Read this and Support a Boy Scout #BSA

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For a moment – playing golf in 93-degrees – I thought I was back in Florida again. Then I looked around to see the rolling Piedmont, the towering pines, the Carolina Blue sky. We may be in another summer heatwave but we are still in this most beautiful of states and other than a round at Pebble Beach I can’t imagine a better place to put in 18 holes.

The occasion was a fundraising tournament to benefit Scouting (officially, The Occoneechee Council, BSA Thomas Crowder Scoutreach Golf Tournament). The proceeds go to assist young people who lack the resources to access Scouting programs that would otherwise be out of reach. My good friend John Akerman is the top Occoneechee executive and another friend from church, Jim Crawford, generously sponsored the “Awesome Foursome” I played with (George Dudley, Denny Ide, Rick Mayo, me).

For me, this is the ideal way to play golf:

With good friends I love and respect.
With great people from church.
Supporting a very worthy cause.
At a top-tier location that I would normally never get to play.

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The course – The Highlands at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary – is spectacular. The layout provides a real challenge, the greens ran at professional speeds, and we worked hard for our respectable 68. Two bogeys, four birdies, one eagle.

I’d like to go back and just walk the course with my Nikon DSLR, it’s that scenic. But I did manage to grab a few photos with my phone (The images in this gallery where you see me were taken by Gayle Akerman – thanks, Gayle).

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So here’s my “point” for today. Next time you are playing golf, or passing by somewhere so conspicuously affluent as Prestonwood Country Club, or even letting yourself into a home you are privileged to occupy or driving a car you happen to own, remember how remarkably blessed you are and think about supporting the efforts of the Boy Scouts (or your local church) to give a hand up to some young person in need of a little encouragement.