AUBURN #- Dr. Rocco Impaglia was an accomplished amateur golfer with a passion for the game he longed to share with those around him, his family said.

Before driving ranges became all the rage, he set up a net in his garage where he could hit balls. Neighborhood boys would line up and wait their turn.

In the winter, practically until his death in 1995, Impaglia and his friend, attorney Joe Lynch, would brave the snow and find patches of green to hit shots at Auburn Golf and Country Club.

At Auburn, where he was a lifetime member, Impaglia would often jump in his cart and join a youngster playing alone, offering advice along the way.

And thanks to his family, the name and dreams live on for the man who was known as "The Golfing Dentist."

Four of his seven daughters # (Kiki Impaglia, Sue Flurschutz, Kris Guild and Carol Cacchio #) still live in the area and will run the Dr. Rocco Impaglia Junior Invitational Bestball Golf Tournament on July 13 and 14 at Auburn.

The 10th annual event, open to boys and girls ages 12 to 18, costs $60 per team. Applications are at all area golf pro shops. The proceeds help the junior program.

So far, $2,500 in scholarships has been distributed. Auburn Country Club donates greens fees for the event, while Savannah Bank has been a major sponsor the last four years.

"It's amazing that we#'ve had the tournament this long, and I don't want it to stop," Flurschutz said.

Actually, close family friend Bob Mayer started the event. A longtime promoter of junior golf, Mayer discussed the idea with Rocco's son, Bobby Impaglia.

"All of a sudden, we saw newspaper ads about the tournament, and we thought "Oh my God, what a wonderful idea," said Sue, whose daughter, Taylor, is finally old enough to enter this summer.

Mayer retired after three years and the Impaglias, with strong support from Sue's husband, Mark, a teaching pro, have carried on.

Dr. Rocco Impaglia, or simply Doc, had a storied career that spanned more than 40 years despite chronic ailments. He learned the game as a 13-year-old caddie during the Great Depression.

He won seven Cayuga County District championships, two Finger Lakes Golf Association titles and in 1974 was the county's golfer of the year.

Impaglia also made his mark nationally. Ten times he played in the prestigious North-South Amateur at Pinehurst, N.C., a place that he loved, Kiki said. That event is the longest consecutively running golf championship in the country.

In 1947, Doc did an exhibition with female great Babe Didrikson Zaharias in Seneca Falls in front of thousands of fans, Kiki said, and once even played in the Canadian Open.

But it#'s the personal memories that Impaglia's daughters, whom he taught the game, seem to cherish the most.

Their father would hit golf balls off the old range between the seventh and eighth holes at Auburn, and the girls would shag them, wearing baseball gloves, Kris said.

Kiki remembers her dad's last competitive event, the 1977 district tournament. He made a great play from under a tree on the fifth hole at Highland Park Golf Club to make par, or so his daughter thought.

"He took me quietly aside and told me that he had nudged the ball while trying to position himself, so it was a bogey," Kiki said. "His playing partners were up the fairway, so they didn't see it.#"

Doc eventually lost in a sudden-death playoff that, at the time, devastated Kiki. Her father, though, took it in stride.

"To him, golf was such an honorable game," she said. "I think that incident tells it all about the character of my father in any aspect of his life."

The Impaglia name was so revered, Sue said, that Tuscarora Golf Club extended honorary memberships to Rocco and his brother, Al, simply to have them associated with the course.

And that name lives on. Al, now 91, still shoots under his age at Dutch Hollow Country Club, and Rocco's legacy remains strong through his daughters and other family members who help with the junior tournament.

"My father always told us that golf is a great teacher, from etiquette to discipline, with a lot of fun in between," Kiki said. "His passion for the game kept him playing for so many years."