Junior golf initiative continues to shine
At the risk of sounding “hokey”, Lisa Haime expressed her feeling about the support her and husband Kevin receive in hosting a very well-run tournament that raises money for their junior initiative.
“Eleven years of doing this, I am constantly amazed every year at the amount of parents and volunteers that step up to help for something that is not their cause,” she said. “They show up year after year, they work hard from morning until night, and it’s amazing.
“It’s kind of hokey, but it’s true.” Why is their particular moneyraiser so popular and successful, year after year?
“Listen to what Tony (Harris) said,” replied Lisa Haime, referring to the outstanding local artist who was on hand. “Some of his best friends in life are from the golf course when he was young. And I think a lot of people have those experiences with golf. They grow up in the game, they’ve met great friends, they ’ve had great experiences, maybe kept them out of trouble when they were young. And they want to give back.”
And there’s nothing stopping it from spreading across Canada.
“It can, absolutely,” Lisa said. “There are golf pros across the country who do a lot of work getting kids into the game. Ping is fully on board. If we wanted to grow the initiative across the country we could. There’s a lot of work that goes behind it, and a lot of pros do it just at their club level.
“The more kids we can get playing the game, the better. It’s the future, it’s great for them. When kids have something to do they feel better about themselves, they don’t get into trouble. So there’s a lot of reasons behind it.”