Left: Doug Redmond, Amelia Redmond (BBA 08), Michelle Bailey and Jody Bailey (BBA 91). Right: Matt Hunton, Steve Doerr (BS 77), Ray Hammond (MA 75) and Dave Hunton (BA 79). Below: Leo Lovett (MBA 10, BBA 97).
Santa Ana: Golf at its Best
By Robert Graham
Every summer, golfers gather for Eastern New Mexico University’s Alumni Scholarship Golf Tournament. Inaugurated at the Desert Greens Golf Course in Albuquerque, tournament planners changed the venue to the Santa Ana Golf Course in 2014. The tournament’s planners decided on the venue change as a result of the tournament’s growth since its 2010 inception. The 2015 tournament grew from a 156 to a 180-player tournament. More importantly, the tournament has grown in the number of corporate sponsors that participate.
Santa Ana Golf Course’s PGA Apprentice Javier Chavez notes that “the ENMU Alumni Scholarship Golf Tournament is one of our larger tournaments.” The 27-hole course allows for play from 5,500 to 7,400 yards and features a 22,000-square-foot club house accompanied by a four-star restaurant. A sign of its appeal, the majority of the tournament’s golfers bear no direct affiliation to ENMU and participate annually in the tournament because of the event’s reputation and recognition as a premiere tournament in the American southwest.
In six years, the alumni scholarship golf tournament has raised nearly $150,000 with the majority coming from corporate sponsorships. Undergraduate (sophomore and above) and graduate students whose relatives (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins) qualify as alumni are eligible to apply for the scholarship. The tournament is a tangible bridge between current students/scholarship recipients and former students/tournament planners and participants. The tournament’s planners, led by Terry Othick (MBA 70, BBA 68), sit on the Alumni Board of Directors with the annual golf tournament serving as the board’s largest fundraising initiative.
Participants travel from beyond the southwest, as does George McGill (BBA 69), a New Jersey resident who fondly recalls his days at ENMU. “ENMU was a great school, and I can’t say enough about Dr. Meiser who was the VP of Academic Affairs when I was a student. He was a very kind man,” says McGill. George carries on that legacy of kindness by sponsoring a golf team annually where he asks the tournament planners, “find me three players – their skill level does not matter.”
ENMU invites players of all skill levels to participate and wants to encourage you to join us as an individual or corporate sponsor to help ensure the success of this year’s tournament. To make a contribution, visit the Alumni-Foundation giving portal at enmu.atpay.com/golf or at the redesigned Alumni-Foundation website at enmu.edu/alumni-foundation Date:
Friday, July 8, 2016
Course: Santa Ana Golf Course, Albuquerque, NM (a few miles north of Albuquerque) Time:
Registration opens at 6:45 a.m. with shotgun start at 8 a.m.
Cost:
$150 for individual player or $500 for a team of four ($600 if after May 1). Price includes golf and cart, breakfast, player luncheon, awards after play, prizes and goodie bags.
Entry:
Deadline for paid entries is Monday, June 6 (May 1 for discounted team entry).
*Tournament planners will limit the number of golfers to 180 to speed up the pace of play. 6
Green & Silver | February 2016
