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RECAP: SIMCAC's 3rd Annual Charity Golf Tournament

  
On Monday, October 25, SIMCAC hosted its third annual Charity Golf Outing at Westfields Golf Club in Clifton, VA.

Our golf committee was fixated on the weather forecast in the days leading up to the outing, as forecasts fluctuated between calling for a sunny day and calling for showers.  Luckily for us, sunny skies prevailed for most of the day, allowing golfers to get through most of the round.  One team even managed to finish.  In spite of the late day showers, attendees had a great day of golf, activities, and networking.



After checking-in, warming up on the driving range, and connecting with old and new friends, Mike Huthwaite (SIMCAC Chair) and James Parks (SIMCAC Vice Chair) welcomed all attendees and kicked off the outing.  We also had a chance to hear from Mark Taylor, SIM National's CEO, who offered a few words about the value of SIM before thanking everyone for their attendance and generosity.




Golfers were greeted on the course by our amazing sponsors, who provided specialty beverages, refreshments, entertainment, and several “skill” challenges, including quick games of corn hole, a football putting contest, a putting contest where attendees were required to wear over mitts, and a chipping contest into a game board.  Beyond the games, SIMCAC Annual Partner Brooke Montgomery and Optomi returned with their famous bourbon bar, although they encountered some friendly bar competition, including a bloody mary bar provided by SIMCAC Annual Partner Mark Tumminello and Sirius.  Other sponsors found creative ways to raise additional money for charity at their holes, including selling hole specific mulligans or running fun competitions for additional financial donations.  And, if that wasn’t enough fun, SIMCAC once again got in on the action, running a mystery drive contest, choosing not to disclose the rules to golfers until the awards ceremony.  This year, it turned out that SIMCAC volunteers were looking for the worst drive, which apparently had a clear winner.  In fact, as Rob Breakiron announced the award, he acknowledged that the winner (who’s identity will be protected in this recap) was a brand new golfer, but stated “even so, that was one horrible drive!”  The lucky winner of that contest brought home a Callaway ball retriever, which was apropos, given the water hazard and deep grasses on the hole the contest was run.





As the rain rolled in, attendees quickly gathered at the clubhouse for drinks, dinner, and an awards ceremony.  As everyone enjoyed their dinner, Sean Hoffman of KPMG talked about their golf outing partnership with SIMCAC and the impact that we can make as we work “Together, For Better.”  Representatives from our 4 featured charities (Autism Speaks, Melwood, Year Up, and Npower) also spoke to attendees, sharing their mission and the impact of past donations.  As we wrapped up, Mike Huthwaite (SIMCAC’s Chair) reflected on the growth our outing has had since it started 3 short years ago, before leading the awards ceremony with James Parks (SIMCAC's Vice Chair).



The winning team, with a score of 52 (19 under) was comprised of Ty Enmark and Joe Koester of KPMG and Bobby Saxon of the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services.  Coming in a close 2nd place, with a score of 54 (17 under) was Matt Mendel of Sirius, Wayne McGurk and Joe Braga of NRECA, and San Sridharan of FINRA.  Ryan Bateman of Sands Capital won the longest drive contest and Ty Enmark of KPMG and Cathy Paparizos of FINRA won the closest to the pin contests.  Jerry Gerard of FINRA won the SIMCAC raffle, taking home a SIM Fairway Wood.



Our sponsors also raffled off a number of prizes, including a golf cart speaker, a Vinglace wine chiller and glasses, a bottle of bourbon, a box of cigars, a Yeti cooler, a travel golf bag, a golf club, a Mule cooler, a distance finder, an Apple TV, and AirPods.  KPMG even raffled off 2 different $500 checks, to be written to the winners’ charities of choice (we’ll let you know what they choose as soon as we hear)!



We are still finalizing our accounting of proceeds from the event, but it appears that we more than doubled the amount we raised over the first 2 golf outings (2019 and 2020), combined.  That puts us in the position to dramatically increase our financial support for local charities (expect initial announcements over the coming weeks), and we couldn’t be more proud of that accomplishment.  To put it simply, that wouldn’t have been possible without all of our attendees, including our incredible sponsors:  KPMG (Ace Title Sponsor), Optomi (Eagle Sponsor), Genesys, TierPoint, & Intelication (Eagle Sponsor), Robert Half (Eagle Sponsor), Randstad Technologies (Eagle Sponsor), Sirius (Eagle Sponsor), ePlus & Rubrik (Eagle Sponsor), Kforce (Eagle Sponsor), Talkdesk (Eagle Sponsor), Palo Alto Networks & CDW (Eagle Sponsor), Moveworks (Eagle Sponsor), Tanium (Eagle Sponsor), Optomi (Par Sponsor), Genesys (Par Sponsor), Shi (Par Sponsor), and Inadev (Par Sponsor).


Thank you to all of our attendees, our volunteers, and our incredible sponsors that made this day possible.  All of us are looking forward to making this event even more fun and more impactful in the future.  We hope to see each of you for our 4th annual outing in 2022!

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