2021 Youth Foundation Pro-Am a Success at Spring Brook Country Club
Frank O’Brien, Chairman of the NJSGA Youth Foundation (left) with David Bachman, Spring Brook CC General Manager & COO (right)
MORRISTOWN, N.J. – The New Jersey State Golf Association hosted its annual Youth Foundation Pro-Am on July 15 at Spring Brook Country Club in Morristown. The special event took place prior to the 101st Open Championship, which runs from July 19-21 at Spring Brook.
Frank O’Brien, Chairman of the NJSGA Youth Foundation elaborated on the value of the pro-am and its goals. “The importance of this foundation is that we have the opportunity to help youth groups around the state of New Jersey by providing them with seed money that can help them with projects or whatever they may want to use it for,” explained O’Brien. “We’ve been doing this for a lot of years now, and it’s very meaningful to a lot of groups. They are very appreciative of it, and we’re very happy in doing this too.”
The NJSGA Youth Foundation benefits many New Jersey charities. Each year, a check is presented to a charity that is designated by the club that hosts NJSGA Open Championship. In 2020, that charity was the Center for Food Action of Englewood, designated by Knickerbocker Country Club, host of the Centennial Open Championship.
“This pro-am is an opportunity to bring a lot of good people together, people who support the New Jersey State Golf Association and its mission," said O'Brien. "This is also an opportunity for us to gather a sum of money that is the fund we give grants away to groups throughout the year.”
The foundation also supports deserving youth golf and sports-related programs throughout the State of New Jersey. This support is provided through grants, instructional clinics, and recognition through NJSGA publications and events.
Along with the pro-am, raffle tickets were sold to help raise money for the foundation.
“Today was a great day for our Youth Foundation,” NJSGA President Eric Houseknecht expressed. “We were able to raise over $30,000 in raffle tickets sales, which is substantially more than we’ve done in the past few years, so it was an excellent day in that respect. We also met our goal in terms of getting groups of people who played today. It’s terrific to see all this support from our member clubs and member professionals that help out the deserving youth in the state of New Jersey.”
Three NJSGA partners – Provident Bank, NJM Insurance Group and Lincoln were located throughout Spring Brook, where they met with pro-am participants and shared gifts.
The team competition was won by the team representing Canoe Brook Country Club, who shot a 10-under 60, led by assistant professional Matthew Hardy. The individual professional winner was Danny Harcourt of Upper Montclair Country Club with a final score of 1-under 69.
The Youth Foundation Pro-Am is a four-player team event and the format is Best-Ball-of-Four, net scoring. Teams are formed of three amateurs and one professional. There is a team competition and individual Professionals´ competition.
