. — Golden Years: A half-century of highlights from the Oakland Beach Women’s Invitational



1963: The inaugural Women’s Invitational takes place at the now-closed Park Golf Course in Conneaut Lake. Originally opened to 80 golfers, the field is enlarged to 86 due to popular demand. “This is the most important tournament we have ever tackled,” Park Golf co-owner Pat Stuyvesant said at the time. Hubbard, Ohio’s Rose Ann Swartz claims the AA Flight with a score of 79. Her sister, Shirley Wally, is runner-up with an 80.

1964: The AA Flight is won by 19-year-old East Canton, Ohio, native Renee Powell, who shoots a stunning 69. At the time, it was believed to be the lowest score recorded by a woman at Park Golf Course.

1967: The tournament moves to the Oakland Beach Golf Course and participation rises to 97 golfers. Meadville native Shirley Gehrt becomes the first two-time AA Flight winner after shooting a 79 in 1966 and an 83 in 1967.

1968: A tournament-record 116 golfers participate. A Flight is captured by 14-year-old Susan Conlin of Gibsonia, who cards an 86.

1969: The tournament hits an early peak in participants as 125 golfers invade Oakland Beach for the seventh annual event.

1971: Following a 98-2 vote the year before, the tournament expands to a two-day, 36-hole event. That doesn’t hinder the year’s AA champion Florence Stokes, of Canton, Ohio, as she becomes the Invitational’s first three-time winner. Following her one-round wins in 1969 and 1970, Stokes claims the ’71 invitational with a two-round total of 157.

1972: Niles, Ohio, native Paulette DeMont enters the OB Invite with six tournament championships in as many tries over the summer. She goes on to win the OB’s AA Flight, giving her a seven-for-seven record on the year.

1974: DeMont sinks a 28-foot birdie putt to claim her third consecutive AA Flight title, breaking a three-way tie in a sudden death playoff with Hazel Dunderdale and Flo Barr. It was the first of many AA competitions to end with a playoff hole.

1976: The tournament continues to grow as 154 women take to the links at OB. Janet Anderson, of West Sunbury, avenges a sudden death loss to 1975 champion Judy Giovanni by scoring a birdie on the tie-breaker hole. Giovanni scored an identical win over Anderson in ’75. In both years the two ladies entered the playoff hole tied at 154.

1977: Anderson puts on a show for her second AA title, besting the rest of the pack by a tournament-record 15 strokes. Anderson finished with a 142 while Giovanni took second with a 157. Anderson would later play in the LPGA.

1978: After a three-year absence from the winner’s circle, Paulette DeMont becomes the first four-time winner in AA Flight, beating Gail Wilthew by four strokes with a 154.

1980: The tournament expands to a whopping 163 golfers, the largest field ever. After losing tie-breakers in 1974 and 1976, and then finishing second in 1978; Talmadge, Ohio’s Hazel Dunderdale finally breaks through to claim her first AA crown with a two-round total of 160.

1983: The field thins to its lowest number of golfers since 1966 as only 78 participate. Rain plays a part as the second day is washed out. Judy Giovanni wins her second AA title, eight years after her first.

1984: Former Meadville Area Senior High School athletics director Marlene Gourley becomes the first Meadville resident to win the AA Flight since Shirley Gehrt in 1967.

1986: Jamie Bronson from Kinsman, Ohio, wins the AA Flight, 12 strokes ahead of second-place finisher Joan Ash.

1991: Hazel Dunderdale begins a three-year reign atop AA Flight. She would win again in 1992 and 1993, making her the most dominant golfer to take part in the OB Invitational with six total victories.

1995: The Cherrie Davis era begins as she scores a tournament-best 156. Davis, a Conneaut Lake native, was the first active Oakland Beach member to win the AA Flight since Marlene Gourley 11 years before. Davis (formerly Hornstein) would win three more times over the next six years (1996, 1999 and 2001).

1996: The number of golfers in the event rises again as 119 golfers compete.

1997: New Castle’s Lori Mort and Cherrie Davis battle it out for the AA Flight crown during an intense five-hole playoff. Mort finally scores a birdie on the fifth, besting Davis and making tournament history at the same time.

1998: Hazel Dunderdale puts the icing on the cake with her seventh AA title, dropping Sallie Abraham by two strokes with a 162.

2000: Joan Ash pulls off an incredible feat by capturing her second career tournament title in AA, a full 21 years after she did it first in 1979. Her 2000 card read 165.

2002: The tournament’s ruby anniversary brings 144 golfers to Oakland Beach — the event’s first full field in almost a decade. Kent, Ohio’s Cindy Dilley shoots a 75 in the first round, then posts an 86 in the second round, leaving just enough room to win AA Flight by a stroke.

2003: Dilley shoots a 71 on the first day and trims six strokes of her two-day total from the year before, finishing with a 155 to claim back-to-back AA titles.

2005: After finishing as runner-up the previous two years, Cranberry Township resident Willa Blasko finally posts her first AA title with a two-round 159. As promised, she celebrates with a splash, leaping into pond near the OB clubhouse. The stunt has not yet been repeated.

2006: Wildwood, Fla., resident Nancy Steele becomes the first to win the OBWI overall title despite not playing in the top flight. Steele played in the AA Flight, now a second-tier flight below the recently named Championship Flight. Yet, Steele went ahead and posted the tournament’s top two-day total of 156, besting two-time champion Cindy Dilley by three strokes.

2007: Ten years after winning her last invitational title, Lori Mort returns to the top of the leaderboard, carding a tournament-record two-round total of 150. That kicked off a run of three-straight titles for the New Castle resident, giving her the second most OBWI titles behind Hazel Dunderdale’s seven.

2010: Patti Nelis of Ruffsdale, a runner-up at the 2009 OBWI, ends Lori Mort’s three-year run as champ. The two ended the second round with scores of 157. But Nelis finally claimed the title on the second playoff hole with a par on No. 2.

2012: The Oakland Beach Women’s Invitational celebrates its 50th year with a sell-out field of 140 — the tournament’s first full field in three years.