62nd Annual “The Doc Men’s Invitational Tournament” Held at Scottsville Country Club

By Chris Cole,
Staff Writer

For 50 straight years, Dr. John Hall, more affectionately known to Scottsville and Allen County residents as Doc, made an appointment for himself to participate in the Scottsville Invitational Tournament at the Scottsville Country Club.

Doc was “a very supportive member of our club I guess you kind of call him a leader of our Golf Club for years,” said Scott Stamper, the main grounds facilitator and coach of the golf teams for Allen County-Scottsville schools going on his 25th year. “You always knew when Doc was on the course. You could hear his laugh around the golf course. He poured a lot of support and time and energy into this golf course especially in the stages once things started to grow a little bit. He was a huge supporter.”

Though it’s been a few years since he’s passed, the local tournament he loved so much, played at the country club he loved so much, in the community he loved so much, was renamed to “The Doc Men’s Invitational Tournament” and was carried out over the weekend of July 12-13.

Stamper explained that, “It’s a flighted tournament, which means the first day you take your first day scores and then you pair everybody up according to what they shot on day one to play in different flights on day two. That way, your guys that are beginners at the game, you know they’re not going to shoot under par, you can kind of put those in a group together. Now that group’s playing for the same prize money as our Champion Flight is. So we divided up into four or five flights depending on the number of participants. Each flight on Sunday has their own prize money that they’re playing for.”

This year, 72 men, ranging from high school students to seniors of the experienced variety, took part. Many, including Eli Stamper and Ernie Stafford, were locals while a few, such as Adam Houchens (who would go on to win the tournament) were from out of town.

Having 72 in the tournament is a great number. Stamper stated, “We usually like to keep it around 70 to 80. Once you get over 80, it kind of clogs the golf course up a little bit because we are just a nine hole course.”

“Just a nine hole course” might sound like it might make for a fairly easy tournament. However, several people stated that for being “a fun little golf course to modern standards of newer golf courses that are being built now,” (according to Stamper), that in actuality “if you can play here you can play a lot of places well,” according to Michael Hall, son of Doc Hall.

Driving around to get a feel for the course on the first day, Shane Blankenship, who not only is a Scottsville City Councilman but also sits on the board of Scottsville County Club, explained that the course “was established in 1933 and was ready for play in 1934” thanks to property owners around the course who, at the time, set aside portions of their land “to develop an area dedicated to recreational activities.”

Blankenship also explained that, “there are banks and angles and corners” that make for a challenging, albeit relatively short, course. It’s a sentiment that Stamper followed up by saying, “We have a lot of hills, a lot of ups and downs and a few angles. A lot of banks and some angles going in. And we have tree lined fairways. So for a small little golf course, it can get kind of kind of tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing with the golf ball.”

In some ways, the course has become even more challenging over the last couple years, though unintentionally. It contributed to some repeat players in The Doc Men’s Invitational having to play it differently in years past.

Blankenship stated that when the windstorms hit the area a couple of years ago, trees that had been longtime fixtures on the course were felled. In some cases, their trunk stumps could still be seen. Then this year, the nine-hole course became an unofficial 10-hole course with a recent opening of a sinkhole that was roped off.

“We’re not really happy with that,” quipped Stamper. “We’re trying to problem solve on how to fix that. But like I said, this course has been here on these grounds and open for business since 1934. Over that time, there’s been some trees that have come and gone, some that have been added and some that have died out and some that we’ve had to cut out.”

As the players gathered in the clubhouse, either awaiting the arrival of each participant of their initial group or wrapping up their first day of tournament play, it was clear that they expressed a love for not just the tournament itself but also the course.

With this being the 62nd Annual tournament, it’s fair to say that there’s been a good amount of history that has come with it. For instance, listed on the board of tournament winners is a name that golf aficionados and even casual golf fans would recognize–Kenny Perry. As a member of the WKU men’s golf team, he won back-to-back Scottsville Invitational Tournaments in 1981 and 1982, just before he turned professional. He’d go on to become one of PGA’s top earners and was part of the 2008 USA Ryder Cup team that went on to beat the European team.

Yet there’s also more recent history. Scott Stamper’s son Owen, who was on the Middle Tennessee State University men’s golf team, is a three-time winner including being a back-to-back champion in 2021-2022. He went pro in 2024 and was actually involved in an out-of-state tournament (in which he qualified for the next tournament) as his younger brother Eli was competing in this year’s The Doc and was in contention up until the final holes for tournament champion. Needless to say, Scott was a very happy father this weekend.

Perhaps though the happiest person at the tournament was the son of the tournament’s namesake. Michael Hall, who has “done everything for this tournament at some point in time except for keeping score” said, “(Doc) was a fixture on this course.”

Hall continued, “It’s very special. Mom and dad dedicated their entire adult life (to Scottsville) and it’s always special.”

If talking about the legacy of his parents was the pinnacle of the weekend for Hall, perhaps not far behind it was talking about the quality of the course that Doc contributed to and the level of golf that was being played.

“I could impress upon the young folks that they get to play here. For a community of Scottsville’s size to have access to a golf course, it’s pretty amazing. For communities 5,000 or less, it’s pretty fun. I want to have conversations about the caliber of golfers coming through here,” said Hall.

Stamper himself added that “We get golfers from all over the country who might just be passing through and they come up here to play.”

Certainly the level of play showed in what was called The Championship Flight. Adam Houchens, Eli Stamper and Rafe Blankenship, another local standout who almost a year ago transferred into WKU from Lindsey Wilson College, separated themselves from the rest of their flight. Each were having a strong final round that came down to the last couple holes.

The weather, which was hot with a light but welcome breeze on Saturday, began to have an impact toward the final holes on Sunday. While the air had been still for most of the day, a bit more robust breeze and some growing overcast skies affected the play, causing the leader board to fluctuate a little bit. However, Adam Houchens would hang on to win this year’s tournament with a cumulative total of 121. It was his first time winning and broke a seven-year streak of a local golfer winning it. Blankenship would come in second with a cumulative score of 124 and Stamper came in third with a 126. Rounding out the top five were Justin Spears with a 131 and Tyler Ford with a 132.

While there are plenty of golf tournaments that bring out a fiery competitiveness in their participants to the point where clubs might be thrown and naughty words might be proclaimed, it really says something when “The Doc Men’s Invitational Tournament sees the third place finisher, big smile on his face, walk right up to the winner, high five him and say at nearly the same time, “That was a lot of fun.”

Maybe Michael Hall said it best though. “It’s the friendships that people have made here over the years. There’s so many people that come back here to play with friends.”

While the tournament itself might be over for this year, the activity at the Scottsville Country Club certainly isn’t.

Stamper, who showed throughout the weekend his love for golf, emphatically stated that the Club is open to new people joining and are looking for ways to even get families involved. “We run a golf camp for kids where we invite mom and dad to come out and see what’s going on,” he said several times. And while this tournament is a men’s invitational, he didn’t rule out the possibility of there being a women’s invitational tournament if enough interest in generated.

Another thing that was repeated by several over the course of the tournament was that they wanted to emphasize “Golf is for everybody.” Tournaments such as The Doc, where high school students, college students, semi-professionals, those who would go on to reach some of the PGA’s biggest heights and enthusiasts who simply want to be a part of it, certainly go a long way in demonstrating that golf is, indeed, for everybody.

“I don’t remember who suggested it but naming this tournament after Doc was probably the best idea we ever had,” said Stamper.