marathon man

By Rod Haxton, editor

Shellenberger’s passion for
golf goes for a good cause

It’s not as though Rohn Shellenberger needs an excuse to golf.
Usually, as long as the day of the week ends in “y” that’s a good enough reason for the Scott City golfer to hit the links.
“I’m nuts about this game,” says Shellenberger. “I don’t know of anyone who golfs more than I do.”
He backed up that statement by golfing 117 holes on Tuesday at the Scott Community Golf Course. The original plan was to see how many holes he could complete between dawn and dusk, but Shellenberger’s golfing day was interrupted after 9-1/2 hours when a storm moved into the area at about 3:30 p.m.
He took two breaks totaling about three hours in between storms, returning to the course one final time at 8:00 p.m. and golfing until sundown.
“If I hadn’t lost about three hours I probably could have golfed 150 holes,” says Shellenberger.
Not only did he complete 13 rounds of golf, but Shellenberger raised more than $3,000 for the Scott County Ministerial Alliance Breadbasket.
The prospect of golfing an entire day is something that has intrigued Shellenberger for quite some time.
Several years ago he and golfing friends Neal O’Brien and Mike Thompson would talk about the possibility of golfing all day on June 21 - which is the longest day of the year in terms of daylight.
“It wasn’t something they were real interested in doing, but I always kept it in the back of my mind,” says Shellenberger.
The idea came up again last Saturday while golfing with Gene Wilkens. By that night, Shellenberger had talked himself into it.
However, he decided to make the occasion more than just an avid golfer spending a day at the course. There have been numerous notices in the church bulletin about the Breadbasket being short of food and funding, so Shellenberger decided to channel his passion for golf into a community project.
An announcement was put into Sunday’s church bulletin and after the first service 3-4 people had already pledged $1 per hole. By the end of the second Sunday service the list of pledges had grown considerably. Soon word had also spread by internet to other local churches and to Shellenberger’s clients through his tax and accounting business.
“When people got the e-mail, the first reaction from most of them is that I must be crazy. But the donations started coming in,” he says.
Shellenberger had to skip his day of golf on Monday, which was the summer equinox, because it interfered with Merchant League golf in the evening. Shellenberger waited until Tuesday and hit his first ball off the tee at 6:08 a.m.
“It was just light enough to see,” he says.
By the time he started his second round of golf, Shellenberger had help from some volunteer caddies who drove the golf cart while he was walking to his next shot. Helping in his cause were Tammy Rice, Susie Strickert, Anne Crane, Bruce Wilkens and Callan Rice.
He completed his second 18-holes in just 1-1/2 hours.
“I was running to the holes and Anne was handing me my clubs,” says Shellenberger.
By mid-afternoon he wasn’t so eager to maintain that kind of pace.
“I like to play a little faster pace anyway,” Shellenberger said in between rounds in the afternoon. “I’m not spending a lot of time lining up putts. I’ve been two-putting most holes. Still, my scores haven’t been that bad.”
Even though the mid-afternoon storms prevented Shellenberger from getting in another four rounds of golf, which he hoped to complete, he wasn’t too disappointed.
“We raised money for a good cause and I figure this is a record that’s going to be around on this course for quite awhile,” he adds.

User Comments

• amarillo texas

  "we lived in scott for several years. played a lot golf on that same course. there is probley 20 guys to take up that challenge."

  Posted by jim ackley on Jun. 28, 2010