Charles City’s 1998 class 25th reunion coincides with Brad Sawyer Memorial Golf Tournament

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Too bad that — once again — Annie Sawyer gets troubled to update a fuzzy math problem for a reporter who should have already added up the numbers himself.

“Well, with the first one being in 2000 … the spring after Brad’s death … ” Annie relates in reference to the Brad Sawyer Memorial Golf Tournament and her son — the tourney’s namesake — who died in a car accident on Oct. 13, 1999 at the age of 20.

Brad’s surviving father, Scott Sawyer, organized the inaugural Brad Sawyer Tournament in memory of his son and for a chance for Brad’s family and friends to gather every summer at the favorite stomping grounds — Wildwood Golf Course — of the former All-Northeast Iowa Conference Charles City Comet golfer.

After Scott died in 2010, Brad’s mother Annie and Brad’s sister Tara — a golf enthusiast herself who also was a Comet golfer — became the tourney’s curators as well as regular and semi-regular participants.

“That will make this the 24th summer since, but we didn’t hold one during the flood (of 2017),” Annie says. “That was the only time we had to cancel. I get so nervous during the week leading up to this, but we’ve been lucky to have only one rainout.

“So this is really the 23rd.”

But even for an ace mathematician, numbers can slip by as fast as time itself causing milestones to approach and depart without fair warning. Maybe that’s why Annie seemed surprised when this same reporter casually mentioned that Brad’s classmates were also in town for Charles City’s Class of 1998’s 25th-year reunion.

Take Comet grad Jesse Rawley, who spanned a lot of air miles coming in for the tournament/reunion from his current residence in the Seattle, Washington-area. He and his wife, Bethany, were teammates in the most recent best-shot tournament that took place Saturday at Wildwood.

The Rawleys were grateful for the annual retreat to northern Iowa as the summer temps along the West Coast, even as far north as Seattle, continue to be brutal.

Matt Ramthun, an all-state quarterback who led the Comets deep into the postseason in 1997, was another Charles City 25th-year graduate who made the long trip back home for the tournament and reunion … but not from as far. Ramthun is the head boys track and field coach, and an assistant football coach for Norwalk High School.

In 2017, Ramthun received the “Golden Apple Award” presented by a local TV station and insurance company that honors influential educators.

“He was the star but we did the blocking for him,” said Ray Ferch, a fellow 1998 graduate and teammate of Ramthun’s — the two were in the same foursome.

There was a format change to this year’s Brad Sawyer Memorial Golf Tournament. Instead of there being (3) three-person teams assigned to each of Wildwood’s nine holes — teams make two circuits for 18 holes of golf — each hole was assigned (2) four-person teams before a shotgun start.

In regards to flow of play, that was a noted improvement from past tournaments that had nine players play three balls per hole.

“Even after we had two teams drop out, we were able to fill the spots from our waiting list,” Annie said.

Proceeds from the annual event go to cash prizes and for continual upgrades to the Wildwood course.