“You go to some places to buy clubs and all you can do is hit a ball into a net,” Pompa points out. “But that really doesn’t give you the full picture. You can’t really tell if a club is right for you unless you can hit it under the same conditions you do when you’re playing – outside, on the golf course.”

After golf, players can relax in the air conditioned comfort of Chili's restaurant. Operated by Mario Gatti and his father - with years of experience in local golf event planning - the restaurant offers casual dining options as well as traditional grill fare for individuals, foursomes and other golf outings.

Although the championship length of Chili Country Club's layout might be considered "short" by modern standards - 6,618 yards from the "tips" - the course has many other ways in which to defend itself.

 

Anyone who ever plays a golf course has their own opinions as to what its’ most challenging holes are. According to Vince Pompa, Chili’s most challenging hole is the 437-yard, par-4 12th, a slight dogleg right with a narrow two-tiered green, guarded by bunkers to the right, left and rear. The green also slopes away from the fairway, towards the 13th tee.

Another challenge is the 180-yard, par-3 fifth hole, which is nestled between a narrow schute of trees lining both sides of the hole and protected in front by a creek and a lateral pond.

“This course is a challenge – those two holes are among the toughest holes in the city, mostly because of the greens,” notes Pompa. “It helps to know what you’re doing – but at the same time, we continually try to improve playability so that it can be enjoyed by people of all skill levels.”

Golf instructor Sean Reardon echoes Pompa's comments regarding Chili's greens as they relate to the playability of the golf course.

The par-5 11th hole at Chili Country Club is typical of the course's narrow, tree-lined fairways, leading up to a small green featuring several undulating breaks.

 

"The greens are big enough - and they are holding shots," he says of the quick greens at Chili. "But, if you hit it into the rough around the greens, it's going to be a challenge to stop it close to the pin."

Patterned after the USGA's Mid Amateur, the first RDGA Mid Amateur Championship was held in 2007 as a way to provide a formal competition for local post collegeiate-age amateurs, for whom the game is an avocation, rather than a stepping stone to a professional career. The format of the event is a two-day, 36-hole, stroke play competition, conducted as two 18-hole rounds held on consecutive days.

 

The 10th annual edition of the RDGA Mid Amateur Championship visits venerable Chili Country Club for the first time this year. Scheduled for August 12 and 13, competitors will tour the beautifully-maintained, par-72 semi-private course in two, scratch, 18-hole stroke play rounds. In addition to the Championship trophy, the winner receives an exemption into the following year's RDGA District Championship John H. Ryan Jr. Memorial which will be hosted by Locust Hill Country Club.

 

When Chili Country Club welcomes some of the area's better scratch amateurs for this year's RDGA Mid Amateur Championship, Reardon doesn't expect them to light up the course with low scores.

 

"You have to hit it straight here," he says. "You're not just going to walk in and expect to post a low score."

 

That's the "stick," if you will, for players. The "carrot" is the reward that awaits the event's top finishers when they take their tournament gift certificates to the shop following play.

 

"They're going to find that their winnings are going to go a lot further than they do at other places," Reardon adds. "Vince not only offers one of the area's biggest selections of golf equipment and apparel, but he also offers it at some of the best prices you'll find anywhere."