CHUCKEY, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University men's golf team will host the 2025 Bob Dibble Memorial Tournament this week (Oct. 13-14) at Graysburg Hills Golf Course.
The Dibble Memorial is named in honor of Tusculum Hall of Fame Coach Bob Dibble, who passed away in February. Coach Dibble served as head coach of the Pioneer golf program for 28 seasons and founded this tournament in 1994 as the Tusculum Invitational.
The two-day, 54-hole event will feature one of the largest fields in the tournament's rich history. Ninety-six golfers (96) representing 12 colleges and universities from Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia will be competing on the par-72, 6,834-yard layout.
Joining the host Pioneers will be golfers from: Belmont Abbey, Coker, Ferrum, King, Mars Hill, Milligan, North Greenville, Roane State, Southern Wesleyan, UVA Wise and Walters State.
The first 36 holes will be played on Monday beginning with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start utilizing the Knobs Nine and Fodderstack Nine courses. Tuesday's final 18 holes will begin at 8:30 a.m. and will also be a shotgun start format.
Tusculum has won this event on 13 occasions including: 1995, 1997, 1998, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
A Tusculum golfer has claimed medalist honors at this event eight times. Past Pioneers to medal at the Dibble Memorial include: Todd Watson (1994), Tim Johnson (1997), Kevin Broyles (1998), Nick Kinzer (2006), Darren Christie (2007), Chris Wynne (2008), Liam van Deventer (2021) and Liam Hermansson (2023).
The Dibble Memorial has been played every year since 1994, with the exception of 1999 when it was cancelled due to snow, 2020 due to COVID and last fall (2024) following the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
From 1989-2017, Dibble compiled one of the most successful and decorated coaching careers at Tennessee's most historic university. He coached the men's and women's teams to 65 tournament titles (44 men, 21 women) and led his teams to eight conference championships while advancing to the national tournament six times. He mentored five All-Americans, nine conference players of the year, six All-Region standouts, 56 All-Conference performers, six Academic All-Americans®, nine SAC Scholar Athletes of the Year, 11 Academic All-District selections and 57 All-American Scholars.
In 2014, Dibble was inducted into the Tusculum Sports Hall of Fame and later into the South Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame in 2017.
Admission to the tournament is free and open to the public. Live scoring of the tournament will be available at: www.TusculumPioneers.com.
