BY LARRY STEWART

If you want to know what it takes to have a long-running successful charity golf tournament, you might want to examine the inner workings of the Wells Fargo Foothill Don Klosterman Memorial Richstone Family Center Golf Classic.

Yes, that’s a mouthful. But within those 11 words are the tournament’s secret to success—which includes a 22-year run and more than $2 million in donations to the Richstone Family Center.

First, you need a prominent title sponsor, and one that not only provides money but also participants. Wells Fargo Foothill, by all accounts, meets those standards. Next, it helps to have a big name tied to your tournament. And Don Klosterman, the renowned general manager of the Los Angeles Rams when the team was owned by Carroll Rosenbloom, provided more than just name value, his name brings longstanding respect. Indeed, when Klosterman died on June 7, 2000, a few days after the 70-year-old suffered a heart attack, the bold-faced headline at the top of the Los Angeles Times Sports section read: “A City Loses One of Its Best Friends.”

I remember that headline well because I wrote the obituary that ran under it. And I was among the hundreds of people in Southern California who considered Klosterman a ‘best friend.’

“He was a friend to everyone from the lowly to the mighty,” said Eddie Merrins at the time. Merrins, who was inducted into the Southern California Golf Association Hall of Fame Oct. 29th last year, was the honored guest at this year’s Klosterman tournament in September, though he was unable to play.

Merrins, the legendary head teaching pro at the Bel-Air Country Club, a home away from home for the rich and famous in Los Angeles, was another one of Klosterman’s ‘best friends,’ as was just about every Bel-Air member.

And those friends—people such as Dick Crane, Fred Clarey, Dick Traweek, Ed Marzec and too many others to mention—almost always show up for the Klosterman tournament with checkbooks or credit cards in hand and ready to spend for the cause.

And therein lies the third criteria for a successful charity golf tournament: a good cause.

The Richstone Family Center, incorporated in 1974 and located in Hawthorne, Calif., helps kids—specifically kids who have been the victims of abuse. And Dorothy Courtney, who retired four years ago after 24 years as the center’s executive director, and her husband, Bob, have been the driving force behind the Klosterman tournament.

Before 1995, it was simply known as the Richstone Tournament. That was when Courtney came up with the idea of tying Klosterman’s name to it. “I remember asking Don if we could use his name and he said, ‘I’m not a big enough celebrity,’” Courtney says. “I told him, ‘But you’re the only celebrity I know.’”

Turns out he was and is a big enough celebrity. Rolando Ramirez, the current Richstone executive director, said this year’s tournament, held at the Palos Verdes Country Club, grossed more than $200,000 for the center. “The golf tournament,” Ramirez says, “it’s our biggest fundraiser of the year.”

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Lance Corporal Richard “Reggie” Bacchus, a 27-year-old Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, was on the fourth hole when his mother called him on his cell phone from Bryan, Texas. “Mom, I just saw the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” Bacchus said. “A double amputee parachuted right onto the golf course.”

The parachutist was Dana Bowman, a former member of the U.S. Army’s elite parachute team, the Golden Knights. He lost his legs in a midair collision with another member of the team during a training session in Arizona in 1994.

Bowman’s jump onto the green (in regulation), in front of the clubhouse at the Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, was part of what had to be the most unique opening ceremony ever for a charity golf tournament.

Attached to Bowman during his jump was a huge American flag, a symbol made even more appropriate given the tournament was held on Sept. 11th. The opening ceremony also included a fly-over by a P51 Mustang World War II fighter jet, the presentation of the flag by a Marine color guard and the singing of the national anthem by Erica Peterson, a local high school student.

PGA Tour standout Corey Pavin was on hand, hitting tee shots for each group at the par-three 11th, and members of the Los Angeles Angels’ Strike Force spirit squad were also on hand.

The tournament benefited Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit organization which provides aid to military families in need. Founded after the terrorist attacks in 2001, the organization has raised and distributed more than $25 million in cash, goods and services while operating with just an eight-percent overhead. That means 92 cents of every dollar goes back to helping soldiers and their families.

There are more than 30 chapters across the country involving more than 4,500 volunteers. This was the third-annual charity tournament benefiting Operation Homefront, and tournament director Marc Hedde estimates it raised between $110,000 and $120,000.

Pavin became involved with Operation Homefront after he and six other PGA Tour players visited U.S. troops in Iraq during Thanksgiving 2006. “What you see over there is different than what you read about or see on television,” Pavin says. “You see all the good our troops are doing. I wanted to help in some way and give back, and that’s how I became involved.”

That Thanksgiving trip was the start of a joint venture between the USO (United Service Organizations) and the PGA Tour to send golfers and broadcasters to the Persian Gulf on a week-long entertainment tour titled “Operation Links: For the Troops.”

Over the past three years, 21 golfers have made the journey.

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Despite difficult economic times, the spirit of giving lives on, as attested by the second annual ClubCorp Charity Classic, touted as the world’s largest single charity event. This multi-event national extravaganza involves golf, tennis and fine dining at more than 140 golf courses, country clubs, private business and sports clubs and resorts owned or operated by Dallas-based ClubCorp.

For 2008, with several events remaining, it had raised more than $1.675 million with more than 13,500 people participating nationally. Most of the Southern California events took place on Sept. 26th, including a charity golf tournament at Aliso Viejo Country Golf Club in Orange County. It was a fun and emotional day for everyone there.

The fun part was the golf; the emotional part was hearing Bob Sachen III talk afterwards. Bob and his wife Lisa lost their beloved daughter, Savannah Lee, to a rare form of pediatric cancer in May 2007. That same month they created a foundation in their daughter’s honor and also created Savannah’s Organic Ranch. The purpose of the foundation and the ranch is to support an organic and healthy lifestyle, as it was Savannah’s dream was to be an organic farmer.

Aliso Viejo Country Club selected Savannah’s Organic Ranch and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) as its charities of choice, with 100 percent of the donations benefiting those charities.

A related ClubCorp event also took place on Oct. 10th at the City Club on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles. This fine dining affair called “Give From the Heart” was hosted by celebrity chef Akira Hirose and benefited several charities, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALC) research, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

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