by Jeff Skinner
Last June at the U.S. Open I sat behind the green at the long, uphill par three third hole at Merion Golf Club. I watched many a pro struggle on that tortuous hole as it played over 250 yards and was even stretched to over 270 on Sunday. Click here for My Days at Merion.
We amateurs like to daydream about how we would play those elite private courses. I came to the conclusion that I would have used a three wood…twice. And I probably still would have had to chip on. But that’s what we hackers do: try and figure how we would play a course that we have absolutely no chance of ever getting on. Well that was until Tiger Woods made it easy for us.
Tiger and his charity is sponsoring a series of amateur events that lets amateurs/hackers like me get on some of the best and most private courses in the country.
Doug Ferguson’s AP story details the Tiger Woods Charity Playoffs where two man teams of amateurs can play some great courses, donate to charity and even win a trip to Disney World and a private exhibition with Tiger himself.
Two-person teams can select a regional qualifying tournament with a registration fee ($500 per player on most courses), a $1,000 charity pledge and a goal of fundraising. The teams with the low net and gross score from each site, along with any team that raises $10,000 or more, qualify for the Charity Playoff Finals on Dec. 1-2.
Finalists gets two days of golf, two nights in the Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World Resort, a private exhibition with Woods and clubhouse credentials to the World Challenge. The team that raises the most money will get pro-am spots in the three PGA Tour-sanctioned events for 2015.
Here are the courses the events will be played on: Congressional Country Club- Maryland, Merion Golf Club-Pennsylvania, Casata-Las Vegas, Trump National Golf Club-New Jersey, Sherwood Country Club-California, Pelican Hill Golf Club-California, Innisbrook Resort, Florida and Myopia Hunt Club-Massachusetts. Most are private and this is a rare chance to actually play some golf on these historic tracks.
The bottom line is you and your partner need to pony up $1500 bucks to play and then maybe put some effort towards a little fund raising. That’s a small price to play for some high class golf.
So here’s the deal: Links Life Golf isn’t above begging for a few dollars and has no problem selling our soul for a shot at Merion or Congressional…heck I’d even play Trump’s place if someone wants to sponsor me.
I’ll accept any donation but the bigger the better. Get me on Merion and I get you a souvenir like a divot or two or some sand from one of those bunkers. Any donation over $500 will get you a heavy duty souvenir like golf towel I’ll steal from the locker room or maybe some Merion Shampoo.
Let’s not forget some extra cash for all those Philly cheese steaks, a golfer has to eat.
Click here for Tiger’s Charity Playoff website.
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