ASHLAND — A golf scramble honoring former Mapleton golf coach Ken Eckenroth is coming to Brookside Park on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 9 a.m.
Eckenroth passed away from COVID-19 in August 2021 after coaching golf at Mapleton High School for years. Under his tutelage, the Mapleton boys golf team managed to climb from last in the Firelands Conference to first place in 2020.
He passed away before the start of the 2021 golf season, but the Mounties carried on his legacy by winning another conference title and sending a golfer to the state tournament in 2021.
Part of his coaching strategy that led the boys to victory was to get the kids’ minds off of golf, his wife Cynthia Eckenroth said.
“They were always like ‘What’s wrong with my swing? What’s wrong with me?’ Instead, he would say ‘How high do you weigh a pie?’ And they’d be like ‘Why is he saying this to me?’ and it was to get their mind off of golf,” she said.
The answer to Eckenroth’s pie riddle was “over the rainbow, because it’s over the rainbow way up high,” she said.
Before coaching at Mapleton, Ken was a golf instructor in Raleigh, North Carolina. He met his wife Cynthia while giving her golf lessons, and they were married in Ashland in 2007.
“He loved golf. Golf was his major thing in his life,” Cynthia said.
To honor his love of golf, all proceeds from this weekend’s event will go to the Mapleton golf program. The flyer for the event is available below.
