This Independence Day, golfers need to support U.S. troops

Golfers, it’s time we put our money, and golf gear, where our mouths are.

I’ve previously written about a couple of organizations that have done just that –the Evansville (Ind.) City Council and Kyle Taylor of USAGolf in Lawrence, Kansas. They, and others like them have donated golf balls and golf gear to U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and around the globe.

Recently, I was contacted by Jim Best of The Best Balls. Having read the posts, Jim generously offered 10,000 golf balls to be shipped overseas.

With the help of the North Carolina Branch of Give 2 the troops, we’ll get these balls to a bunch of brave men and women, who truly appreciate the diversion.

“The golf clubs are VERY popular and with the many military bases in N.C., the troops are all going to be playing golf soon!” wrote Barbara Whitehead of Give2theTroops in an e-mail.

Currently, Give2theTroops is running its “Tee Time for the Troops” campaign, just for this very purpose - to get a diversion, and a slice of home (no pun intended) to American soldiers.

Especially in Iraq, troops have gotten a great deal of pleasure from golf gear and balls. There’s one problem, however. As you can imagine, setting up a driving range in the Iraq desert is one thing. Retrieving the balls is another.

“After they hit (and lose) all of their golf balls, they are often left with just clubs. Of course, being bored, they resort to hitting rocks,” wrote Whitehead.

So with the help of Jim Best and The Best Balls, troops will have at least 10,000 more swings to take. And now that’s where you, gentle golfer, comes in.

“We also can continue to accept golf clubs, especially left hand and women’s sets,” wrote Whitehead. “Other items needed are mats, nets, gloves, tees, and practice plastic balls. We appreciate your help in getting the word out to donors to please only donate clean and good condition clubs and balls. We do not have the resources to repair clubs.”

Here’s the information of where you can ship your gear, be it bags of tees, golf balls, clubs, etc.

NC Branch Give2thetroops, inc
3109 Landmark St
Greenville NC 27834

Also, don’t be afraid to open up your checkbook. According to Whitehead, last month Give2thetroops spent $4,000 in shipping fees.

“We have had about 300 sets picked up by military members to ship to their deployed troops, and we have mailed about 40 sets to deployed troops,” wrote Whitehead. “We also appreciate monetary donations to cover our mailing costs to the troops.”

Give2theTroops is a 501©3 nonprofit organization so all donations are tax deductible. Whitehead asked that if you are shipping anything, to please contact them so they can make arrangements to meet the driver, as all the workers at G2TT are volunteers.

I strongly advise checking out the Give2theTroops Web Site, which you can access at www.give2thetroops.org.

You can also go straight to their “Tee Time for the Troops” campaign Web page by clicking right here.

Aside from the golf gear, they give plenty of other things to troops stationed overseas to help ease their load, so feel free to give in any other way you can.

I’d like to again thank Jim Best for his generosity in giving 10,000 golf balls, and would advise golfers that are looking to get great deals on balls to head over and take a look at what The Best Balls have to offer by clicking here.

Give2theTroops is purely bipartisan, and is only interested in doing good things for our troops. We golfers need to join in that effort.

If you have any thoughts or question, feel free to leave them in the comments section below, or send me an e-mail at - wolfrum(at)worldgolf(dot)com - also, over the upcoming days and weeks I’ll have more posts on how the project is developing.

Let’s get this done, golfers.

–WKW