Fred Smith Summer Celebration Annual Golf Tournament

The Fifth Annual Fred Smith Summer Celebration Golf Tournament was the best yet, held as usual at the Riverwood Golf Club in Clayton, North Carolina. This year's Honored Guest was Country Superstar Lee Greenwood. Previously these have been held when Fred was running for County Commissioner and State Senator. With Fred running for Governor of North Carolina this time, the event has taken on much larger significance.




It was a great experience for me as I got to accompany Fred and Lee (I am in the middle above) all day while they participated in the event. Both are great fun to be around and made the day's work very easy. We were not playing the tournament so it was a relaxed day for everyone but Fred. Fred was trying to give each team a great shot as their bonus on the one hole he played with each team. He is a good golfer so his shots often count.

Fred is very competitive and has been a success at everything that he has ever tried. A succesful Army officer, lawyer, farmer, real estate developer and entrepreneur. He is also very frugal as indicated by the fact that this great golf course, Riverwood, is his former farm! It is a beautiful piece of land and the magnificent clubhouse for the golf course was, before conversion, Fred and Ginny's farm house. Anything to save money. The fact that Fred owns the golf course makes this unlike any other fund raising golf event.

The first action of the day started when I arrived. The staff and volunteers wanted a picture to commemorate the day. The staff and the volunteers who put on the event take great pride in making sure that everyone has a good time.




After the staff and volunteer photo, job assignments had to be passed out so that the day would go smoothly.




After everyone is organized, the staff and volunteers spread out to their various assignments.




Doug Carlson (shown above on right) finds out the registration process.





Chuck Tyson (shown on left above) from New Bern unloads his golf clubs.




Blair Keen, Ginny Smith and Bob Satterfield (shown above) get ready for the day.




Chuck Tyson and Dwayne Brabble check in with Morgan Dickens (above on right) to get their cart assignments.




Luke Grinham, Joe Humphries, Eric Evans, Reid Smith, Matt Fry and Dan Goodman (shown above), took time out from catching up with friendships to get photographed.




It was time to start so I went inside to catch up with Fred and Lee. They were organizing details of some of the later events of the day. (Shown from the left above) Brian Strickland, Duval Smith, Lee Greenwood and Senator Fred Smith.




You don't get to see superstars like Lee Greenwood every day, and when Lee left the clubhouse, everyone turned to look.




When Lee came out he took a tour to meet the staff and volunteers. Here he says hello to the volunteers who are cooking the hot dogs, DeVan Barbour (walking to left) Jackson Stancil, Harvey West and Burwell Stark.




Fred spends time meeting the guests and saying hello to old friends.




After a short time food is served . . . . I caught this picture of Lee with his hot dog.




Everyone is in a hurry to finish lunch so they can get out on the course.




Reid Smith explains the rules of this superball tournament.




The host, Senator Fred Smith (on right above) introduces the day's honored guest, Lee Greenwood (on left).




Lee tells some stories about the BBQ in Hendersonville that he attended with Fred on the previous evening. Excerpts from a newspaper article about that event can be found here.




One of the interesting aspects of this tournament is the extra shots that each team gets from Fred. While the tournament is in process Fred goes around the course and plays with each team on one hole. The Team gets to choose what help they want from Fred, driver, approach shot or putt. Fred usually gets asked to help with his drives, since he really booms them and they are always straight. Above he putts and sinks about a 12 footer.




Lee is not a golfer, but he still is game for taking part. Here he putts about a 20 footer which he leaves about one foot from the hole. Not too shabby.




My part in the festivities is to take team photos of all the players. I have included a sample photo above. You can see all the team phtotos and get the team member names by clicking here.

You can also see last year's event by clicking here.

Fred Smith's Summer Celebrations are lots of fun and always get a great turnout. Plus this year you got to meet a man who is a serious candidate to be our next Governor. The day is not over though. We still have the blogger's conference, the reception and the concert on the lawn. It was a hot day on the course and I am drenched so I head over to dry off and change clothes for the latter events.

Be sure and check back for the articles on later events.