Oak Valley Hospital Foundation announced that the 25th Annual Sid Haidlen Memorial Golf Classic raised over $42,617 dollars for the benefit of Oak Valley Hospital District. The proceeds raised from the tournament this year will be used for facility enhance at their skilled nursing facility, Oak Valley Care Center, and a portion of the money will also be set aside for medical equipment for the new state-of-the-art Hospital being built.
Executive Director Amy Thompson noted that the Hospital Foundation is lucky to have a great network of volunteers that drive this tournament from start to finish and that the tournament’s success is due to the generous community that supports this golf tournament year after year. If it weren’t for all the Elite Team Sponsors – and the Tournament Sponsors – it would not be enjoying the success it does today, she said.
“Contributing to the tournament’s success was the generosity of our major sponsors, Haidlen Ford, G.L. Bruno Associates, Oak Valley Community Bank, TSM Insurance, Valley First Credit Union, SaveMart Supermarkets and Moon Mayoras Architects.”
Thompson also noted that 124 golfers enjoyed a beautiful day of golf in a relaxed atmosphere with perfect weather. On the last two holes or so to be played the weather started to change with the sky getting dark and golfers were lucky to escape the storm that followed the next day, wreaking high winds and heavy rain.
The winning teams of this year’s golf tournament were: 1st Place Gross – Mike Davis, Physical Therapy’s Team: Dr. Chet Mahida, Dr. John Martin, Dr. Robert Lynch and Steve Larsen
1st Place Net – J.M. Keckler Medical Team: Mike Keckler, Lee Kucker, Bob Irwin and Doug Johnson
1st Place Womens — Dr Arellano’s Team: Cheryl Koff, Kim Alton, Patty Shelton, Carrol Mills
1st Place Couples – Jeff and Margaret Steves, John and Connie Friel
The winner of this year’s Great Golf Escape “Pebble Beach Getaway” was John Friel. The 2nd place prize of Carmel Valley Ranch was given to Virginia Whitworth.
Because it was the 25th year of doing business on the green there were some special hole games that took place with a chance for the participants to win something back.
Arturo Flores was the only finalist in the Putting Contest and his putt fell just short of the 50 foot putt needed to win a prize of $2500.
But there were several lucky participants who hit their ball in to the water, though generally a golfer wants to avoid the water. Participants were asked to shell out $5 for a chance to hit two balls into a floating net in the water and split part of a cash kitty with the Foundation. Another addition this year was a “Code 3” Red Lights and Sirens hole where participants were again asked to pay to play. The object of the hole was to compete with the fastest time and score to win a $200 cash prize. There were two teams that were seconds apart from each other, and the team that took an additional three seconds scored a birdie on that hole instead of a par so the kitty was split between two teams.
Thompson noted that everyone was a sport about opening up their pocketbooks on the golf course to play in the games; they all realize that it is a fundraiser for the benefit of the community.
Thompson noted that it being the 25th year of the Tournament in the late Sid Haidlen’s memory it was a special day for the Foundation. The tournament is named in memory of the late Sid Haidlen, a Founding Director of Oak Valley Hospital District and four generations of the Haidlen Family attended the dinner. Tom’s mother Beverly Haidlen was a special guest, as well as her great-grandson twins Baron and Reichen Haidlen who were a little too young to take part in the tournament.
Tom Haidlen, who was the MC for the evening, thanked the participants for giving up their time and especially their hard earned dollars to support the foundation. He stated that the foundation recognizes the economy has impacted a lot of people and even more appreciative that they spent their day supporting the hospital. He also noted that there were many new faces in the crowd this year with hospital construction taking place but that many familiar faces were also present. There were a number of people who were thanked for playing for 15 years, 20 years or more.
“It is really amazing to have such great supporters of the foundation and to have the support of the Haidlen Family behind the hospital,” Thompson said. “Because of people like Sid Haidlen and his family, our community has access to a quality healthcare system.”
