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Pictured above are Luke (Drew’s son) Ekstrom, Captain America (Heath Ekstrom) and Drew Ekstrom. Heath and Drew teamed up to play a long day of golf to raise funds for Folds of Honor. Photo courtesy of Heath Ekstrom
Somewhere in the country, there are deserving folks who will be helped by golfers like Heath and Drew Ekstrom. The two brothers teamed up once again to play 129 holes each on Superior National golf course to raise more than $5,000 for Folds of Honor.
“People can still donate. We would love to reach our goal of $10,000 this year,” said Heath, the business manager/head golf professional at Superior National at Lutsen.
This was the sixth year for the brothers to spend sun-up to sun-down to raise money for Folds of Honor. Last year they played 126 holes and raised $8,800. So far, they have generated over $30,000 for the organization dedicated to providing educational scholarships to children and spouses of fallen and disabled veterans.
Heath started the Folds 100-hole challenge in 2016. “I did two years by myself and then Drew joined me in 2018. For the first five years, we raised over $30,000 for the Folds of Honor foundation. Our goal this year is to raise $10,000 as a team.”
Golf is a passion for the brothers
“Drew and I grew up in North Branch, little north of the Twin Cities. In the middle of North Branch is the 9-hole golf course. It was the meeting spot for kids to hang out and golf. The junior pass was something like $50, and we could play as much as we wanted to. It was great. As a kid, you could bike there or get dropped off in the morning and head home when it was dinner time. That was our introduction to golf. I think we both were pretty young. I must have been about 7-8 years old. I can remember copying my older brothers, swinging a golf club around the yard, hitting rocks into our pond in the backyard. My Dad didn’t care too much about us taking divots out of his nice lawn.”
Before they played on Sunday, September 12, Heath was asked, when you are playing fast and shooting over 100 holes, what do you suppose you average per hole?
“Last year, we averaged a score of about a 38 per 9-holes, and our time was a 50-minute average for 9-holes. We need to step it up and get it closer to 45 minutes per 9; that way, we might be able to do better than the 126 holes we golfed. But we also ran out of energy; that was more of a factor than running out of daylight. We don’t take any practice swings, which helps with time and speed. We just race to our ball, look at where we are going and swing away. It doesn’t help our scores. We also putt everything out unless it’s right on the edge in the “gimmie” range. That also helps with time, but again, not with scores.”
What brand of clubs do you play with?
“Drew and I both play Callaway golf clubs and golf balls. Unfortunately, because we are going as fast as we can, we lose a lot of balls too. I think last year we lost over 20 balls between us.”
When questioned who drove the ball further, Heath reluctantly replied, “Well, Drew doesn’t want me to admit it, but I can out-drive him now. That wasn’t the case for most of my golfing career, to be able to say. But I am also five years younger, so that might help me.”
This all-day effort isn’t made without a lot of family support, as Heath noted. “My two nieces and nephew, Drew’s adult kids, Kailey, Shaina and Luke, are planning to come help and ride along. I had my kids come along a little too and so does my wife, Leah. It’s great to have them be a part of the day. It makes it a little more fun and we clown around too. We have been taking a mid-break around lunchtime. Take about a 30-minute rest and stretch out. It’s very hard on our backs to be swinging as much as we do in one day. A little of “Icey-Hot” and pain pills might be taken as well as lunch. But we try to keep it moving.”
As far as determining who the better golfer is in the family, Heath said, “We are very close in score. Last year I shot a 538 and Drew shot a 540 for the 126 holes. The year before, I only beat him by seven strokes for the holes we golfed together. That, too, wasn’t the case for most of my golfing years. Drew used to beat me pretty good all the time. Since he isn’t in the golf business as a PGA Head Professional anymore, he doesn’t get to golf and practice like he used to. But that doesn’t make me feel better because we have been so close in score. He has that older brother mentality over me that I want to beat him so bad that I probably try too hard. But you know what, we don’t really care that much who wins, we just have a great time and are so happy to be raising money for the Folds of Honor that score doesn’t matter…just kidding, I want to beat him, and he wants to beat me!”
About Folds of Honor
Folds of Honor is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization, rated a four-star charity by Charity Navigator and platinum on Guide Star, that provides educational scholarships to the families of military men and women who have fallen or been disabled while on active duty in the United States armed forces. Their educational scholarships support private education tuition and tutoring for children in grades K-12, as well as higher education tuition assistance for spouses and dependents.
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