PITTSFIELD — The Berkshire County Golf Hall of Fame will induct its third class on Friday night, April 25, at Berkshire Hills Country Club with five being inducted to join the 13 current members of the hall. This year’s class includes retired Taconic Golf Club head professional Rick Pohle, Stockbridge Golf Club standout Rick Iemolini, late Women’s Allied star Patricia Ryan, Wahconah Country Club member and retired Wyantenuck Country Club superintendent Peter Bacon and late Wyantenuck head professional Clem Rafferty. In addition to the induction of the five honorees, college scholarship funds will be awarded to three deserving high school seniors — Wahconah’s Tim Kaley, Taconic’s Corey Charron and Lenox’s Brady DiGrigoli. All three played golf for their high school teams with Kaley winning both the Berkshire Classic and Western Massachusetts title in 2024. Today we will focus on Pohle, Iemolini and Ryan. A story on Bacon and Rafferty appeared in Saturday’s Eagle and can be found online at BerkshireEagle.com/sports. The Maine native spent 29 years as both the head professional at Taconic Golf Club and the golf coach at Williams College and during that time earned a reputation as being both a consummate club professional, winning coach and a dominant player in the Northeast New York PGA Section. Pohle, whose first head pro job was at Maine’s Gorham Country Club, created a special environment at the club while finding the time to coach his men’s golf team. His successor in 2011 was then-Berkshire Hills Country Club head professional Josh Hillman who currently holds both jobs, coaching the men and running the golf course. Leaving for a head pro’s job normally would be a no-brainer for a then-young pro like Hillman. Right? Well, maybe not. “It wasn’t an easy decision,” Hillman said in a recent phone interview. “Rick was the very complete package. He could win tournaments, run the pro shop and teach the game, and he loved it all. He was tuned into everything and I just loved to be around that atmosphere.” Of course, Hillman eventually took the Hills job and did an excellent job before Pohle’s retirement and departure to Pennsylvania sent Josh back to Williamstown to succeed his ex-boss. Given that Pohle essentially had two jobs it’s amazing he had enough time to perform at an elite level in NENY PGA Section events, but he most certainly did. He captured the section’s Vardon Trophy (lowest scoring average) four times, was the NENY Player of the Year in 1992-93 and won the 1993 NENY Stroke Play Championship. Pohle has also won numerous section awards for his work at the club, including winning several Merchandiser of Year honors, the Bill Strausbaugh Award (for mentoring his employees) and Roland Stafford (sportsmanship) Award and Teacher of the Year. While Hillman got an up-close-and-personal look at his mentor, Pohle’s greatness both as a player and club pro isn’t lost on other section professionals. “Rick was always the gold standard of what a pro is about,” said Wyantenuck Country Club head professional Marc Levesque. “He is highly professional, highly respected and is also respected as a great player. His conduct on the course was second to none.” “Every time I would go to Taconic I felt his impact. It was a special place and an honor to be invited up there by Rick.” Rick Iemolini When the news leaked out several months ago that Stockbridge Golf Club’s Rick Iemolini had been elected to this Hall of Fame, Jim Finnerty, born on the same day in the same hospital as his lifelong friend, decided to have a party celebrating the news at his Stockbridge home. For myself, it was eye-opening, heartwarming and educational. The house was packed, the laughs and stories plentiful as I learned about how good a golfer Rick really was (very, very, very good) and that he was an even better person. Iemolini has been struggling health-wise but he was smiling in Finnerty’s packed house that night. Finnerty confirms that the size of the gathering and sentiments expressed that evening reflected just who Iemolini has always been. “What separates Rick from the pack is that he’s always a great guy, he never loses his temper or is a jerk to somebody, he wants everyone to play well,” Finnerty said. “He’s just a unique character. He’s always fun and positive. As a partner, Rick is always building your confidence, that’s just the type of guy he is.” That temperment certainly paid dividends in a Hall-of-Fame worthy career that included dominating at Stockbridge Golf Club, winning 17 club championships over four decades, 11 Stockbridge Trophy tournaments and seven Stockbridge Invitationals. At the state and regional levels, Iemolini qualified for the Mass. Amateur seven times, the Mass. Open once (1983), the 1983 Mass. Open and one Mass. Mid-Am qualifier. Finnerty saw a turning point when his same-birthday-buddy headed south when they were in their 20s. “Rick was playing good when he went to Miami, where he played a lot and also came back with stronger arms and hands,” Finnerty said. “His game was at a very different level,” leading to some four decades worth of success and a spot in the Berkshire County Golf Hall of Fame. Patricia Ryan A St. Joseph’s High School and University of Massachusetts graduate, Ryan excelled in both golf and speed skating, hardly similar sports but ones that certainly kept her busy. On the golf course, she was one of Berkshire County’s best women golfers in the late 1970s through the 1990s, winning an impressive 14 club championships, four between 1976-81 as a member at Berkshire Hills Country Club and 10 between 1982-96 at Wahconah Country Club. Ryan had numerous other victories around Berkshire County highlighted by back-to-back victories (1996 and 1997) in the prestigious Sherwood Invitational at Stockbridge Golf Club. Ryan also has the distinction of being the first woman, at the age of 32 in 1980, to become a member of the Board Directors at Berkshire Hills Country Club. On the ice, Patricia had an impact all the way to the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., while also coaching many local skaters through the years. She had plenty of speed skating victories in her career, but perhaps more important is what she did off the ice to benefit the sport, getting involved at a high level. Ryan was chosen as the Chief of Protocol at the 1980 Winter Olympics, at which she won the H.J. Gallagher Memorial Trophy for Sportsmanship. She was also nominated for the Speed Skating Hall of Fame, according to her family. The multi-sport star was said to not like the attention that winning brought and was the first to give the credit to others. Berkshire Hills Country Club’s Diane Breen confirmed that to be the case in her experience when Patricia asked the much younger Breen to be her partner in a tournament. “Her partner was ill, so she asked me if I would be her partner,” Breen recalls. “It was only my second year as a golfer. We won, but I stunk. Afterwards, I overheard her tell others that ‘Diane was great, she was so much fun and she played great.’ I’ll never forget that and I said to myself I’d try to be that way on a golf course with everybody.”