Please join us or help out as we say goodbye to 2022 and prepare for what will be, for us, and for our junior golfers, an even bigger, and hopefully even better 2023, for us all!
For those of you who know us well, you know already most of the things that are important to us when it comes to kids and our great game of golf. For those who don’t know us so well, we passionately believe that those who play golf from a young age, those who stay with the game and learn to love it WILL play for a lifetime!
As much as we’d like to see it happen it’s completely unrealistic to believe ALL of the great kids we see every year will become superstars of golf, a few perhaps will and as exciting as that may be, that’s NOT our priority, our priority in doing what we do is always going to be about getting, and keeping, junior golfers playing what is undoubtedly THE toughest of all sports to become competent in, and the one that requires as much mental toughness as it requires physical ability!
Junior golfers who have that desire to develop, and who learn to understand what’s facing them and embrace the challenge, will practice and play, they will develop and they WILL improve their skills! Along the way their confidence WILL grow, their mental “toughness” WILL improve and they WILL start to learn what it takes to be a strong junior golfer. Along the way they will understand and display, both on and off the golf course, the behaviors and principles expected of them in golf including Respect, Honesty, Integrity, Confidence, Empathy, Fairplay and many others and THAT right there is the driving force behind our passion for what we do! Whether you agree or not, we believe if you can help to create young golfers you will help create better young adults of the future, they will be more confident and better prepared for the harsh realities of life, business and the journey that lies ahead of them!
Taking the leap into playing Tournament Golf is NOT an inexpensive activity for juniors here in Florida. When we began 3 years ago we made a decision to create a junior tour that would always be as “family-affordable” to you as we could be. Today we are very proud of this and it’s something we hope you can see. On the flipside of that of course is the fact that we also want to ensure our players gain experience by playing great venues and our entry fees always have to be based around what we get charged at the venues we play. Overall though we think we are doing a reasonable job when it comes to entry fee prices and we hope you agree?
The Claret Junior Tour IS a business, it’s a small business, run solely by Fiona and I, and just like any other business we need to ensure we can make ends meet. To operate the way we do we therefore always need to be looking closely at ways of bringing in any additional income we possibly can and up until now that’s been all about our sponsors. In 2022 we have received support from both businesses, like TCL and Phillips Toyota, and even donations from some of you personally and we are extremely thankful and so grateful for each and every contribution that has been received. These contributions have all gone towards ensuring we can continue doing what we do in the way that we do it! They have allowed us to achieve major goals including offering yearlong Claret Tour player scholarships to five of our current players, and that’s something we want to do even more of in 2023 and beyond.
A few months back we were asked by our very good friend at Harbor Hills CC, Tom Leimberger, if they could help us out by hosting a Claret Tour fundraiser tournament. We cannot thank them enough for this amazing and thoughtful gesture and we have begun discussions with them on how it will look, the date is Saturday 31st December,2022.
We will of course email you all with more information as it becomes available but right now we hope that as many of you as possible can make what we hope is going to be our first annual “FUNdraiser” (that’s a bit cheesey, sorry !) Anyway, right now here’s what we are planning:
- Team 18 hole scramble consisting of 3 adults and one Claret Junior Tour player in each team.
- A silent auction of items including exclusive memorabilia from the 150th The Open at St Andrews.
- Play a Hickory Golf Nearest the Pin with amazing prizes. Each player will use an original 100 year old iron and gutty-percha period golf ball on the 105 yards Hole #5
- Business/Personal opportunities to Sponsor a Hole
- Business/Personal opportunities to Sponsor a Junior Player for an upcoming tournament or for a 3,6- or 12-month period
In addition to the above there will be LOTS of other prizes, activities and FUN stuff going on. Entertainment at our prizegiving will once again be provided by Paul McNeill, our very own resident bagpiper who will be resplendent in his Claret Junior Tour (Stewart Clan) Tartan and keeping the theme going our very own “Boss lady” Fiona has the oven ready to go and will be supplying her World Famous Secret Family Recipe Scottish Shortbread! On this occasion though it will cost you a few bucks to experience this rare buttery sweet treat!
More info to come on this as we get closer but for now you can certainly help by saving the date. If you can make it along please register your junior player to play by clicking HERE. If you can play too that would be awesome, you can enter individually OR why not enter a team of three and play alongside your junior?
If you own a business and want to help in any way through sponsorship just send me a quick email and we will make it happen (keith@claretjuniortour.com) or if you want to donate a prize just let us know and we will include it in the silent auction or use it as a spot prize on the day!
For you regular club golfers out there, adults and juniors, please feel free to ask your local club manager or professional if they will maybe donate a round of golf or something similar? We are hoping that some of our regular venues will do so ….everything and anything we can bring in helps. If you have any ideas that you think might work please let us know
That’s it for now….watch your email for more information on this one in the next week or so….it’s a unique and fun opportunity to get together one last time in 2022, before you head off to party in the New Year, at one of our favorite, and most supportive venues since we began playing tournaments!
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
When; Saturday December 31st, 2022
Where: Harbor Hills Country Club, Lady Lake, FL
Details: 10.30am Start 4 player Team Scramble FUNdraiser Event.