The Golfchick

That chick blabbing about anything golf related.

Category: Charity Events (page 1 of 3)

Rising Star Sports Ranch Resort Sponsors Muttigans Charity Golf Tournament

RisingStar_logo_BlueRedI’m excited to announce that the Muttigans charity golf tournament to benefit We Care for Animals in Mesquite, Nevada has a new event sponsor – The Rising Star Sports Ranch Resort. This is an all new property in Mesquite, scheduled to open in October 2016, and with the tournament happening on October 21, it is a perfect match. The resort is owned by the same family who owns the Eureka Casino Resort in Mesquite, which regularly gives back to the community and is known for their generous spirit and love of animals.  I have much gratitude for their ongoing commitment to the community, and huge appreciation for this specific donation for our local rescue animals.  So, thank you, Lee family and the Rising Star, for your support of this event!

Muttigans purple

The tournament is now less than two months away and players and sponsors are jumping on board. If you haven’t registered yet, do so soon to ensure your spot! Players and sponsors can register and pay online at muttigans.com, or download the form you need from the site and mail it in with your donation.

Muttigans Charity Golf Tournament

Muttigans purple

If you’ve ever taken a mulligan, won’t you help the animals get a second chance too?

I’m excited to announce this new project. If you’ve read this blog for long (or at all, really), you should know I’m a huge dog lover. Here in Mesquite, NV, there are so many great golf courses and charity tournaments at those courses, but I’ve never seen one to benefit animals. So, I decided that needed to change. I created Muttigans to help charitable organizations that help animals organize fundraising golf tournaments.

Our local foster-based rescue is We Care for Animals, and has never had a golf fundraiser. They do such a great job with fostering animals, finding them quality forever homes, and running free and low-cost spay and neuter programs, and they need our support! Let’s show them how the golf community appreciates what they do and make this first Muttigans event a great one!

The tournament will be at Falcon Ridge Golf Course on October 21, 2016. 

The goal is to have a full field of golfers (144) play in the event and raise as much sponsor money for the charity as possible. So please register early to ensure your spot, and lock down your sponsorship as soon as you can. Visit muttigans.com to do both. If it looks like we’re going to have several out-of-towners signing up to play, I’m sure I can get a good group rate at a local hotel, so don’t be shy if you’re not from here! It’s a great course in a wonderful little golf town. If you haven’t been here yet, what better reason to plan your first trip?

We need sponsors at all levels, so please check out the opportunities on the site. Personal and business donations are welcome in any amount, and all payments go directly into the WCFA account to fund their programs. We Care for Animals is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, so all donations are tax deductible.

I will be posting appreciation for sponsors and promoting the event here on TheGolfChick as well as on muttigans.com. Please join us as a player, sponsor, money or prize donor, and please help us spread the word. For the love of animals. :)

“Lights Out” No Frills Night Golf Tournament!

Have you ever played night golf? I don’t mean twilight golf or even “oh crap, the sun went down but let’s try to finish this hole with our flashlights and cellphones” golf. I mean full blown, tee off after dark on an unlit course on purpose, using whatever means we can including glow balls, night golf! I haven’t, but I’ve been dying to try it! Now I may get my chance, and so can you!

On Friday, September 28, 2012, The Loving Heart Hospice Foundation is hosting the 2nd annual “Lights Out” No Frills 9 Hole Scramble Golf Tournament. The event will take place at Simi Hills Golf Course and is being organized by Simi Valley City Council Member Barbra Williamson.

There will be no banquet, no raffle, no awards, auction, or goodie bags. Just good ol’ golf (at night), a putting and chipping contest, and buy your own food and beer at the course.  BYOS (Bring Your Own Shenanigans)! All proceeds go straight to the Loving Heart Hospice Foundation, which supports terminally ill, low income hospice patients.

Individual player entry is a flat $80, and extras go up from there including the usual different levels of sponsorship up to $350.

You can use this form to register, or just flat out donate if you’re feeling generous but can’t or don’t want to participate. Registration goes through September 21st, 2012.

I’m going to try to make it out to this event because it sounds like fun and for a great cause! Will you be there?  It’s a scramble, after all, so if you get too frustrated by the darkness, you’ll have backup.  Sounds like a gentle and friendly way to try night golf for the first time!

Tested My New Honey Badger Swing at Charity Golf Tourney

As I mentioned in my last post, I had a little breakthrough with my golf swing progress last week. After some exciting practice sessions, I was eager to try it out on a golf course, and I had a great opportunity to do just that on Friday.

golf chick honey badger smile

I played with two friends (the 4th canceled last minute) in a fun charity tournament to benefit The American Cancer Society. Since it was a scramble format, there was no real pressure on my swing to tempt me back to comfort since I had two others to back me up if all went wrong. However, with their 35 and 40 indexes, I did have some work to do. They were actually quick to point out that when I went last and we really needed to hit a green, that’s when I performed the best. Not really a surprise to me; I dig the pressure.

Photo right- honey badger that ate the canary

Photo below – gallery on 18 at tourney

Gallery on 18

golfchick wins kp

My swing felt great. Sure, I had a few that missed the mark but overall I am striking the ball much better. I should have counted the greens I hit but we were having too much fun. We shot even par so you know I had to have hit a bunch of them. I was sticking them pretty tight, too. I also had a nice chip-in for birdie. Made a few fantastic putts as well. I love this game!

There was only one hole in the closest to the pin contest and it was for all golfers, not split by gender (although we did have about a 15 yard advantage – 135 vs 150). Honey badger nailed it! 7 iron, no roll – sat right next to its ball mark about a flag length below the hole. Photo left – with tournament organizer & not unhappy about winning.

I got some more practice in yesterday – below is the 7 iron swing that won me 110 clams. You can see it’s still a little loose on top so I have even more room for improvement.  As I remember shouting a couple times on Friday – THIS IS FUN! Some more practice this week and maybe I’ll go test it out in my own scoring round. Breaking 80 is still the goal!

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Skirt Golf Raising Money for Charity – Please Help

Breast cancer awareness and research is a cause that’s close to my heart. Yes, literally. (c: And close to my family. My lovely and brilliant mother is my favorite survivor. Charity events may seem saturated with pink ribbons, but this disease still effects so many women and families and still hasn’t been cured!

Now, a group of guys over in the UK are getting together at Astbury Hall, a Troon Golf facility in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, to don skirts and play 18 holes in the name of this excellent cause this Sunday, April 17th. Jonathan Gidney, a European Tour Pro, is the organizer of this event (and a participant). The guys are great sports and looking forward to playing golf in skirts for this wonderful cause. They banter about on twitter and have great fun. You can follow along there under the hashtag #skirtgolf as they will be live tweeting from the event with pics & vids. Should be good fun, or as Jon says on twitter: #goodtimes. And ladies… did I mention these are some sexy dudes? In addition to the comedy, there should be some nice eye candy while watching them play in skirts! They tee off at 9:20 AM local time. Yep, that’s 1:20 AM Pacific time. I plan to have a nap and get up in the middle of the night to follow along. Who am I kidding? I may not get that nap in.

Here are some of the twitter handles for the players: @JGidney, @millichampios, @DownDaMiddleDan, @nirmski, @barrybethell, @stu1hemming, … You may want to follow them all on twitter in case they forget to include the #skirtgolf hashtag in any of their tweets! Plus, they’re fun to follow anyway. I do from @TheGolfChick of course!

Please contribute to this cause by donating on Jon’s “Just Giving” page here. By the way, Stu Millichamp (@millichampios) is feeling extra generous and has decided to match any donations that are made before the event starts! How awesome is that? So get over there and donate now! (Skirtgolf image from Jonathan Gidney’s Just Giving site.)

If you don’t happen to be on twitter or miss any of the action, I will post a follow-up here with pics, and I’m sure there will be plenty up on the donation page as well and probably a few facebook pages. I’ll let you know!

Again, please contribute and keep spreading the word about breast cancer awareness. May they all roll true!

Update: Here is the “official” music video from the Skirt Golf event. Yes, it’s a custom song. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1-v72h-ZDA

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Snowshoe Golf!

Since it’s snowing here tonight for the first time since 1989, I thought it a fitting time to tell you about my snowshoe golf experience. That’s right. I said snowshoe golf. What else do you do when there’s 4 feet of snow on the golf course?

snowshoe golf hole

Earlier this month, I went to McCall, Idho to see my sister. It was during the town’s famous Winter Carnival,office dog when tourists pour in and make the tiny town burst. There are all sorts of things to see and do – live music, incredible snow sculptures, comedy, hockey, theater (my sister was the lead in this year’s play), snow bike race, snowmobiling, casino night, even a “monster dog pull.” *Side note: McCall is an extremely dog friendly town, which I love. Businesses have ads in the phone book to showcase the “shop dog.”* But what was I most excited about? Of course it was the snowshoe golf!

I had never heard of such a thing but thought it sounded like terrific fun. They set the snowshoe golf course up at the city course – McCall Golf Club (which, during the winter, transforms into an outdoor winter sports venue for sledding, cross country skiing, and more – and of course dogs are welcome).

They charge $20, and all net proceeds goes to local charities. For your 20 clams, you also get a souvenir cap. You can bring your own snowshoes or use some of theirs. They give you a couple tennis balls, a styrofoam cup, offer you a club or two (why two?) if you didn’t bring your own, and set you on your way. The cup is used to pack snow to make a tee, kinda like they used to do with dirt before tees were invented (bonus trivia tidbit for you). I went with my awesome fraunt (friend/aunt) Jo, who is a local and an all around winter sports fiend! Yep, she even curls. So after a quick stop at the bar for bloody marys, we strapped on our snowshoes and headed to the first tee. Jo had never played golf before and I had never used snowshoes before. Good pair.

Surprise! It’s hard to hit a tennis ball with a golf club off the snow!

Guess what? You don’t want to hit down on the ball. Doh! That was a struggle for me the whole round. You want to try to hit the middle of the back of the tennis ball with the edge of the club. I think I had a 6 iron. Seems to me a hybrid/utility club might be more suited to this game. Most of my tee shots were decent but beyond that, it was rough out there. We were looking for the beverage cart to refresh our drinks after the first hole. I mentioned that to the group we caught up with on the next tee and they called in our order and let us play through. JJ himself delivered our refills on the next hole. What service!

beverage cart

The nine-hole course is set up to direct the snowshoe traffic away from the regular tees and greens.  According to the “course architect,” James Johnson, the ball distance is about 1/3, so they set up the holes in feet rather than yards. This year they had 3 par 3’s (100 – 125′), 3 par 4’s (275 – 350′), and 3 par 5’s (400-475′). Par is 36.  The actual holes are buckets dug into the snow with flags next to them.  In case you want to set something like this up at your course, JJ says they try to make it interesting by routing fairways through natural paths through trees and placing greens next to trees and hazards, and using contours. They also use the plowed paths as “water” hazards – play the ball as it lies without grounding club, or take a drop and add a stroke. (Or toss it out and forget it was ever in there, like we did.) One day they had a tournament and the low score was 41. I’m guessing that guy has done this before. I think I shot in the high 60s!

showshoe golf fun

Does it look like I had any fun? I made a promise to Jo that I would come back next year for some more. Looking forward to it already! I’ve got more photos from the trip up on facebook if you’re interested.

Here is a video from a couple years ago put together by one of the event’s former sponsors. Enjoy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFb6pa8FGCI

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There’s Only One of You

Yesterday I had the privilege and honor to play in a memorial golf tournament for a wonderful man who recently lost his battle with cancer. It was a beautiful way to celebrate his life and honor his memory.

Pete was kind, funny, warm and respectful, a terrificly proud father, and had an incredible passion for golf. He passed that passion onto his son, who put the tournament together. It was held at the same golf course where he taught his son to play. That son became a successful golf professional (for privacy purposes I’ll not name him) with a loving family of his own and was the most gracious host. He teed off in the last group which allowed him to welcome and thank all 18 foursomes who came out for the event. He bravely held it together throughout that process and naturally his emotions got to him out on the course. I’m sure Pete is as proud of him as ever.

Propped up on the first tee was Pete’s golf bag. Next to that were his golf shoes and two tall Budweisers along with a touching collage of photographs. Ever try teeing off with tears in your eyes?

Pete, you are missed.

There’s a great abundance of coconuts
And there’s even more ifs ‘n’ ands ‘n’ buts
Lots of coconuts, ifs ‘n’ ands ‘n’ buts
But there’s only one of you.

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Mulligans For Sale

Charity tournaments: love ’em or hate ’em? We can all get behind a cause and plenty of funds have been raised thanks to golf charity events, but do you enjoy playing in these tournaments? I do. Yes, I enjoy competitive, “serious” golf as well, but I also love getting out there in a scramble format and having some fun for a good cause. I know some people just cant stand the silliness. Where do you stand? Here’s a quick poll, but of course feel free to voice your opinion in the comments as well.

Today and tomorrow I have back-to-back charity tournaments. I haven’t been playing nearly as much as I’d like lately, so a scramble is actually a nice format for me right now. And you can bet I’ll be purchasing plenty of those mulligans that add to the charity pot.

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Pick your golf team, be a Pro Coach

The event is almost upon us. pro team sports challenge logo The Pro Sports Team Challenge, that is. You know, the golf tournament that pits four players from four major US sports against one another to raise money for charity? Here’s the official website and here’s more info from an older post of mine at Golf For Women.

It all happens this weekend in Palm Springs at Eagle Falls Golf Course, so if you haven’t already, it’s time to sign up to be a Pro Coach, pick your team, and make your coaching selections.

The smart money’s on the Hockey team, since Mario Lemieux and Pierre Larouche have the teams highest handicaps (1 each) while Brett Hull and Grant Fuhr are scratch golfers and the entire group is less likely to make mistakes than the rest of the teams. However, as Craps table croupiers will tell you, “smart money” is not how I roll. I’m a gambler who goes with her gut and passions, and it often pays off. And when it comes to sports, my passions are golf (obviously) and baseball. So I signed up to be a Pro Coach as “golfchick” and picked these guys:

pro team sports challenge baseball

Besides, if the Penguins win tonight and go to a game 7, do you actually think Mario Lemieux is going to skip off and play golf while his team battles it out for the Stanley Cup? Does the hockey team have a substitute for its team captain, will Mario be a jetsetter for the weekend, or will they be man down?

The action starts soon so get over there and sign up. It’s free to be a Pro Coach, you get to make decisions that actually have an impact on your chosen team, and each team is backing its own terrific charity. You can also sign up to be a VIP Pro Coach for $10 and get some cool perks while contributing to the charities yourself. Let the fun begin!

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Golfing with the Stars

John Elway, George Brett, Ozzie Smith, Ladanian Tomlinson, Dr. J, Mario Lemieux – these are just some of the professional athletes who will be competing in the Team Challenge. It’s a charity golf tournament like no other. Fans actually get to participate by virtually coaching the all-star team of their choice and having money contributed to the charities just for doing it. Star players from professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey will be competing against one another for bragging rights and dollars for charity. $250,000 that is, that you can actually make grow.

I grew up in Colorado, so I have a binding contract to be a loyal Denver Broncos fan for life. I adore John Elway. When I was growing up there, the Colorado Rockies didn’t exist, and the first professional baseball game I saw was as a teenager on a traveling softball team and we went to Kansas City. I remember giggling with the girls as we worshiped George Brett’s butt from our seats so close to third base it probably made him uncomfortable. Personal connections aside, I will be in awe as I watch so many talented athletes I admire take on the Eagle Falls Golf Course in Palm Springs.

Okay, so maybe I won’t actually be golfing with them, but if all goes well with my schedule, I’ll be there. Unless some wise corporation needs a fourth in the pro-am, that is. *blink blink*

Other golf bloggers will be there as well, and you can read more about that and other details of the event in my post on Swing Thoughts at Golf For Women.

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