ARIZONA NEWS


CHARITY EVENT


Golf Fore Africa returns to Tonto Verde in March


B


etsy King’s Golf Fore Africa charity is on an urgent campaign to bring clean water to the impoverished continent, and King’s biggest fundraiser of the


year will take place Monday, March 18 at Tonto Verde Golf Club. Last year the one-day pro-am that features 44 current and former LPGA pros raised $400,000 in its first year at the private club located among the scenic hills of Rio Verde. “Clean water is the first step in helping


these impoverished people, if you want to do it right,” said King, who last year raised $1.8 million for water on the second-largest continent on Earth. “For these people (in Africa), mostly women and children, it changes everything and then good things just seem to snowball.” King, a Scottsdale resident who is in the


LPGA, World and Arizona golf halls of fame, has been on a mission for 12 years to achieve this goal, which also includes improved sanitation and hygiene education. The winner of 34 LPGA tournaments, including six major championships and back-to-back U.S. Women’s Opens, Golf Fore Africa has raised an amazing $7.2 million that has gone mostly to building hand-pumped wells and mechanized water systems. “They say that once you see Africa, it is


life-changing, and it certainly was for me,” King said of her first journey to the country in 2006. “I saw a level of poverty like I’d never seen before. “(Poverty in Africa) is just so much more


severe than the poverty you see here in the United States. In America, you don’t see no water, no sanitation and rampant starvation and sickness. A lot of people in Africa are lucky if they get five meals a week, and that all starts with dirty water and poor sanitation and hygiene.” King said last year’s event on Tonto Verde’s


Peaks and Ranch courses was a win-win. “We put 22 groups on each course – four


amateurs and a pro – and it made for great flow and a wonderful banquet following the golf,” said King, who many considered the best player in golf – man or woman – from 1984-89, when she won 20 times. “It really was a fun day, and I believe the members at Tonto Verde bought 18 of our 44 groups.”


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THE BEST IN CASUAL DINING


Betsy King


It will be an all-star cast again, as such LPGA headliners as Lydia Ko, Stacy Lewis, Juli Inkster, Laura Davies, Angela Stanford, Brittany Lincicome, Brittany Lang and Ryann O’Toole, to name just a few, will be participating. Spots in the pro-am go for $850 and the day starts at 11 a.m. with practice and lunch followed by an awards dinner and silent auction. Other sponsorship opportunities include dinner ($15,000), lunch ($10,000) and corporate ($5,000). “Last week we had a small


event at Tucson Country Club where we raised $50,000,” King noted. “We had a nice turnout down there of friends that included Lorena Ochoa, Steve Jones, Ronnie Black, Amy Olson and Ken Tanigawa. “So that’s the idea, to move it


around the country wherever we can and raise money for World Vision, which administers the funds and is the ‘boots on the ground’ in Africa. But this is our biggest golf event, and we’re hoping for a terrific turnout again.” n


To register for the event or inquire about sponsorships, visit golfforeafrica.org.


MESA, AZ


CHANDLER, AZ SCOTTSDALE, AZ


C H A R LES T O N S . C O M PREVIEW 2019 | AZ GOLF Insider | 35 Charlstons AZ-Golf 2.75x10.5.indd 1 7/31/18 10:27 AM


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