Last edited 12:10 p.m., June 10, 2014With two months before tournament play and $700,000 yet to fundraise, Price Cutter Charity Championship organizers yesterday said they’re raising the donation goal to $1 million in its silver anniversary year.
The Aug. 7–10 golf tournament on the PGA’s Web.com Tour is in its 25th year at Highland Springs Country Club. In each of the last two years, the PCCC has
distributed over $800,000 to nearly 50 charities.
“I get asked about every week, ‘Are you going to be able to do that?’” said tournament Executive Director Jerald Andrews. “I don’t know, but that’s our goal.”
Andrews said organizers have to raise $700,000 more to hit the giveaway goal. He said current cash commitments total $1.7 million, and charity donations are net profits of tournament proceeds.
To assist in the new financial goal, PCCC organizers are releasing 10,000 tickets for area charities to sell, up from 6,000 tickets available last year.
“If those tickets sell out, that means a quarter of a million dollars for the charities,” Andrews said.
This year’s theme, developed by Schilling/Sellmeyer & Associates Inc., is “A reason to cheer – a cause to celebrate,” and the artwork features a group of youngsters peering into a golf hole. Matt Sellmeyer said his firm has handled advertising design for the tournament the last 13 years.
“It’s challenging to be fresh and not look the same,” he said.
Andrews said he met with PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem while in Branson last week for the Big Cedar Lodge Legends of Golf Tournament, and Finchem had some strong comments about the PCCC.
“He told me, ‘You’ve got the best Web.com Tour in the nation. I wish we could reproduce this 24 times,'” said Andrews, now in his 19th year working the event.
He noted only one other community, Boise, Idaho, has had a tour stop at the same golf course for 25 years, and only Wichita, Kan., and Knoxville, Tenn., have hosted play as long.
The tournament, which John Q. Hammons brought to Springfield in 1990 as the Ben Hogan Tour, has gifted nearly $11 million to area organizations with missions to serve youth. The player’s purse is $675,000 this year, with $121,500 awaiting the winner.
Some 400 businesses and individuals sponsored the 2013 PCCC, and in the mix this year are Dr Pepper, Copy Products Inc. and title sponsor Price Cutter.
“Golf is not the reason Dr Pepper sponsors this event,” said David Gibbs, regional sales manager for Dr Pepper. “It is because we know the dollars that are raised are put to good use throughout the year.”
Ronald McDonald House has been an active PCCC charity since 1990, the year it opened near Cox South to serve as a home away from home for families with hospitalized children. President and CEO Bonnie Keller said the charity received an $83,000 check the tournament’s first year.
“We opened debt-free,” she said, noting the bulk of that check was designated toward an endowment with Community Foundation of the Ozarks.
She said Ronald McDonald House receives a check from the endowment every three months.
New to the charity roster this year are Freedom’s Rest, addressing domestic violence, and Dogwood Ranch, providers of foster care.[[In-content Ad]]
