GolfBlogger Heads To The Colonial

I can’t contain my excitement any longer: I’ve been invited to play in the pro-am at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at the Colonial in Fort Worth. It’s an amazing opportunity, and I’m eternally grateful to Crowne Plaza for the offer. I’ll of course be writing and taking photos of the trip, so stay tuned next week.

In addition to a PGA Tour pro and assorted executives, my group will include a military veteran—a “wounded warrior” who has given to this country above and beyond.

Military personnel and their families are a focus of the Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts. They’re sponsoring a program called “Room Nights For The Brave” in which the hotel properties will create a bank of hotel stays, with rooms being used to support injured veterans and military personnel participating in the Birdies for the Brave activities at TPC Clubs, PGA TOUR and Champions Tour events.

“The brave men and women in our military are separated from their families for extremely long periods of time. We’re happy to be working with the PGA TOUR and Birdies for the Brave to reunite our servicemen and women with their loved ones and to provide a place where they can spend quality time together,” said Gina LaBarre, Vice President, Brand Management, the Americas, IHG.  “As title sponsor of the prestigious Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial since 2007, the Colonial has a 65-year history of charitable giving and we’re proud to continue the tradition.”

“Being able to spend time with family members is one of the things our troops cherish most,” said former Navy SEAL Stephen Kupcha, Manager of Birdies for the Brave and all Military Outreach for the PGA TOUR. “By creating this program, IHG and Crowne Plaza are providing a great service to our military families, and creating some good-natured competition out on the course to see who can hit the most eagles and earn the most rooms for these deserving men and women.”

As loyal readers know, Mrs. GolfBlogger is an Air Force veteran who served in the first Gulf War, so supporting our military families means much to me. We actually were married in the middle of the war, while she was stationed with an aeromedical flight unit transporting wounded to stateside hospitals. Needless to say, our honeymoon had to be put off for a later time. This year marked our 20th anniversary.

But back to the Crowne Plaza Invitational.Today, I registered online for the event, and received a packet of information. It’s going to be a very busy, and very rewarding week. I’ll keep you posted.