Shameless Promotion

We're busy, busy, busy preparing for this year's Bud Traynor Classic. Brendan had his first (of many, no doubt) trips to the starter's window at Bethpage as we settled up our tab to reserve the Red Course for the 21st. Come and play! It'll be fun, it's for a good cause, and best of all: you'll get to meet my little genius.

We're teeing off a week from Monday, and it's not too late to sign up. Here's a copy of an email blast I sent with more info:

Dear friends and colleagues:

It is my great pleasure to invite you to take part in the Sixth Annual Bud Traynor Classic Golf Tournament and Luncheon, to be held at Long Island's Bethpage State Park.

This year's Tournament takes place on Monday, July 21, 2008.

Sincere thanks to those who have already registered - we're looking forward to seeing you! And to those who've made donations - thank you for helping to further our cause.

The Tournament is named in honor of my late father, and is dedicated to his lifelong passion for the game. The mission of our modest not-for-profit organization, The Bud Traynor Memorial Fund, Inc., is to raise funds for cancer research, education and treatment. All proceeds of the Tournament will go to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Our past tournaments have been a resounding success, drawing an enthusiastic crowd of golfers and luncheon attendees to Bethpage Park for a fun day of golf and a great party. We're hoping this year's Tournament - our Sixth - will be our best event yet.

We've reserved the beautiful, challenging Bethpage Red Course. There will be various on-course contests to make the game more interesting ( Longest Drive , Closest To The Pin). We've picked out a delicious menu for lunch at Bethpage Park 's Carlyle on the Green, overlooking the first tee of the famous Black Course (home of the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens). Trophies will be awarded to the winners.

Finally, we'll have plenty of valuable raffle prizes and silent auction items up for bid, such as premium golf equipment and a week long stay at a luxury condo at the Tidewater Plantation in North Myrtle Beach , SC - including a free foursome at Tidewater's championship course!

The cost of the Tournament is $225.00, which includes breakfast (with omelet station, always a big hit), greens fee, golf cart, on-course refreshments and luncheon reception with open bar; for non-golfers, the luncheon/open bar is available for $75.00.

The Bud Traynor Memorial Fund, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, so your Tournament/luncheon fees are tax deductible.

To learn more about our organization and its namesake, to register/pay for the tournament, or to make a donation, visit our website at

www.budtraynorclassic.org


Help us spread the word - kindly pass this along to anyone you feel might be interested in taking part or making a donation!

Thank you for your consideration - I hope to see everyone on July 21!

Best regards,

Joan Voltz

PS: Check out this link for a peek at last year's event:

Fifth Annual Bud Traynor Classic

Fighting the tedium of victory

Tiger won another major. It's almost as though they don't need to play these things anymore. Just give the trophy to Mr. Woods.

Except that this one was interesting.

The 108th US Open should have ended yesterday, but Tiger and Rocco Mediate shared a score at the end of the day. So they met this morning for another go around the field. Lo and behold, another 18 holes later: still tied. Mediate finally yielded after the first sudden death hole, and Tiger was hoisting that gleaming cup just a few minutes later. I admit, I was rooting for the other guy. I had several reasons:

1. Rooting against Tiger is a family tradition
2. I really wanted the US Open to be won by a guy named Rocco
3. Had he won, Mediate would have been the oldest guy to ever win the US Open (have to root for the geezer since my husband and I just had our first child at nearly 47 and 37, respectively)
4. Had Mediate won he also would have been the first guy to beat Tiger when Woods came into the Final in the lead
   

Having said all that, Tiger was greeted by his almost one year old daughter, Sam, before accepting the trophy, and that little girl is absolutely gorgeous. She was dressed in finals red, just like her dad.

If you harbor fantasies of winning a tournament yourself, reserve a spot in The Bud Traynor Classic. It's being played on July 21st at Bethpage - home of the 2002 and 2009 US Open. Click here for a peak at last year's event.

Brendan watching his first Major (he slept through The Masters)

Sign up now for the Sixth Annual!

I'm finally over the post tournament coma I succumb to every year the minute my family's annual charity event is over, and I can now begin to shed some light on how The Fifth Annual Bud Traynor Classic went. It was a huge success, and my whole family is feeling great about it.

State Park Rangers lead carts down the front nine for the shotgun start

Ready at the first tee

Beautiful swing! (Shelly Berger went on to win Low Net, Ladies)

Laurie and Lorri take a break from selling raffle tickets to say cheese

Mamma Joan mans one of the auction tables

My brother and I get ready to hand out some prizes

And what can we say? Prizes make people happy...

Abigail Sollecito easily wins the "Most Colorful Pants" award

Regan Mullaly shows off the trophy her dad, Thomas, won with the lowest score of 77

Ryan Mullaly and Krysta Sollecito check out the trophy at closer range

We'll get the rest of the pictures up on our tournament website shortly and I'll put a link here so you can see them all if you're interested. But suffice it to say the day was an unqualified victory. Our volunteers were enthusiastic and amazing, our donors were incredibly generous, the course was in pristine condition, the catering was delicious, the bar was free flowing and at the end of the day we raised a lot of money for cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering - a good cause that's near and dear to my heart.

What could be better?

I will say, this year gave us more agita than any year prior. We started with the usual race to the finish. My brother, his wife, Terence, my mother and I all hunkered down in the organization's corporate headquarters (my mother's house) for the three days leading up to the tournament. We only left the house to run errands that had to do with the event. My mother had deli salads and cold cut platters on hand. When that ran out, we ordered takeout. In between re-fueling sessions we printed event programs, fine tuned the line up 23 times, coordinated deliveries and pick ups of donated items, jazzed up auction gift baskets, crafted bid sheet copy writing, picked up sponsor signs, bought 288 cans of beer, finalized the volunteer assignment list, made logo labels for gift bags, washed centerpiece vases, affixed the engraved plates with last year's winners to our perpetual plaque, collected pictures of my dad for display, picked up trophies, picked up golf hats, sustained several paper cuts, one glass cut, and several headaches. But we were having so much fun!

As Sunday afternoon dragged on, the giddy exuberance slowly eroded as the evolving weather reports cast a pall over the entire family. Text messages began coming in from around the tri-State area as participants queried, "What do we do if it rains?" "Get out your golf umbrella and don't expect a refund," seemed flip. Yet true.

A few choice quotes may help illuminate the panic that had overtaken the group. I won't attribute them, but probably easy to figure out.

"Ok, but just because it's going to rain in Seaford, doesn't mean it's going to rain in Bethpage."

Upon the fifth zip-code specific hour by hour satellite check, "I think we should just face the fact that it's going to rain on the golfers for the entire five hours that they're out there. Let's just get over that and move on."

"Does the lightening have to actually hit the ground for them to close the course?"

"My scar itches." "Mine too."

The final bid sheet came off the printer at about midnight, but who could sleep? The weather reports on the late evening news were too harrowing. Our alarms went off at 3:45 am and the ground was still dry. Not a good sign. Had the rain already let loose, there could have been some hope it would blow over before the 7:30 am shotgun start.

Our caravan made it's way out to Bethpage under angry skies. Many cars packed with many auction prizes, and a special tradition: we always drive my dad's two seater out to the tournament. It was the car he used to go golfing. Although it doesn't fit much cargo, we make sure it's always in the Bethpage parking lot while The Bud Traynor Classic is being played.

The first person I saw when I arrived at the Red Course was Bob Guarino. He's the Tournament Director at Bethpage and my go to guy for these events. Immediately he begins telling me about the TORNADO watch that's in effect and how we will handle cancellation/postponement/raincheck accommodation in various scenarios. The State Park Rangers tell us they're not going to bother putting out the hole sponsor signs just yet. They don't even have our golf carts lined up. They clearly don't think there will be a tournament teeing off in two hours. I have never been more nervous. Not even in the two hours before my brain surgery (although, I was medicated at that point).

Well, God bless our golfers. Most of them showed up. Only minimal no-shows. And do you know, that rain held off, I kid you not, until the players were all on their very last hole. (Shotgun start means everyone finishes at approximately the same time, just on different holes.) It poured rain all over Long Island that day, but not over the Red Course. Thanks, Bud.

After a quick nap, we already can't wait for next year...

Can TMI lead to DWI?

In preparation for the tournament, I went to Costco with my brother and his wife to load up on beverages. We have big tubs of iced drinks placed throughout the course. Well, we bought so much beer that I had to fill out a form that gets registered with the State! What the hell!? Feels very big brother to me.

I filled it out, but should I be worried? I haven't driven a car since my surgery, but I thought I might have had to tomorrow. We have a LOT of stuff to bring out for our silent auction. Turns out we've squeezed it all into four other vehicles, and we are going to make one extra trip for a large screen TV. No driving for me.

But I'm feeling ready and may try on Tuesday while I'm still out in the burbs at my mom's. What if I get pulled over? Given my vertigo status, I know for a fact I would fail a line test on the spot. Then all they have to do is check in their computer and see that I purchased 288 cans of beer on Friday. Perhaps Nicole Ritchie and I can share a cell.


On a separate note, we're very depressed about the weather report in the Traynor household tonight. There is a good chance for on and off showers all during our tournament tomorrow. We've always held our event on the last Thursday in July. This year was the first year we were given the option to hold it on a Monday - so we thought that would be easier for folks to take a day off - make a long weekend out of it. But we knew we were tempting the golf gods. When we booked it I said to my brother, "This will probably be the first year we get rain."

What can I say? Golfers are hearty souls. That's why there is an object called a "golf umbrella."

Bloomingdale's inflicted temporary insanity

I already have a well documented problem with circles. But since a friend staged an intervention, I've been self aware and have been recovering nicely without rehab. So how can I explain Saturday's purchase?

I was in the market for something colorful. We give a prize for "Most Colorful Pants" at my tournament - a playful tribute to the outfits my father had the nerve to wear both on and off the course. Although I can't win, I like to support the fun. I bought this dress at Bloomie's SOHO. Not really that colorful, but all the Fall lines are out already. Pickings were slim. I was thinking some bright Tory Burch shoes could punch it up. Anyway, I truly didn't even realize it had circles all over it until I got home.


It's almost as though my subconsciousness was working so hard to suppress the circular pattern that it didn't allow the more obvious problem to emerge. Seconds behind the discovery of the offending geometry, a realization that I already have almost the same exact dress came rushing into my brain.


The dress is going back. But it's all working out for the best. It forced further exploration for something colorful and I think I have outdone myself this year.


Bless her cotton socks, the sales lady asked me if I wanted to join the store's loyalty program. Once I spent $300 I would get 5% off every future purchase. Of tacky crap. No thanks. (By the way - I got them on sale, thank God, because the original price was $80! For these!?)

Shameless promotion

Sorry about the lack of posts. I haven't had much time for blogging this week because:

1. I am expected to show up at the office every single day in exchange for my paycheck (!?!?)
2. Lately, every moment of my free time has been spent on tournament activities.

There is still time to sign up for my tournament on Monday. Don't you deserve a long weekend? Play hooky and come enjoy a round of golf on the beautiful Red Course at Bethpage. The US Open was played here in 2002 and will be again in 2009. But it's real claim to fame is the Annual Bud Traynor Classic.

Sign up here. If you're a single - we'll pair you up with a fun group. Or at least a group. We serve beer on the course - so you won't care if your partners are boring.

Shameless promotion

Still need a gift for Dad? Does he golf? Has he always wanted to play Bethpage but was never willing to get up at the crack of dawn to get a start time? Think he'd enjoy an excuse to take a long weekend in August?

If you answered yes to any of the above, consider reserving a spot for your Dad (and one, two or three of his friends?) in the tournament named for my Dad.

Check out some pictures from our past tournaments. If you think it looks fun, sign Dad up.

For that matter, sign yourself up. Who wouldn't want to play hooky for a day for this? (Did I mention the beer carts? Oh, yea. And the money goes to cancer research) ...

Leavin the hood

I paid for it the next day, but I made it out of Washington Heights on Wednesday night. I took a car service down and met my family at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. We were guests at a small reception MSKCC holds every year to honor the Group Affiliates that raise money for their research efforts. There is always a keynote speaker and it's a real privilege to gather in such an intimate setting and hear about some of the latest advances.

Two years ago I was seated next to the keynote speaker during dinner. He was a normal guy and we casually chatted about his recent trip to New Zealand. When he stood up to address the group I learned that he was basically the man who invented the modern bone marrow transplant procedure. He is literally responsible for saving the lives of thousands and thousands of children. (Oh yea? Children with cancer, huh? Well I convince people to buy things they don't need. Where would the economy be without me?! Where would people get the money to pay for your fancy cancer medicine? Ask yourself that, my friend.)

Wednesday night's speakers educated us on the latest in gene therapy, and it's clear that amazing developments are just on the horizon. Treatments are about to get much more targeted, precious time will be wasted far less frequently and doctors will have the ability to manage many types of cancers as chronic conditions for very long periods of time. Think HIV - no longer lethal as long as it's managed with the right drugs. One of the speakers focused on a lung cancer example, and it made me sad that my dad couldn't have benefited from some of the new treatments now available such a short time after his death.

Anyway - it got us inspired for this year's Fifth Annual Bud Traynor Classic. For those that don't know, it will be played at Bethpage on Monday, August 6th and as always, we will donate the proceeds to MSKCC's research programs.

Vaguely related side note, the Chief of Neurosurgery at MSKCC is one of the doctors I consulted with when selecting a surgeon to remove my acoustic neuroma. It goes without saying he was very accomplished and obviously a great guy, although I didn't ultimately select him. His celebrity lookalike was Steven Spielberg.

Dr. Philip Gutin on the left and Mr. Steven Spielberg on the right: