here isn’t a golf stone that Carl Berlinger’s
left unturned. He is a course rater, tournament administrator, player, student, rules
official, laborer, observer and advocate of the game.
Thankfully, Berlinger applies his experience and
imparts his knowledge onto the Golf Association of
Philadelphia populous. The lifetime Old York Road
Country Club member started volunteering in 1983,
and his contributions haven’t gone unnoticed. The
Association selected Berlinger as its 2011 Volunteer of the Year. He was honored at the Association’s annual Volunteers Day on Oct. 12.
“It’s a pleasant surprise and an obvious honor,”
Berlinger, 69, of Glenside, Pa., said. “No one vol-
unteers in order to win anything, but it feels good
to be recognized for the effort.”
“Carl certainly deserves this award,” Kirby Mar-
tin, the GAP Director of Competitions, added.
“Whenever a rules situation arises, I can always
count on Carl to make the right determination re-
gardless of circumstance. He’s just a guy who loves
to be around golf in all areas.”
T
When the Association launched a course rating
program in 1983, it solicited Member Clubs for volunteers. An intrigued Berlinger signed up and soon
headed a team that was sent to the “the most
remote courses both in and out of the Association’s
jurisdiction — from Dubois to Dover and nearly
everything in between.” He initially felt that seeing
different golf courses would bear the sweetest of
volunteer fruits.
“But that pales next to the friendships that we
made,” Berlinger said. “How could you not like a 4
a.m. run to [Penn] State University with Fred Christ-
man and Ed Ursprung, with Fred supplying the sto-
ries and Ed the jug of Bloody Marys? I asked Duff
McCullough if he would come along with us on a
rating of Pine Valley. He told us of the day he played
at Pine Valley with Woody Platt — the day Woody
reached the No. 5 tee 6-under-par after four holes.”
That anecdote is one of many gems stored in
Berlinger’s golf memory bank, which started pro-
cessing transactions in the 1970s. Although his
parents played golf, Berlinger’s interest in the game
didn’t grow until he worked for a crew at
Whitemarsh Valley Country Club. It was at the time
when Whitemarsh hosted the IVB Golf Classic, a
PGA Tour event.
