By Staff
Golf tournament
to honor women,
men in U.S. military
By DAN PARSONS
Staff Writer
Cypress Landing residents are looking to share their golf course and the serenity of their community with a few good men and women — specifically those who have pulled tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Cypress Landing Golf Club is hosting a golf tournament April 12. The tournament is designed to give veterans of the war on terrorism a peaceful day on the links.
The club’s board of governors developed the plan last summer while looking for a way to reach out to the community.
The tournament will begin with a shotgun tee off at 10 a.m. The club’s goal is to have 30 foursomes, each with three military golfers and one participating sponsor from Cypress Landing. A committee of about eight members of the community have contacted the North Carolina National Guard, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock.
Ideally, Emerson said each foursome would have one representative each of the Army, Air Force and Marines. The teams will be filled out with members of the community and sponsors of the event. The club is also soliciting private sponsors to contribute money for the cost of the event.
Participants will be treated to breakfast at the club and a boxed lunch on the golf course. Emerson said plans are in the works for a flyover of jets to coincide with the opening of the tournament. Military vehicles, including, perhaps, a Humvee and a military helicopter will likely be parked at the golf course during the event, Emerson said. Following the tournament, prizes will be awarded to winning teams.
Prizes and awards are not the purpose of the day, Emerson said. In nailing down the concept of the tournament, he said, the committee members realized that their neighborhood was situated between three of the state’s largest military bases. Moreover, each of their lives had been in some way altered or touched by the wars the U.S. is currently fighting, he said.