Purple Heart Tour holds fundraiser tournament at Wildwood Golf Course

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Hitting a hole-in-one on Wildwood’s relatively new 180-yard hole No. 6 which lines the northern edge of the park would have been aptly touted as a “Purple Ace” if the feat had been performed last Saturday morning/afternoon at the said public nine-hole course.

But that wasn’t the object for the “challenge hole” chosen for the Purple Heart Tour four-person, best-shot golf tournament … the first PHT event held at Wildwood.

“We want to keep it a little more simple than that,” said Nashua resident Jamey Welter of the Northeast Iowa Chapter of the Purple Heart Tour. “If you get it on the green, you’re a winner.”

Easier said than done.

The first four-man team collectively gave its best shot(s), hitting iron offerings high and straight, but … alas … “one more biscuit for breakfast” short of the green.

The second foursome, consisting of former Charles City All-Northeast Iowa Conference golfers Colton Slinger and Trevor White, took a more aggressive approach, hitting it over the green even after multiple attempts — you were awarded “mulligans” if you were willing to open your wallet a little wider.

Finding the green or not, it was going for a good cause.

Active in the area since 2012, the Purple Heart Tour’s mission is to provide outdoor sporting opportunities for selected wounded warriors and selected active-duty military members of the United States Special Operations Forces community in order to assist in convalescence, build self-confidence and morale by exposing them to different outdoor experiences and environments.

“As part of the therapy we provide is taking them out to turkey hunts, pheasant hunts and deer hunts when they’re in season,” Welter said.

These hunting tours are provided free of charge to the selective participants — the PHT even helps provide meat locker storage and proper carcass cleansing and butchery for successful hunters.

“This is now one of our three major fundraisers,” Welter said as the PHT is due to make its annual return to the Nashua Town and Country Club for a fundraising golf tournament on Sept. 9 before holding a “Meet and Greet” later in the fall at the Waverly Veterans Center that coincides with one of the PHT group hunts.

“The golf tournament in Nashua has been our biggest fundraiser as of late, but we got a good turnout for the first one here,” said Welter, who credited Kim Carman, who manages the clubhouse and promotes activities at Wildwood, in petitioning him and the Northeast Chapter of the PHT into holding an event in Charles City.

“It’s great for us to be a part of this,” Carman said.