A Great Day at the Windermere Golf Fundraiser

Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in the Windermere Professional Partners golf fundraiser at Eagle’s Pride Golf Course in DuPont. The weather was absolutely perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, sunny skies, and just about ideal for spending several hours outside on a golf course. Around here, whenever you get a day like that, you try not to take it for granted.

The tournament is always a fun event, but the best part is that it’s all for a great cause. This year, we’re aiming to raise $30,000 for the Skoolie Foundation. The funds will help convert a skoolie bus into a fully functional mobile station, allowing the organization to expand its ability to serve the community in meaningful and accessible ways.

One of the things I enjoy most about this tournament is the involvement from local businesses. Different businesses sponsor each hole, and at nearly every tee box there’s a canopy set up where sponsors can talk about their business, hand out snacks or drinks, and sometimes even have a game or contest before you tee off. It’s always fun meeting new people, catching up with familiar faces, and, of course, finding a few more snacks for the golf cart. By the back nine, our cart was looking pretty well stocked.

My team was made up of a few people from my office. We actually played together in last year’s tournament as well. Two of the guys are people I get to play golf with semi-regularly. I say semi-regularly because if you ask any golfer, we’d all like to play a lot more often than we actually do.

The format was a scramble, which means everyone hits a shot, you choose the best one, and then everyone plays from there. It’s a great format because it allows everyone to contribute, and thankfully I was able to help out a little throughout the day. More importantly, our team played pretty well and ended up finishing in second place.

One thing that made this tournament especially interesting was the use of red rope. If you had red rope, you could use it on the green to essentially make a putt by measuring the distance between your ball and the cup and “using” that much rope. It sounds simple, but figuring out when to use it became a strategy all on its own.

At the end of the day, it was one of those events that reminds you why community fundraisers are so much fun. Great weather, great people, a pretty decent day of golf, and all of it supporting a cause that will make a real difference. It’s hard to ask for much more than that.

And while finishing second was certainly nice, helping raise money for the Skoolie Foundation was the real win. Although if anyone asks, I’m still going to mention the second-place finish.