Cheats were employed throughout the tournament, but some players tried to overcome their handicaps (like this stick club) with further innovations.
On Saturday, eighteen four-person golf teams captained by 826LA employees, budding writers, outstanding volunteers, and friendly supporters from across Southern California filled the Arroyo Seco Golf Course clubhouse with a heady buzz. They wanted a shot at a trophy, and they were willing to cheat to get there! Reviving an 826LA tradition, we gave some ambitious amateur athletes and even more ambitious cheating scoundrels the chance to go head-to-head in one of our fun and successful pledgeathons (e.g. 2010’s Spelling Bee for Cheaters, 2011’s Everything You Know Is Pong tournament).
Three rounds of fierce golfing later, when The Bogey Brigade team members triumphantly hoisted the gold cup over Arroyo Seco’s lawn, we had our golf champs … but they weren’t the only winners on-hand! 2013’s Mini Golf for Cheaters also raised a giant gift for 826LA programs (including the busy summer workshop season that’s just around the corner). We brought in more than $41,000 during our most successful golf pledgeathon ever–an astounding finish!
At our May golf tournament, an eager robot waited on the sidelines to be deployed as a cheat … and The Bogey Brigade used him to win!
When we reintroduced our tournament to the world in April, we asked people to take a few simple steps to get involved. Wannabe golfers had to assemble a team of fundraising partners, whether it was Caddy Hacks, Minimum Overdrive, or The Club of Clubbers Clubbing with Clubs. Once they had set up a pledge page and opened for business, there was a multiweek race to collect as much money from friends as possible; our top three fundraisers (J. Ryan Stradal with the gold, Grant DeVaul carrying the silver, and Drew Spears holding the bronze) each raised well over $2000!
All those dollars later, qualifying golf teams used their pledge funds to “buy” exclusive 826LA cheats for use in the May 11 tournament. What kind of cheats? For a few hundred dollars, fundraisers could pick up a sabotaging obstacle like this can of Mammoth Chunks to keep competitors from getting a hole-in-one; for several thousand dollars more, they could pay a comedian to break their rivals’ concentration with relentless heckling. Needless to say, the atmosphere of competition was fierce. Only the best cheater would win!
All the jockeying culminated in a sunny afternoon golf match where we got down and dirty against the most glamorous backdrop imaginable: eating tacos from the food bar, sharing mints from Sencha Naturals, grooving to tunes by local DJs from KXSC Radio, collecting free giveaways from the Los Angeles Review of Books, and having fun with Alex Rapada Photography‘s wild picture booth! At assigned round start times held throughout the afternoon, teams were summoned to the starting golf hole, introduced to opponents, and given a shot at greatness! Referees regulated cheating and reported back who made it to the semifinals, who moved on from seminalists to finalists, and who took home all the glory.
We’re excited to let the ladies and gents from Grant DeVaul’s Bogey Brigade bask in their spotlight as champions. But we’re even more excited that the $5045 they raised (and the $36,746 collected by their formidable rivals) will help us maintain great programs for LA novelists, poets, stand-up comedians, screenwriters, and first-time college applicants between the ages of 6 and 18. (Two groups of those student writers even made appearances … and got to share the course with icons of LA cool like Eric Edelstein, John Ennis, Randy Liedtke, Al Madrigal, Moby, Brendon Murphy, Kumail Nanjiani, and Davy Rothbart!) Mini Golf for Cheaters was fun for all of us, and what definitely made it possible was the generosity of our financial sponsors from Activate Drinks, Bad Robot, and Louis Lucido. Thanks, too, to our amazing community of supporters willing to fundraise for 826LA’s work, and to everyone who attended on May 11!
With entire families of 826LA writers putting and cheating alongside cool, golf-loving adults from every part of town, our second Mini Golf for Cheaters event was a resounding success. To keep giving to 826LA – and helping this community thrive and enjoy an expanding collection of fun, quirky moments – remember that you can give at any time of the year.
These golfers came to outsmart one another, but with more than $40,000 raised for 826LA, the people who are sure to feel smartest are thousands of our kids!