Talk about finding the green.
The Useless Bay Women’s Association raised $5,300 for Rally for the Cure at its annual golf tournament and luncheon.
A total of 91 players competed in the tournament on June 28 before attending the luncheon and auction at Useless Bay Golf & Country Club.
The tournament was played in teams of four and finished in a two-team tie for first place. Jan Tepper, Robin Sumrall, Jacqueline Legg and Cindy Merritt were one of the winning teams. Diane Anderson, Roberta Pollard, Pam Burnett and Jeanie Egge were the other first-place team.
The 18-hole scramble tournament was played from the best ball on each hole.
“It’s a fun way to do a tournament a little faster,” said event chairwoman Bonnie Kodis. “It’s competitive, but not as competitive as a club championship.”
Kodis said the event raised $1,800 more than last year. She attributed the difference to the five Useless Bay golf pros who each donated a nine-hole playing lesson to the live auction. The instructors are head professional Brion Lubach, Grant Lancaster, Steve Minter, Craig Patterson and Herbie Magnusson.
Standard hour-long sessions with the pro instructors cost $80. Bidding started at $75 and climbed quickly for each lesson. The five playing lessons accounted for $1,435.
Another money maker was the raffle. It raised $1,450 — and for good reason.
Raffle prizes included a round of golf for four at Boulders Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., two rounds for four at La Mancha in Palms Springs, Calif. and a round for four at Everett Golf & Country Club.
“People were very generous buying raffle tickets,” Kodis said.
The Grandmothers, a sect of the Useless Bay Women’s Association whose membership requires the women to be grandmothers, donated the round at Everett Golf & Country Club and a gift basket. One Useless Bay Grandmother, Jeannine Geddis, has played in the tournament all seven years.
“I thought it was absolutely wonderful,” Geddis said. “It was put on so nicely and we made lots of money to go to a good cause.”
“On top of that, we had fun,” she added.
Geddis said she played in all the Rally for the Cure tournaments at Useless Bay because she was affected by breast cancer in her family.
“All of us have been touched by breast cancer from someone in our family,” she said.
The games continued after the 18th hole. The Susan G. Komen foundation donated a periwinkle blue golf bag decorated with Susan G. Komen logos. Whoever hit closest to the pin won the bag.
The registration fee was $45, with $20 going toward the Rally for the Cure, $5 toward prizes, $5 for mulligans and $15 for the luncheon. The mulligan funds purchased all the decorations used at the luncheon and auction.
Geddis said Kodis and Chris Einwalter deserved kudos for their work. Einwalter helped procuring donations for the raffle.
“She did a lot to find donations for the raffle,” Geddis said of Einwalter.
A large portion of the total funds was raised through donations, in addition to the registration fees, auction funds and raffle receipts.
