Legends of the Game Golf Tournament

Dick’s friend Bob Beamon couldn’t make it to the annual Legends of the Game Golf Tournament in Reno this year.  Dick’s Guardian Angel,  of whom there is ever increasing  evidence, once again placed him in the right place at the right time, and so he was invited to attend.  My guardian angel decided to put in a rare appearance and i got to go also.

I’ve never been to Reno before, and enjoyed watching the topography evolve from 40,000 feet, changing from barren deltas of sand to the mountains and suddenly a oasis of green.  Several small lakes fooled me until I saw the real Lake Tahoe: gigantic, stunningly dark blue and even from the plane, extraordinarily cold.  

The event is called Legends of the Game and proceeds from the weekend will go to three charities:  the Nevada Diabetes Foundation, Food Bank of Northern Nevada and Evelyn Mount Community Outreach.  

Friday was fun, Dick went out to a practice round,  i sat by the pool, and in the evening was the pairings party, where they posted tee times and teams and we danced to a 70’s band after a beautiful buffet.

On Saturday I decided to go with Dick.  It was really fun just to drive around in the cart and watch the guys play. Everybody teed off and they picked the best shot which they all hit from that position,  and we got to bomb around in the carts trying to find the other balls.  Dick’s team turned out to be incredibly nice, fun guys, and we had a blast!

The course,  gorgeous LakeRidge, was up on the side of the mountain. Saturday night found us out to dinner with new friends and on Sunday I went back out for the whole 18 holes.   I can see why golf is so addictive.  It’s incredibly hard to hit that little ball consistently and accurately.

Grey Goose had a booth at Hole 6:  some delicious cherry vodka mixed with lemonade with a fresh cherry.  With a tee time of 9 AM we reached Hole 6 dangerously early!  Luckily the Reno Fire Department was there to help out and make sure we all made it back onto the carts.  Here is Dick with the Goose girls and our new friends in the Fire Department.

The winners were -31 under par!  Dick's team ended up with a respectable -7 under par, far from winning but nobody cared at all.  Here's Dick with Art Culbreath,  Olympian Team Handball player and golfer extradinaire, taking second place.  Their secret: Art is a 6’5 powerhouse who could put them onto the green with his accurate drives,  then a teensy little lady who could putt like a pro sunk all the long putts.

We got to meet some of Dick’s old friends and made a few new ones but the charities are the real story.  I did speak with the Nevada Diabetes Association lady at her table on one of the tees.  She told me about the camps for kids with Juvenile Onset Diabetes, teaching them that they can live a normal life with their disease.  The one week camps  are all under-written by the organization;  the kids learn about nutrition,  testing, giving themselves shots,  and have fun too.  The Nevada Diabetes Association also helps adults who need testing and insulin shots. The cost of going to the emergency room for one insulin shot is about $800, and they need to test five times every day, at $1 for one test strip! The Nevada Diabetes Association helps them get prescriptions for their insulin shots, and provides test strips, so this is really a worthwhile cause.  The organization is primarily run by volunteers, so it’s very important to receive funding from the Legends of the Game tournament each year.  

Evelyn Mount has been providing holiday meals for families in the Reno and Sparks areas since 1976 through a non profit started by her late husband. Please click here to find out more about what Evelyn does to help people.