View photos of the event at scga.fototime.com.
The inaugural SCGA Foundation Golf Marathon teed off at Arcadia Golf Course, an 18-hole par-3 layout that pitted 19 golfers and seven SCGA Foundation juniors against 100 holes of golf.
The result? After more than seven hours, golfers raised close to $30,000 over 314 pledges. Funds will support the Foundation’s junior programs, including Youth on Course, which provides $1 range fees and $1-5 green fees at 89 golf courses throughout Southern California.
"I can only imagine where some of us adults would be with our golf games if we would have had programs like Youth on Course when we were juniors," said Mike Rosenberg, chair of the event and an SCGA Foundation board member. “We appreciate the support of all the participants who came out and raised money, and it’s really going to help the Foundation grow.”
In temperatures nearing triple digits, golfers weren't playing for score, rather for bragging rights, games and raffle prizes throughout the day. Hole 2 featured a closest-to-the-hole contest to win a new Odyssey putter, while two holes, No. 4 and 12, included a Hold ‘Em Poker game that awarded players two poker cards for birdies, one for pars, no cards for bogeys and giving a card back for double bogey, with the winner receiving their choice of a prize after the final round.
Hole 10, however, could be considered the signature hole, thanks to a celebrity Beat the Pro competition where players teed up against SCGA Executive Director Kevin Heaney for closest-to-the-pin honors (“At a ratio of two tee shots to one,” Heaney said, “more than half beat me.”).
There was even a hole-in-one during the marathon, collected by SCGA board member Bob Livingstone. Livingstone, a longtime SCGA volunteer, past coach of the Long Beach State golf team and current superintendent of golf operations for the City of Long Beach, took a full pitching wedge on the 112-yard 12th hole, which hit the back of the green and rolled in. The prize was a coveted round of golf at Lakeside Golf Club with past SCGA and USGA President Jim Vernon.
“It’s the third ace I've had, but the first one I’ve actually seen go in,” Livingstone said.
Stian Linvedt, his playing partner and 11-year-old First Tee of Pasadena member, had a huge smile on his face. “It was pretty cool,” he said.
In other groups, Rueben Torres, an SCGA Foundation Scholarship recipient who will redshirt on UC Davis’ golf team next year, collected four straight birdies on holes 8 and 9, punctuating his fourth with a fist pump. “This kid's unstoppable!” said SCGA Foundation Vice President Ed Holmes, who was playing alongside Torres. Torres finished the day with the lowest score, shooting 5 under par with 19 birdies.
Lunch was donated by El Cholo Restaurant, and Roger Dunn Golf Shops both underwrote the expenses for the golf course and donated gift cards to all participants. Several area golf courses and businesses donated gift cards, rounds of golf and other prizes as well. In the end, the event wasn’t about score or who won what, rather the camaraderie experienced by each group and the Foundation programs that will be impacted.
“It’s the inaugural event, but we hope it’s the first of many to come,” Rosenberg said. “It’s great to have everyone out here on a weekend to support a Foundation that supports so many others.”
