CBS 58's Hometown Athlete: The Greater Becker Open is half a century strong

WISCONSIN (CBS 58) -- It's been going for half a century...245, right down the middle!

"The GBO, sometimes the Greater Becker Open. But it's been known as the GBO for 50 years," Dick Becker says.

Is It greater?

"It's greater," Dick Becker says.

Dick Becker organized it 50 years ago. And they came.

"I think this is my 49th," Rick Kohl says. "I missed the very first year. Although a friend of us out here said that I was a part of it. But I'm pretty sure I missed it."

"I like to call it a reunion of friends and family, occasionally interrupted by bad golf," Becker says.

While some memories fade with time, the strongest remembrance is when to be at the Hartford Golf Club. 

"The same story is a little bit, you add on something different every year," Kohl says. "Did we start Wanaki or Brown Deer? Wanaki or Brown Deer? We've been out, I think I'm gonna say 45 years, because I can't remember. I can't remember the years sometimes. It's been, you know, 50 years, Lance, is a long time for some of this stuff."

"You don't even need to know the date. It's always the Friday before Memorial Day.  Always. The Friday before Memorial Day, we're out here."

It's not about winning.

"You don't even have to tell me what I shot because I don't even know half the time. I'm out here to have fun. I'm out here to have fun," Kohl says.

But it is to honor a man with a 50-year plan.

"They did surprise me, I didn't know this was coming," Becker says.