One lucky golfer who got to shoot for $1,000,000 summed it up perfectly after missing his third attempt at big bucks.
“Lot’s of ohhh’s, not enough yah’s,” he said, referring to the audience’s response to his closest shot that rolled within feet of the pin.
Saturday afternoon 102 golfers came out to Mountainview Golf Course to drive for cash and prizes at the Grey Mountain Lions Club $1,000,000 shoot-out.
However, despite the beautiful conditions and the ubiquitous enthusiasm for riches, no one achieved the lofty, prize-laden goal of a hole-in-one.
“We were crossing our fingers, hoping someone would win,” said Gerry Gerein, who organized the event on behalf of the Grey Mountain Lions Club. “If someone won, we’d sell 144 tomorrow (for next year.)”
Every hole that was not already a par three, was turned into one by positioning tees in many of the course’s fairways. Each player who landed a drive closest to the pin on each hole got three chances to drive for big bucks.
Their first attempt, shooting from about 180 yards out on the 18th hole, was for one million dollars. Their second and third shots were for $100,000 and $50,000.
The shoot-out has yet to be established as an annual event, however, the Whitehorse Lions Club (a different chapter) did put on the event two years ago at Mountainview.
“They had really good success but the president at the time said, ‘Gee, we’re just having problems putting it on with the amount of members we have,’” said Gerein. “So they approached us and we grabbed it…
“They did a great job, but I’m sure we did a notch better.”
On top of the massive cash prize up for grabs in the shoot-out, every hole had a prize to be won with a hole-in-one. A 2008 Nissan Fiesta was available for the high price of a double-eagle on the first hole, a 2008 Jeep Compass on the 11th, and a boat and trailer on the 15th. Cash prizes ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 were also available to be won.
No one drained a tee-shot for any of those prizes either.
With each golfer paying $100 for the shoot-out, about $10,000 was raised at the event.
“That’ll go right back into the community,” said Gerein.
“There’re four Lions Clubs in Whitehorse — a lot of people don’t know that … Our niche in the community is clearly youth, senior citizens, and people less fortunate than us,” said Gerein, referring to the Grey Mountain chapter of the Lions Club.