Charity Classic bringing good golf, fun to Bella Vista

Anytime I’m watching golf on TV I can find many opportunities to say, “Wow, there’s nothing like a good golf shot.”

When I’m playing, though, it’s more like, “Wow, there’s nothing like a good golf shot, and that was nothing like a good golf shot.”

Coming up at the end of this month I’ll have plenty of opportunities to say the former.

Pro golfers are coming back to town for the Bella Vista Charity Classic and I can’t wait.

Even though I haven’t played in years, I always enjoy watching good ball strikers, and this event should be full of them. Past events have built a strong reputation for producing exciting golf for the Charity Classic.

Two years ago, for example, former Razorback Maria Fassi claimed a wireto-wire, four-shot victory, her first as a professional.

Last year, Jessica Porvasnik led wire-to-wire before winning the WAPT side by a stroke in a one-hole playoff.

Sam Triplett claimed his first APT win with a 20-under-par showing in 2021. Triplett, the son of PGA Champions Tour participant Kirk Triplett, went 70-66-66-63 — 265 for his big victory.

This event also provides a great opportunity to see golf’s up-and-comers as they battle to make it to the big leagues, just like Josh Greer did after winning the first classic held at Highlands. The next year he qualified for the U.S. Open.

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Big credit for organizing this year’s event, as well as the successful past classics, goes to Darryl Muldoon and his staff.

“The buildup started for this event in January,” said the Property Owners Association’s director of golf operations. “Prepping, getting meetings together and sponsorships, finding prizes for the silent auction … We’ve got teams that do all these things. We’ve all divided up responsibilities. Over the years it’s gotten better because we each know what we’ve got to do. We meet every three weeks … it’s a lot of prep, but it’s prep we started in January to get ready for May. Then we rock and roll from there.”

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One of the reasons why Muldoon and his staff enjoy the event so much is because of all the stories they get to hear from the visiting pros.

“We had a story two years ago here where a young lady was staying with somebody on the lake and the next-door-neighbor crashed her golf cart while driving down to the lake. (The cart) ended up flipping into the lake, and she and her caddie ran down and pulled the lady out of the lake,” he said. “Then you’ve got the story of a South African who just graduated from college that played and got a top 5 and managed to stay for another three months playing on tour before he had to go back to South Africa.”

The stories are fun to hear and the play will be fun to watch.

“They bring all sorts of stories and lots of fun, and the membership enjoys watching good golf shots because they’ve all got them,” he said. “I mean, the line between a tour player that we see and a tour player on any of the major tours — the LPGA or PGA — is so minute. It’s a game of inches or even millimeters right now. It can be a single putt that can lead them into absolute fame and fortune quickly, because they’ve all got the game and it’s really fun to watch.”

••• Friendships have also been forged over the years through the classic, in particular between players and the families that have let them stay in their houses while competing in Bella Vista.

“When those people house the players they become family,” said Muldoon. “The players travel all over the country and our membership watches them and stays in contact with them. One of the players

was coming through from Texas going up to Nebraska for a tournament recently and he stopped in and stayed with his host family for a couple of days. He went out and worked on his game while he was here and then went on to the tournament.”

Playing the tours while trying to make the big tours can be hard financially for most of the players. While in Bella Vista, for example, they’ll eat meals, wash clothes and burn gas in their vehicles. While some have money from sponsors for hotel rooms and amenities, most do not.

That’s why the families that “adopt” them for the week usually strike up relationships that can last a lifetime.

“The response to our earlier request for housing has been excellent,” said Gary Mertz, who coordinates housing for the players. “We have a number of new homes that have reached out to us this year and we’re almost full. We still need a few homes. If we get more offers than we need we’ll start a waiting list.”

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The city of Bella Vista does see a financial boost from the influx of players and out-of-town spectators.

“The POA’s got restaurants back up and running, so they’ll get a lot of business,” said Muldoon. “Things are going good. And the players do spend a lot. The Airbnbs are full of players. So a lot of stuff comes back in to Bella Vista and that’s huge. When it started six years ago it was a little smaller, and now we’ve got Visit Bella Vista and the Bella Vista Foundation involved and I’ve seen it really go.”

One of the courses that will be used during the Bella Vista Charity Classic is the Country Club course, which has been closed to allow the collars around the greens to be replaced. The course had to remain closed to allow the new collars to “grow in.” It will re-open on Saturday.

“The collar work is all done and it’s growing in right now,” said Muldoon. “You can’t open up until it’s fully grown in and secure, especially with some of the tee work we did on holes 2 and 6. It’s a full tee box, so there’s no way for them to tee off if it hasn’t grown in. We’ve cut it a couple of times, then (this week) we’ll be getting it ready to open on Saturday.”

Overall, he said, “The courses are good. We’ve had a slow growing year. Temperature-wise you’d have a 70-degree day followed by 36 degrees and snowing. And we’ve had a lot of rain with some floods moving through the area. It’s been extremely challenging for (POA Director of Golf Maintenance) Keith (Ihms) and his crew.”

He added, “I was out at Highlands (April 28) looking at the markings on the course and seeing where it was, talking with the tour guys and they said they’ve seen a lot of that across the country. By the end of May we’re going to be ready.” I can’t wait.