Just before tee-off time, a lot of the golfers participating in the “Chip in for our youth celebrity golf scramble” took to the driving range to practice hitting their woods. Other entrants could be found on the putting greens at Gunflint Hills golf course practicing their putting before the play began. All told the day was perfect for golf and $7,500 was made for the YMCA and Community Education youth programs. Staff photos/Brian Larsen
Gunflint Hills golf course was alive with golfers from near and far last Sunday afternoon as 13 four-person teams gathered to participate in the first annual YMCA/Community Education fundraising golf tournament.
“We raised $7,500 for after-school program, camp, and youth in government scholarships,” said an enthusiastic Y director, Emily Marshall.
Part of the fun began before the first shot was played. Four celebrities were auctioned off, three-time Olympian John Shuster who has earned a bronze medal and gold medal in curling, Chris Plys who was part of the 2010 Olympic curling team, gold medalist curler John Landsteiner, and KBJR 6 news anchor Dan Wolfe.
Emily Marshall’s brother-inlaw is John Shuster, and he went for the most money, although a group of women tried to bid on all four of the men.
The “young” ladies were only allowed to submit the winning bid for the first guy who was auctioned off, but they kept bidding even though Marshall laughingly told them they couldn’t bid anymore, much to the delight and great laughter from the crowd.
Whether or not these four celebrities were top-notch golfers seemed to matter little to the people who were bidding on them to join them in their foursome. From L-R: Chris Plys, John Landsteiner, Dan Wolfe and John Schuster.
The tournament had plenty of contests, great fun and great moneymakers for the Y and Community Education.
In the million-dollar hole-in-one contest nobody got the hole-in-one, but Barry Pederson and Ben Hallberg qualified and they came really close! A couple of years ago Barry won $10,000 with a hole-in-one at Superior National in the North Shore Health Care Golf Scramble, so he has a knack for finding the hole when money is on the line.
“Both of their shots were on target and looking good and landed on the green and rolled past or near the pin, but unfortunately did not go in. It would have been cool to see someone win a million!” said Marshall.
“Nobody advanced on to the last round of the putting contest, but we had a few locals make the first putt and attempt the second. Among those were Ray ‘Punky’ Pederson, Ashley Green, Weston Heeren, and maybe a few others,” Marshall said.
The winner of the tournament was the Pedersons: Punky, Barry, Corey, and Joey, playing as Team Garbage. They combined to shoot 18 under, birdying every hole.
“I’m not sure how many mulligans they bought, but their score card showed that they spent the most money out on the course, so it had to be quite a few,” Marshall said.
The weather was splendid, the volunteers top notch, and Pete Kavanagh took a break from playing in the tournament and sang some songs and played his guitar, pretty much a perfect day.
“We would like to take thank our sponsors, Grand Marais State Bank, Cook County Whole Foods Co-Op, Birchbark Books and Gifts, and Arrowhead Electric Cooperative,” Marshall said.
“The compassionate support of those groups and the individuals and teams that played makes it possible for our organizations to exist and makes our neighborhoods great places to live. Their generosity is proof that we all can do something to impact our community. We are so grateful for every gift and all of the support at the tournament. We would also like to thank all of our incredible volunteers; we could not have done it without you. Thank you all for investing and believing in our cause!”
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