Breast cancer hits close to home for many people. Even if no family member, friend or co-worker has ever battled it, chances are that you have known someone who has. Among women in the U.S., it’s the second-most-common form of cancer, behind skin cancer.
For Kim Nissen, the CWGA’s director of rules and competitions, her grandmother is a breast cancer survivor. And she is but one of many connected with the CWGA who has taken a proactive step in battling the potentially deadly disease.
This year, through a new initiative the association introduced — “Three-Putt for the Cure”, CWGA member clubs donated a total of $8,204.95 to Colorado affiliates of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, which funds breast cancer research and related activities.
It was quite an initial statement for a program the CWGA hopes will grow over time.
“I was utterly shocked at how well it took off in the first year,” Nissen said. “I didn’t hear much about it through the year, then the checks (from member clubs) started rolling in. All of us in the office were ecstatic.”
Nissen came up with the idea for Three-Putt for the Cure while chatting with a cohort from Delaware at a International Association of Golf Administrators conference. Seeing that the CWGA Board of Directors had previously expressed an interest in supporting other worthy women’s non-profit organizations, Nissen’s brainchild seemed to fit the bill.
A year ago, the date of the CWGA Brassie Championship coincided with the Komen Denver Race for the Cure, and many of the women competing in the golf tournament showed up in pink in a collective show of support (pictured at left).
“It’s at the forefront of issues for us as a women’s organization,” Nissen said.
The Three-Putt for the Cure initiative, first introduced at the CWGA’s Annual Meeting earlier this year, calls for interested member clubs to hold tournaments at which players can pledge a given amount of money for each time they three-putt. Other women simply donate a set amount for the cause.
Interest in the initiative has spread mainly thanks to word of mouth.
For each interested club, the CWGA put together a Three-Putt for the Cure kit, including an explanation of the initiative, program buttons (pictured at top), pledge forms, tax-deduction information, etc.
“The beauty of it was that each club handled (the pledge events) however it worked for them,” Nissen said.
The end result was that more than 20 donations came in to the CWGA, mostly from various clubs.
Fort Collins Country Club was by far the largest fundraiser in 2011, collecting $2,070 for the cause. But four other clubs donated more than $500 — Raven at Three Peaks ($828.25), South Suburban 9-hole ($800), Patty Jewett 9-hole ($770.50) and Collindale’s 18-hole league ($621).
Since the CWGA donated the costs for the buttons and the kits, all of the money contributed will go directly to the Komen for the Cure affiliates.
Most of the Colorado donations were from the Denver metro area, but there were others from the south (Valley Hi, Eisenhower and Patty Jewett in Colorado Springs), north (Collindale and Fort Collins CC in Fort Collins, Eaton Country Club, Coyote Creek in Fort Lupton and Fox Hill in Longmont), and west (Raven at Three Peaks in Silverthorne).
The CWGA is donating the funds on a regional basis — $6,754.95 to Komen’s Denver affiliate and $1,450 to the Southeastern Colorado affiliate.
