Time for the Kevin Twitty Golf Tournament

Tournament scheduled for Sept. 22

Anticipation is already building for this year's Kevin Twitty Memorial Golf Tournament. The event is planned for Sept. 22 at Elephant Rocks Golf Course in Williams, located at 2200 Country Club Drive. The tournament will begin, as it always does, with a shotgun start scheduled for 10 a.m. Chuck Eaton, co-organizer of the golf tournament along with his wife Linda Eaton, said this year's event promises to be a good time for all who attend.

"The tournament started as a way to honor my stepson, Linda's son Kevin Twitty, who passed away from a drowning accident five years ago. His dad's been a professional golfer, (Kevin) caddied and he worked at some of the golf courses in Phoenix," Eaton said. "Some of his ancestors are buried here in the Williams Cemetery. His great-grandfather, grandmother had a business here at the turn of the century. There was a Twitty plot here and that's where he's buried. Tournament funds benefit Williams Habitat for Humanity and, since the second year, we've added the Greater Williams Community Fund. That kind of was a spin-off of the tournament to try to make the funds serve more people."

Elephant Rocks Golf Course hosts the annual golf tournament, now on its fourth year. In the past three years the tournament has raised over $115,000. Proceeds from the tournament go to the Williams Habitat for Humanity Organization and the Greater Williams Community Fund. The "Kevin Twitty Grant" is awarded annually. The Williams Habitat for Humanity constructed their first home for area resident Melissa Mejia and her two sons. Mejia and family moved into their new home in November 2006.

The group hopes to build a second home in Williams, in part, with proceeds from this year's tournament. The Greater Williams Community Fund, a part of the Arizona Community Foundation, was established in 2005 and works to benefit the community through local endowments such as those made from the Kevin Twitty Memorial Golf Tournament. The community fund awarded the first Kevin Twitty Grant locally to officials with the Williams Food Bank.

The tournament will offer a two-person scramble, with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m. Registration fees include the green fee, a continental breakfast, an Hors D'oeuvres buffet, team photo and gifts. A number of prizes are also offered to contestants in the tournament, according to Eaton.

"We've got over 100 players signed up currently, so if anybody does want to play they need to call us and get their registration in, because we may fill up within the next week or ten days," Eaton said. "We give prizes to the first, second, third place gross - that's the actual stroke and then with a handicap, they call that net. For the last three years (we've) included what's called the Jet Blue Challenge. It's a package deal that you sign up for. They insure the Par 3 holes for a hole-in-one, so if someone hits a hole-in-one on a Par 3, this package provides a five-day golf vacation to one of the major golf resorts around the country. If you're on a Par 3 and there's four or them, they can get a hole-in-one. The neat thing about Jet Blue Challenge, and it's helpful in raising funds, is we can sell what's called the Jet Blue Mulligan and the Jet Blue Mulligan lets the player take a second shot at one of the Par 3s, so they get a second chance at it.

"We have a tournament raffle where we give away some pretty nice prizes and we also have what we call the 'Twitty Raffle' - that's the best prize. This year our Twitty Raffle prize will include four passes to the FBR Open in Phoenix and some dinners and hopefully some rounds of golf. We do a lot of door prizes. If you're a player, your name is already in the pot for door prizes. We're also going to have a silent auction - people in the community are more than welcome to bid on auction items. We're more than happy to have visitors come out. It'll be there from 8:30 in the morning to whenever it closes. They can go out at any time and look at the items. Whoever's got the highest bid whenever it closes gets to buy the item," said Eaton.

Eaton said there were a number of sponsors that helped make the tournament a success.

"One of our major sponsors was Escalante, they sponsored our brochure. We have a number of other sponsors; a lot of local businesses have supported us. We do have sponsorships still available. We'd love to have anybody who's interested in contributing (to) call us," Eaton said.

A Williams-Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce Ambassador's mixer is planned for Sept. 21 from 5-7 p.m. The mixer will be held at Wild West Junction, located at 321 East Route 66. Appetizers and drinks, a 50/50 drawing, a silent auction, door prizes and a raffle are planned for the Sept. 21 mixer. Wild West Junction is one of the sponsors of the Kevin Twitty Memorial Golf Tournament.

"One of the things we're going to do there, we're going to have a number of door prizes, anybody from the community can come to this," Eaton said. "There will be food. They'll be dressed up. Last year they arrested some of Kevin's friends and they passed a hat to collect the money to bail them out, so that was a lot of fun."

Contact Chuck Eaton at (928) 635-2472 or by e-mail at

ceaton@kevingolf.com for more information on the tournament or the "Friends of Kevin" group, which works to raise money for the Greater Williams Community Fund and the Williams Habitat for Humanity organization as well. The Friends of Kevin group is designed for those who wish to help, but cannot attend the tournament or do not like to play golf, but still want to contribute. The Friends of Kevin group alone has raised over $14,000 in the last three years.