2017 Camelback Golf Club Ladies Invitational a Great Success

The Last Annual Camelback Golf Club Ladies Invitational tournament is in the books. “Our Swan Song” came off as another great success with the proceeds benefiting the Semper Fi Fund for wounded veterans and their families. As we have for the past three years, we accumulated plenty of pictures of the action and posted them on this site for your viewing pleasure. I hope you enjoy them.

Note that you can scroll through the images or click on any one of them to go into the “slide show” mode where you can view them full-screen and advance through the presentation with your arrow keys.

As has been the case in the past, you can get copies of any of the pictures by requesting them via email. If you do, please identify the image(s) by name. Also let me know if you intend to have an image printed for framing so that I can provide you with a high resolution copy of the requested image(s).

The Camelback Ladies Invitational Benefitting The Semper Fi Fund a Smashing Success

232 ladies had great fun for a great cause. Well, maybe the lady who hit three balls in the pond on #18 didn’t have as much fun, but it was still for a great cause. Approximately $60,000 went to the Semper Fi Fund as a result of this year’s tournament. We had perfect weather, two fabulous golf courses, a staff that catered to every need and a cadre of volunteers that put heart and soul into this wonder event. If I said here are a few pictures of the participants, I’d go to prison for “gross understatement”. Here are lots of pictures. Enjoy!

If you were a participant and would like to have a digital copy of any of the images, note the name and number of the image and email h.Alton.Jones@ScottsdaleGolferNews.com. I’ll be happy to remove the copyright on the image so you can produce the printable version. You may click on any of the images below for a full screen slideshow. Thanks for helping with a great cause.

2015 Camelback Ladies Invitational – The Most Fun You Can Have Without Going to Jail

Two hundred six ladies competed in this Eighth Annual event and judging from the photographs, it couldn’t have been a greater success. For the fourth consecutive year, the tournament was held to benefit The USMC Wounded Warrior Regiment of AZ, Semper Fi Fund.

Laura Castellvi – Senior Manager, Semper Fi Fund

Laura Castellvi, the Senior Manager in charge of Community Outreach and Events for the Semper Fi Fund flew in from California to attend the opening reception and graciously welcomed the participants. Although the final tally isn’t complete, it appears the proceeds from this year’s spectacular bring the total raised for the Wounded Warriors to nearly $300,000. It was great fun for a great cause. (View Co-Chair’s summary.)

When the last putt was in the hole, after the last “free throw” from the bunker and the last kick on the green, the team of Cindy Schapira and Shar Tanouye had claimed the first prize for low net. Sue Clark and Debbie Murphy walked with low gross honors. There were ten flights with twenty golfers in each. The complete results can be seen here. There were no losers in this great tournament.

Sue Clark – Co-Chair

This was unquestionably one of the best designed and run tournaments I’ve ever seen. It was apparent that the Tournament Committee (Maddie Levy, Sue Clark, Lauri Allen and Marilyn Yeo) had poured heart and soul into creating a memory for everyone participating that would be long remembered. They were aided by countless volunteers and incredibly generous contributions from Marriott, Camelback Golf Club, Southwest Conference Planners and many others (see the complete list by clicking here). A special thanks go out to Jim Rose, the General Manager of Marriott Camelback Inn and Rob Barley, the Director of Golf at Camelback Golf Club.

Maddie Levy – Co-Chair

This year’s tournament theme was “Game On”. Strategy and excitement were ratchetted up a notch by giving participants some very special sports linked tools. For example, everyone had an “instant replay”, i.e., a mulligan to be used anywhere on the course. One “free throw” translated into one free toss of the ball from out of any hazard on the course. As the tournament photographer, I was as amazed as the players when one of the ladies used her “free throw” to extricate her ball from the greenside sand trap by the #9 green and promptly threw the ball (with great form) into the lake on the other side of the green. Participants got to “punt” the ball once on a green of their choice. There were “field goals”, basketball shoots and “magic putts”. But in the final analysis, victory was claimed by those that played the best golf. Over the course of two days of play, I witnessed some great golf shots and some that had “room for improvement”. I saw so many smiles and happy participants, I’m wondering if I could shave my legs and don a miniskirt and get away with entering next year’s event. I might not stand a chance of beating some of these ladies, but maybe I could win the “cutest legs” contest. Scratch that thought; I just looked at the pictures below.

Photographer’s Notes: After taking more than 800 photos, I had to cut the number down before posting them here. If you’d like to see them all and/or get a printable copy of any of them without the copyright notice, just drop me an email and I’ll be happy to accommodate. For future reference, you can help the photographer by (1) wearing bright colors and (2) leaving the cart in a position where it is not in line with the camera. When looking for the best shots, a photographer is seeking “humanity”. By that I mean genuine feelings and emotions that are unscripted and spontaneous. This isn’t to say “posed” pictures can’t be great, but those I personally enjoy the most are those of subjects that “emote”. These are the shots where we can share in the joy or feel the pain. With that said, here are my personal favorites from the tournament.

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Enjoy the rest of the images of the action. Click on any image to enter the full screen slideshow.