Tag: PGA Tour charity

PGA Tour pros and spouses battle in 11th annual RSM Wiffle Ball Classic where the winner was charity

“We’re just a bunch of normal people out there raising money.”

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The Wiffle ball wobbled in the wind but Harry Higgs whacked it and dashed off, or at least his version of dashing, in the direction of first base as the PGA Tour husbands powered past the PGA Tour wives 9-8 in the 11th annual RSM Wiffle Ball Classic.

The score itself was immaterial – although tell that to the guys who earned bragging rights for an entire year – because the real winners were the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Georgia, who received a check for $25,000 that will go a long way to the organization’s playground initiative.

On a chilly, windy Tuesday evening at Frederica Academy Baseball Field on the Golden Isles of Georgia, Tour pros such as Ryan Brehm, Hank Lebioda and Brendon Todd and their spouses along with local youths from the Boys and Girls Club teamed up for a good cause. For the second year in a row, members of the Savannah Bananas, the popular minor league baseball team, participated in the game.

The 11th annual RSM Wiffle Ball Classic included members of the Savannah Bananas. (Tracy Wilcox/PGA Tour)

“You have all these girls out there and they can care less about who these PGA Tour players are. They’re more interested in the Savannah Bananas or the boys on the other team, to be perfectly honest,” said Chelsey Brehm, Ryan’s wife and the Tour Wives Association vice president of outreach. “We’re just a bunch of normal people out there raising money.”

The PGA Tour Wives Association raised $25,000 for charity at the 11th annual RSM Wiffle Ball Classic. (Tracy Wilcox/PGA Tour)

The PGA Tour Wives Association is a 501-C3 that dates to 1988 and has contributed more than $5 million to the local communities it visits. With Tour events serving as a major platform for charity, the wives found themselves in a unique position to be an effective source of funds and support for the charities and the children they benefit.

The guys wore powder blue uniforms and the girls pink. Tour veteran Josh Teater took the mound to face his wife Ashley, who ripped an infield single, and Austin Cook, who was catching gave batting tips to one of the kids like a swing coach on the range. Getting tickets to a Savannah Bananas game is almost as hard as getting them for a Taylor Swift concert so having five of their players and the Bananas mascot, Split, as the ultimate hype men for the event, provided a show of their own.

The Wives Association also holds an annual golf tournament during the WM Phoenix Open in which the pros caddie for their wives, visit St. Jude’s Hospital, shop for new shoes and beds for those in need and deliver blessings in a backpack among the 15 or so events it annually hosts each year.

“This is my go-to event, the one I’ll never miss because I love seeing the kids interact with the players,” said Kaillie Higgs.

Austin Cook swings for the fences at the 11th annual RSM Wiffle Ball Classic. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)

WM Phoenix Open makes congratulating PGA Tour winners part of its recipe of success

Every time a player wins on the PGA Tour, the Thunderbirds make a donation to the charity of the winner’s choice.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Jordan Spieth asked for a donation to his personal foundation, which focuses on individuals with special needs, junior golf, military families and veterans, and pediatric cancer.

Gary Woodland chose Folds of Honor, a non-profit that awards college scholarships to the families of American military heroes.

And the list of charities that the Thunderbirds have made donations to on behalf of winners on the PGA Tour goes on and on.

“Those guys just do it right,” Woodland, who won the tournament in 2018, said of the Thunderbirds. “They gave me my first sponsor exemption in 2011 and I’ve gone back every year since. They throw a great party and like to have a good time, but they do a lot for their community and raise a boatload of money.”

Every week when a player wins on Tour, the Thunderbirds, the charitable organization that has hosted the WM Phoenix Open for 87 years, give back, making a donation to the charity of the winner’s choice.

A recruiting tactic? Perhaps in a subtle way, but only the most cynical among us would see that as the main objective. It’s just what the Thunderbirds do.

“We’re not big recruiters,” said Chance Cozby, executive director of the Thunderbirds. “I’ve never been comfortable walking up to a player at another tournament and trying to convince them to play in our event. If we have to convince them, they’re probably not going to play.”

The WM Phoenix Open will have its best field in history thanks in part to being selected as one of the 2022-23 designated events. It also doesn’t hurt that the purse grew to $20 million. In any event, Cozby didn’t have to do much recruiting this time because the stars were guaranteed to show up.

2021 Waste Management Phoenix Open
Jordan Spieth celebrates with caddie Michael Greller after making birdie at the 16th hole during the third round of the 2021 Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (Photo: Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports)

But as Spieth pointed out, the Thunderbirds are “really good at the little things,” and exhibit A could be the congratulatory letter sent to all winners.

It’s a page right out of the Arnold Palmer playbook. For years, The King used to take time each week to write the winner of professional golf tournaments a note of congratulations. Players from Daniel Berger to Paula Creamer framed those letters. World Golf Hall of Famer Bernhard Langer has won more than 100 times around the world and said getting a letter from Palmer never got old.

“When I won a tournament, I was always wondering, do I get another letter from Arnie? And sure enough, it arrived,” Langer told Golfweek in 2021. “I was surprised when I got the first one because not everybody did that. I was very, very surprised, and very grateful and thankful.

“And they kept coming.”

The Thunderbirds instituted its letter-writing campaign in 2016, the same year of Palmer’s death. Dan Mahoney, the WMPO tournament chairman that year, conceived the Tour tournament winner donation program. Every winner has received a congratulatory letter from the current tournament chairman and a promise to donate $2,500 to the charity of the player’s choice. Win one of the four majors and the donation doubles to $5,000. Total donations through the program have grown to $556,000.

“We don’t talk about it and it’s not individually a massive amount of money but it’s every week,” said Cozby. “Hopefully, players know that we aren’t just thinking about them seven days a year.”

Thunderbirds Charities is a non-profit organization formed in 1986 to distribute monies raised through the WM Phoenix Open golf tournament. Last year, the Thunderbirds raised more than $10 million to be awarded to Arizona charities. That marked the fifth time in tournament history that the organization and the WM Phoenix Open have generated more than $10 million in charitable dollars in a single tournament and the 2022 sum was more than double what it raised 10 years ago.

It’s more of the same for the Thunderbirds, who have topped more than $110 million through the Tour’s annual visit to the Valley of the Sun since 2010 when WM was named title sponsor, and in its history has raised more than $176 million for Arizona charities.

“It’s really cool what they do,” said Spieth, a 13-time Tour winner, who last got a letter from the Thunderbirds after winning the 2022 RBC Heritage in April. “The first time I got the letter I was like, ‘Wow. That’s pretty special. These guys really get it.’ ”

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PGA Tour Commish: ‘Vaccination is a choice’

Jay Monahan says that “vaccination is a choice” and he won’t use his powers as Commissioner to require players get a vaccine when available.

ORLANDO – PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is playing in the PNC Championship pro-am on Friday with his father, Joe, alongside Tiger Woods and son Charlie. It doesn’t get better than a day on the course with dear old dad.

But in between shots Monahan’s head must be spinning at the world of possibilities facing him and the PGA Tour in the year ahead. The Tour deserves to be commended for returning to action in June, completing the 2019-20 season and launching the “super-season” of 50 Tour events that will run through the Tour Championship in early September with hardly a hiccup amidst a global pandemic. One day earlier, Monahan fielded more than two dozen questions from reporters on a conference call, including topics such as when will more fans be allowed to attend events and how a Coronavirus vaccine could impact the Tour in 2021.

The West Coast Swing will feature limited fan access, especially at the California-based events. It’s still unclear what the Tour’s plan will be for the Florida Swing, which begins the first week of March. Monahan outlined how tournaments need a six-to-eight week window to plan for various scenarios and work with local authorities to make all decisions.

“I would be hopeful that when we return to Florida we’ll be able to continue on the path that we’ve been on where we’re playing pro-ams, we have our corporate hospitality program and our title sponsors are able to use a platform to drive their business and that we are safely reintroducing fans,” Monahan said. “I think the core of your question is how many people do we see. It really is hard to predict at this point what that will be. We’re very encouraged by the news around the vaccine and vaccine distribution and paying very close attention to what that can mean as we go into calendar year 2021.

PGA commissioner Jay Monahan speaks to media after the cancellation of the 2020 edition of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Photo by Adam Hagy/USA TODAY Sports.

“I think you’ll just see a slow and steady increase in the number of fans that we have on-site, but again, we won’t be the sole arbiter in that. Any steps that we take we’ll be doing in concert with our partners in the local communities where we play.”

When asked to address the introduction of a vaccine and how that could impact the Tour’s plan, Monahan expressed enthusiasm that it could be a shot in the arm for the Tour, but took a cautious stance that it was premature to jump to any conclusions.

“As exciting as it is, I think there’s still an awful lot that we need to learn and we need to know, but I would say at this point we’re not going to be in a position where we’re mandating vaccination, and that’s the way that we’re looking at it at this point in time,” Monahan said. “We have a lot to learn. We’re going to be very thoughtful about it. But it’s early to say to you with any definition how that’s going to affect how we operate.”

When asked if in his role as Commissioner he would use his power to mandate a player to take a vaccine, Monahan said he would not.

“I think vaccination is a choice,” he said. “I think we would apply the same logic and the same amount of care to that subject as we have to every other subject, and that is to try and do our best to educate our members on vaccination and the pros and cons associated with it. But ultimately it’s an individual decision.”

Monahan also reported that despite the loss of several revenue streams – such as tickets and concessions, corporate hospitality – the PGA Tour raised $160 million for charity this year. That is down from $204 million a year ago, Monahan said.

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