Fred Garmeson
On February 2, 2019, the Chandler SunBird Lions Club held the Groundhog Day Golf Tournament. The famous Punxsutawney Phil groundhog did not see his shadow in his Pennsylvania hometown, due to a cloudy day, and the result would not have been different if he had been here at SunBird. It was a cool, overcast day with the threat of rain, but that did not dampen the spirits of the golfers.
Golfers were able to use a golf ball air cannon on hole #2, provided by “Putts 4 Privileges.” Prizes for getting a hole-in-one were offered on all the par 3 holes, including a $10,000 prize on the third hole but, unfortunately, no one had a hole-in-one this year.
The players were given other chances to win prizes on several holes for “Closest to the Pin” and “Longest Putt.” The winners of the “Closest to the Pin” contests were as follows: Hole #3 Toni Towner, hole #5 Teri Tinney, hole #8 Ric Palmer, hole #11 Al Franklin, hole #13 Trish Carrell, hole #14 Jeff Reid, hole #17 Jim Craft. On hole #9, the “Longest Putt” prizes went to Kathy Reid for the women and Bob Gerber for the men.
Following a terrific lunch prepared by the staff of the SunBird Horizon Room, the winners of the tournament were announced. 1st Place Gross: Jack Cooper, Sam Curatolo, Gary Hodges and Glen Ketchum; 2nd Place Gross: Fred Nixon, Gerry Tomlinson, Fred Fraga and Bob Gerber; 3rd Place Gross: Kent Turski, Mike Butler, Terry Dellit and Paul Roach; 1st Place Net: Henry Petersen, Steve Stumpff, Dana Trofholz and John Heffner; 2nd Place Net: Elra Larsen, Nicholas Volki, Phillip Robideau and Ryan Darling; 3rd Place Net: Don Bertsch, Bob Rowland, Jim Clock and Gary Jacobson
The tournament committee would like to thank the following Hole Sponsors for their support of the SunBird Lions Golf Tournament: Dottie Jones who sponsored the $10,000 Hole-in-One, Mark McCullough of Four Peaks Pest Control, Teri Tinney of Finance America Reverse Mortgage, Dave Railsback of Aqua Tech Plumbing and Drain LLC, Dino Goegan of Edward Jones Investment Group, Randy Arias of Positive Painting and Ken Ratliff of K&R Refrigeration. Additionally, individual hole sponsorships were generously donated by Sally Klebba, Nelson Caron and Ray Clark.
The golf committee and Lion President Bill Hespel also want to acknowledge the many members of the SunBird Lions Club who worked both on and off the golf course to make this tournament a success. It takes good teamwork to run an event like this.
The proceeds of this year’s golf tournament were designated for research and treatment of childhood cancer. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children under the age of 15 in America. Every two minutes, a child is diagnosed with cancer, and the number of cases has risen by 20% over the past two decades. We believe these numbers can change through community awareness and working to find a cure to save our children.