With competitive golf shut down everywhere, and people’s lives and livelihoods in peril because of a virus that has swept in like a biblical plague, it’s easy to forget the events that nibble at the edges of the game, those Monday fundraisers around tournament weeks that often raise mid- to high six-figure amounts for worthy charities.
One of those should have taken place last week. Betsy King’s annual pro-am for Golf Fore Africa is always the Monday before the LPGA’s Volvik Founders Cup in Phoenix, Ariz. It typically attracts more LPGA pros than any other pro-am of the year, in part because the Founders Cup is usually the tour’s first event back in the United States after almost two months overseas, but mostly because of who’s asking. King (above) is more than a legend, even to a crop of LPGA players who never saw her win a tournament. She is a role model, an icon who has taken on the cause of providing fresh water to villagers in rural Zambia with greater gusto than she exuded when she was winning 34 LPGA Tour titles, including six majors.
But not even royalty, literal or figurative, is exempt from the ravages of the coronavirus. King remained in Florida the week she was supposed to be in Arizona raising upwards of $400,000 that would save lives by enabling the digging of freshwater wells for people most in need.
“I literally drove to the airport and realized that every event I was flying back to Phoenix for had been canceled,†King said last week. “The Marilynn Smith Pro-Am (which was to be held the Sunday before the Founders Cup) had been canceled. Our (Golf Fore Africa) event had been canceled. There was a dinner I was attending that had been canceled. And I was supposed to play golf with some donors and that got canceled. So, I turned around and went back, and, literally, by the time I got back to my hotel, the LPGA had postponed the tournament.
“Stacy Lewis was supposed to come to my house (in Arizona) on Saturday. She was doing the Marilynn Smith pro-am and then our event. Kendall Dye is staying at the house. But things have certainly changed. The world has changed.â€
Thankfully, King’s status in the game and the nobility of her cause kept funds flowing. “The vast majority of people who were going to play in the Phoenix event have turned (their entry fees) into a donation,†she said. “We also held a silent auction for all the items that we would have auctioned off at the dinner the night of the event. That ended on Sunday, which is World Water Day.
“Most of (the donated items) were destination rounds of golf to places like Pebble Beach and Bandon Dunes. There’s a year’s membership to the Dormie Network. There are also a number of rounds in the Arizona area. … There is some golf equipment and a few other packages.â€
“We already had to cancel an event that a young lady was holding to raise money for a mechanized (water) system, which costs $50,000. ... Hopefully that can take place later."
Betsy King
The items did well. Dye used her time stranded at King’s Arizona home to promote the auction on Twitter and Instagram. But it still raised only a fraction of the more than $100,000 that comes in when King runs the auction live.
“We normally give to World Vision (the charity that focuses on water in the region) on a quarterly basis, but we’re carrying that over a little bit into the second quarter,†King said. “We have two more events scheduled in the first half of the year, one in Houston the Monday after the (U.S.) Women’s Open and the other in the New York area at Sleepy Hollow on June 29, the Monday after KPMG (Women’s PGA Championship) in Philadelphia. So, we’re hopeful that we’ll still be able to have those events. We’ve already sold attendees for both of those and have the LPGA pros lined up.
“We already had to cancel an event that a young lady was holding to raise money for a mechanized (water) system, which costs $50,000. That was scheduled for April in Wisconsin. Hopefully that can take place later. Our other events, a luncheon and an evening event, are scheduled in the fall.â€
With life in flux and the state of the world economy in question, it’s hard to focus on the plight of villagers in a far-off region of the world. Unfortunately, the Africans are used to it. Death from diseases like malaria, AIDS, Ebola, even things as routine and preventable as dysentery, remain the norm. Seeing that suffering up close is what prompted King to create Golf Fore Africa.
In the past three years, the charity and its generous donors have built 320 wells and 40 mechanized water systems. They will add to that number this year. It just won’t be at the rate they’d hoped.
“What we’re experiencing now, in many ways it’s worse than 9/11 in that it’s instilling fear in so many people for such a long period of time,†King said. “Now, 9/11 was awful. We had that one terrible day and there were fears that we might have another attack, and you were glued to your TV to see what was going to happen. Now, you’re glued to your TV to see the latest announcements. It’s like life will never be the same. It’s one of those incidents that changes everything. The way you look back on where you were on 9/11 is how you’re going to look back on where you were when all of this went down.
“I’ve been praying that God would end this quickly. Just think of the effect on everything. They’re locking down international travel. Debbie (Quesada, president and chief executive officer for Golf Fore Africa) was supposed to go to Africa in May, and I have a ticket to go in July.
“I feel bad that we can’t go. But when you talk to the people in Africa, they’re dealing with malaria and all these other things. It’s just another thing to add to the list of things that they face every day.â€
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