Every day I learn something new. Today I was at an organizing meeting for the First Annual Housatonic Habitat for Humanity Golf Outing. I can attest that I know almost nothing about golf. I played just once — in August 1976. I will never forget it — 98 degrees, 98% humidity, and no skill. That was enough to convince me that golf would not be a part of my life. In spite of this, Chris Brown, executive director of Housatonic Habitat for Humanity, put the arm on me and convinced me to help him organize an outing with the goal of raising enough money each year to build one more house for a family in need of simple decent housing. It was hard to say no. I had been the first president of HHFH ten years ago and I strongly believe in the Habitat goals and have seen the great work that it’s many volunteers are doing in partnership with the families. What I learned new at the meeting today was about "hole in one insurance".
Since I know nothing about golf, I have been trying to help in other ways. The first thing I thought of was to get a domain name and much to my surprise habitatgolf.com was available. I put the preliminary web site on the dedicated IBM xSeries eServer at Interland in Miami, Florida where patrickWeb resides. A link on the habitat golf site points to evite.com where golfers and potential sponsors will be able to get all the details and register for the outing..
Ed Petrozelli who is a recently retired IBM VP and Kerri Glass who is Director of Community Relations at Founders Hall know a *lot* about golf and how to organize an event. I helped a little by making a quick spreadsheet with OpenOffice to layout the business plan. The numbers all came together and the event looks very promising. In discussing the projected expenses, someone in the meeting mentioned "hole in one insurance" for a new car. This was a concept that I had never heard of.
I was curious about this and after getting home, I "Googled" to hole-in-one.com and saw quite a few other similar sites. The concept is straightforward. The odds of making a hole in one are pretty slim so there are many insurance companies and organizations who are willing to charge a premium and in return pay up to $1,000,000 to the buyer of the insurance. A charity or golf course tournament can add excitement to their event by offering valuable, attention-getting hole in one prizes such as a new car without the risk of actually having to pay for them. If one of the lucky participants aces the target hole, the insurer pays for the prize. The cost is a few hundred dollars to cover the cost of a car. It was news to me — I learn something every day.
- Simple, Decent Housing
- A few pictures from the Golf Outing
