Trestle Creek Golf Course was hopping on Saturday as 13 teams knocked balls around the course for the annual Mineral County Medical Foundation golf tournament. It’s the biggest fundraiser of the year and brings is in between $10,000 to $12,000.

It was a beautiful day, as players participated in the tournament which is in its thirty-fourth year. Several prizes were offered, ranging from contests like “furthest from the hole”, “closest to the hole” and “closest to a tree”. With a new twist introduced last year, where participants get licorice pieces and they use it to measure the distance from the hole. The distance can be subtracted as a stroke.

Mulligan tickets could also be purchased and put into a drawing. A mulligan is when a player is allowed to replay a stroke. Usually when the player duffs a shot from the tee box. With all the door prizes and drawings, almost everyone won something. Over 40 prizes were donated and included things like dinners, a golf bag, propane, golf games, gift baskets, and trips. All of which was donated by sponsors from all over the area including Missoula and Spokane.

There was also a contest to guess how many golf balls were in a giant jar. Shaun Hollenbeck won with a guess of 198. The number of balls was 206. He won $48, but donated it back to the Foundation.

The big prize remained on the table this year. That’s the $50,000 hole-in-one on the seventh green, which nobody has won to-date.

Players also came from all over to make up the teams. It was $200 per team and businesses paid $500 to sponsor a hole, $250 to sponsor a fairway or $100 to sponsor a golf cart.

Roger Brown is the President of the Foundation and is retired. He used to live in Washington and said Mineral County isn’t the wealthiest area in the state, but he’s always amazed at the generosity of the people here.

“This is a very successful community effort,” he said. The Foundation has low overhead and so most of the funds raised go toward projects and programs for the hospital. He also commented that they are always looking for volunteers and anyone is welcome to their meetings, along with a free lunch, in the hospital community room on the second Monday of the month.

Ron Gleason, Mineral Community Hospital CEO, said last year the Foundation helped to purchase flooring for the hospital, as well as for the Assisted Living building. They also helped with a new water heater and replaced the air conditioning unit.