Women Golfers set to ‘Drive’ for a Good Cause

On Wednesday, Oct. 14, The Standard Club Ladies’ Golf Association will host Play For a Cure, an 18-hole scramble open to women golfers of all skill levels, combining a day on the course with a fight against breast cancer.

The tournament benefits A Cure In Our Lifetime (CIOL), an all-volunteer organization whose Atlanta co-founders, Jody Goldstein and Jennifer Fink, have raised more than $5 million for breast cancer research through the group’s annual spring breakfast at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. The golf event is co-chaired by Carrie Gamsey and Jane Wullbrandt Center.

For golfer Center, the cause is deeply personal. She explained, “My inspiration has always been my sister-in-law, Judy Wullbrandt, who lost her 19-year battle with breast cancer in 2010 at the age of 59.”

Wullbrandt’s story shaped one of the tournament’s signature features, hailing back to a former Iowa state free-throw champion in high school where she is remembered in a photograph mid-jump shot, an image that inspired the event’s “Free Throw” bunker challenge. “She was a true warrior and participated in clinical trials at Mayo Clinic that helped advance breast cancer treatment,” Center added. By that account, Wullbrandt worked with Dr. Tim Moynihan at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on research connected to a promising drug: and she may have been the longest-living survivor in that study.

The spring breakfast that anchors CIOL’s fundraising each year keeps that memory close for Center who said, “Every year at the breakfast, I’m amazed by the progress that’s been made since Judy’s passing. I can’t help but wonder if, with today’s research and breakthroughs, made possible by organizations like A Cure in Our Lifetime, her outcome might have been different.”

The golf tournament itself traces back to a much smaller moment: a $130 envelope. Center still has the original Standard Club envelope that held cash raised by lady golfers buying mulligans (a free do-over shot) on the closing day of a past season. When the event’s organizer took the envelope from the club pro and admitted she didn’t know what to do with it, Center did. She reached out to her sister-in-law, Renie Halperin, a friend of Jennifer Fink’s mother, Barbara Hefter, to contact Fink. Thus, the partnership between the club’s golfers and CIOL began.

That small donation, Center said, “became the beginning of something much bigger. Carrie and I have been ‘all in’ ever since. As our friends at the Club know, when the ‘Cartners in Crime’ team up, we give it everything we’ve got.”

Center and Gamsey also co-chair the Ladies’ Golf Association, whose theme this year is “Play Fore Fun.”

Gamsey related, “We’re so looking forward to bringing all of these women golfers together for a day filled with fun, golf, and purpose. Hopefully seeing this story will inspire some more participation, whether it’s golf registration, sponsorships, raffle prizes, or donations of money or of time, we’ll need some volunteers to come out to our beautiful Club and course that day to help.”

All proceeds from Play For a Cure will support CIOL’s mission of funding innovative breast cancer research through beneficiaries including the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) and Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. The organization’s tagline, “Together, we WILL find a cure in our lifetime,” now extends from the spring breakfast to the fairway.

Registration is open to lady golfers at every level of play, though spots are limited. Golfers can sign up individually or in twosomes, with four players making up a full team. Registration is $300 per player.

Gamsey looks at the tournament as a natural next step for the club’s golfers. “Jane and I thought this was a perfect opportunity to try to get something going. In my opinion, all women should be devoted to this cause because we all personally are affected by this.”