The stakes have been raised. The prize for the annual hole-in-one tournament sponsored by Subway has gone from a million dollars to five million.
“We’ve had a new committee take over, so we’ve actually had quite a significant amount of change,” says Amanda Erechook with partner Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie. “Five million dollars is a huge change from a one million dollar shootout.”
The Subway $5 Million Shootout and Tournament will be held June 14th at the Dunes Golf & Winter Club. This is the fifth year the restaurant chain has joined up with both the local rotary club and the United Way Alberta Northwest.
“There aren’t that many golf tournaments in Grande Prairie that support 60 non-profits,” says United Way lead Rebekah Keyes. “These dollars go a long way in helping a number of people in our community.”
While the shootout itself will be held on June 14th, there are several opportunities leading up to the final to qualify. There will be public qualifiers at the Dunes on June 3rd and 10th, with the person with the shot closest to the pin earning a spot. Organizers will also be at select men’s and ladies nights and golfing events at the Dunes and Grande Prairie Golf & Country Club.
A semi-final will be held June 13th to whittle the finalists down to 13, who will all receive a prize, and then down to the final five to take part in the shootout the next day. That’s also when the golf tournament will be held, which is meant to be a fun, best ball event.
“This is a really beautiful venue, it’s supporting really great causes, and it’s going to be a great time,” says Keyes.
The funds raised will go to help local organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters, Camp Heal A Heart and army cadets. Erechook says it will also go towards Rotary’s Highway to Mexico initiative, which delivers emergency vehicles to the Mazatlan area.
“One of Rotary’s goals is to help the entire world, not just locally here. It gives us the opportunity to give miled out equipment or equipment that is not necessarily to code in Canada any longer but is still useful to people who don’t have any equipment.”
Registration for the tournament is still open.
