For 29 years, the Eatonton- Putnam Chamber of Commerce has annually put together a Leadership Putnam class, typically made up of management types from various businesses, government agencies, or other organizations that may find value in teaching, training, and encouraging leadership tendencies among their people.
Leadership Putnam lasts approximately six months and includes an early get-to-know-eachother weekend retreat, followed by monthly outings to various in-country locations to gain some behind-the scenes knowledge and insight.
Meanwhile, an ongoing process culminates in a major, cooperative project among the participants to put together an event or initiative to better the county as a whole.
This year’s Leadership Putnam project is the inaugural LP Golf Tournament, a four-person scramble scheduled for March 2 at historic Uncle Remus Golf Course (URGC) in Eatonton.
“We’ve done several things already, but the ending is a golf tournament to raise funds to put on our Easter egg hunt, which is the grand finale, a free, community Easter egg hunt open to all kids in our community,” Leadership Putnam participant and URGC Golf Services Director Diane Carter explained.
The entry fee for the golf tournament is $400 per four-person team and a half-dozen teams are already committed to play. The tournament will feature a typical “shotgun” start to quicken play and will continue for two rounds of the nine-hole course.
Golf carts are included for each team entered and a beverage cart will be making rounds to slake the thirst of any parched golfers. Several food trucks will be onsite, too.
“So, there will be food and sodas and beer available, but we’re not selling beer directly,” Carter explained. “We’ll sell tickets and then the golfers can turn in their ticket for a drink. We may have some small bottles of wine, too, but that hasn’t been decided yet. Another way that we’ll be raising money is we’ll sell extra mulligans. Each team will get two mulligans per person when they sign up, but if they want to buy extra ones, they can do that. And we’ll probably do some other fun things that a few of the more serious golfers don’t always like.
“For example, one thing we’ve seen here that’s kind of popular is where we sell a red solo cup for $5, and what happens is you tee up your ball, you put the red solo cup over the top of it, and then you hit the ball through the solo cup and wherever the ball lands count, but that’s where you hit from as your first official stroke. So, it’s like getting a free stroke on that first swing, by hitting that solo cup. So that gets pretty fun.”
Additionally, donated prizes (including a Big Green Egg grille, among several others) will be raffled off and plaques awarded at the tourney’s end.
According to Carter, Leadership Putnam is all about making this “a fun, friendly, enjoyable day on the golf course” with just the right amount of competition to make it a challenge, too.
After gathering early donations, this year’s Leadership Putnam group has already provided turkeys to needy families at Thanksgiving, gift cards for several families at Christmas, and soon the free Easter egg hunt, open to all Putnam County kids, with hunts to be broken down by age groups.
“We hit all the big holidays,” Carter said.
Anyone interested in entering a foursome in the inaugural Leadership Putnam Golf Tournament or getting involved as an event or hole sponsor is invited to contact LP participants Carter at 404-408-2248, A.J. Nugent at 706-473-2079, or Justin Hadden at 706-816-1835.