HSV Team in Invitational National Finals @ Kiawah Island
by Carol Ansley Bodge
"Getting to play the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, which has hosted the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup, was a bucket-list golf experience, and the tournament itself was really well-run. Although we didn't play great golf, we had a fabulous time." That is how Jim Robinson describes his participation in the Liberty Mutual Invitational National Finals at Kiawah Island in South Carolina March 22-26. The team earned the event position by winning the October 2022 CHI St. Vincent Cancer Benefit @ Diamante Members Club. One of forty-two teams from twenty-two states winning their local charitable events, the team consisted of Villagers Jim and Renee Robinson and Ed and Karen Simmons.
Jim Robinson, Renee Robinson, Karen Simmons, Ed Simmons
Jim Robinson, Renee Robinson, Karen Simmons, Ed Simmons
The Invitational National Finals and the seventy-five local charity golf tournaments held annually across the country have raised over $285 million for charitable causes over the past thirty-five years. The funding sponsor will change for 2023 and is Applied Underwriters based in Omaha. The Diamante Members Club event remains the only Arkansas site for the program as it hosts the CHI St. Vincent Cancer Benefit. From the first Diamante event held at the height of the pandemic, over $41,000 has been raised to help fund the CHI cancer clinical trials program.
The Invitational 2023 National Finals play occurred on Kiawah’s three PGA-Tour quality courses: Ocean Course, Cougar Point and Osprey Point with each team provided a new caddie each day. There were on-course contests with premium prizes for Long Drives and Closest to the Pin in addition to team and individual skills challenges after play. The event also sponsored a reverse cash raffle along with live and silent auctions of premium items.
Robinson reported that in the Invitational 2023 National Finals golfers received packages of premium tee gifts in their hotel rooms on arrival and additional gifts on the course after play. Players received golf shoes, shirts, hats, caps, duffle bags, dozens of balls, sunglasses, sweatshirts and more totaling $1200. They were treated to cooked on-course lunches each day during play as well as provided breakfast each morning and invited to evening receptions.
The 2023 CHI St. Vincent Cancer Benefit @ Diamante Members Club is scheduled for Monday, September 25th with a field limited to thirty 4-somes in a scramble format. Complete event information will be provided in the coming weeks along with registration details and opening. The Invitational 2024 National Finals will be at Big Cedar Lodge in Branson from May 1-5, 2024, with play on Payne’s Valley, Ozarks National and Buffalo Ridge.