Memorial Day Golf Tournament

Golf is more than just a game. To me, golf is more than just trying to get a lower and lower score. When I started to learn golf can be more than a score, everything changed. I often read about guys that have played golf together for years, and I always wanted to be that guy. Then I blinked…and now I am that guy.  I am that guy looking back on 15 years of hosting a golf tournament with a great group of guys who have always looked forward to meeting up and playing golf. We met in a country outside the U.S. and kept meeting on Memorial Day – in that country year after year.  And we called our golf meeting the U.S. Memorial Day Golf tournament (USMDGT).

The USMGDT was more than just golf. It was a time when a few guys got together once a year to put on one of the best golf tournaments ever. I was not a founder of the tournament. It was the 6th year of the 21 year event when I started working on the USMDGT Committee. That is when the tournament started to explode into the must play event. We didn’t realize that the USMDGT would also start changing lives forever. To include our own.

Here is how it happened.

The first few years began because some guys wanted to put on a tournament so they could see how good they really were and to play golf together. Every year a friend would invite another friend and the tournament grew. But by the fourth year the tournament had a full 90 players. There were trophies, skill prizes, lucky draws, dinner, wine and lots of fun. By the fifth year there was money left over so it was donated to a charity that provided financial assistance and pays tuition for children to go to school.

Every year that the tournament grew, so did the friendship of the committee members. As soon as one tournament was over we went our separate ways all over the world. Each year we started talking in January, putting in motion the great plan that we grew into 180 players and a multiple-day event. We started understanding each other better and figuring out what we had to do to host this event. It got easier and easier so we got to spend more time together. The special part was that every year the tournament grew, we donated more money to the children’s charity and more children were going to school. By the 15th year we were putting 100 children in school for a year. We were just doing what brought us joy and drawing us closer together every year and it was doing someone else some good. How could something that brought so much joy be this easy? We just wanted to do it for as many years as we could.

During a meeting for the 16th year we started to realize that what we were doing was more than golf. We had to make the tournament as good as we could because we couldn’t let those kids down. They were counting on us to put them in another year of school. We always felt if we paid for a child to attend school one year then we had to do it again the next year. It drove us. The feeling was overwhelming every year when we looked back on what just happened.

We worked hard and the tournament was more and more over the top. There were great sponsors giving vacations, flights, electronics and other goodies as lucky draw prizes. There was even a car give away for a hole in one. We had skill prizes for long drive (my favorite), nearest the pin, hole in one, most putts and more. There were BBQ pits on the course for food. Music everywhere and companies sponsoring holes with prizes along the 6 hour round of golf. Players had fun all day.

Pace of play was slow. The day was hot. But every year there was a waiting list to play. No matter what we said or did, someone was upset that they didn’t get in the tournament. People kept asking us to move our tournament to a course that could play more people. We never changed. We wanted the “supply to be less than the demand” so there were players always wanting in. It worked. As soon as the tournament was over, people started talking about either getting in next year or about how much fun they had at the USMDGT.

Other golf events in the city tried to do what we did. They tried to copy our format. Some even put on a really good tournament. But, no matter what, this event was the best in the city. Everything was right. The guys never argued. We always had a good time together and all of the ideas worked. It was a chemistry that when mixed together always produced more than the plan.

Before you knew it we were talking about the 20th year and how much longer we were going to do this. We could feel something changing. But wanting to keep doing the good we were doing and wanting to see each other every year, we planned for the 21st tournament. Little did we know that would be our last year. We never planned the 22nd tournament. The country we were in fell apart economically. The money that was available went away and the players left the country. No matter how hard we try, I don’t think we will be able to achieve the same results ever again. But the committee forged a lifelong friendship. We haven’t seen each other in a few years. We keep in touch and are planning for another round of golf. I can’t wait for that day. To walk on a golf course and laugh with my friends. Doug, Manoj, Rick, Wayne, Tarry, Merry, Kathy and Loretta we will play again. We will get to reminisce about the good old days of the USMDGT.

By: Marc Festa

We are 18 Holes and Counting.  Fairways and Greens.