FORE! Salem Happy to Be a Part of National Championships
SALEM, Ore. – The 61st annual NAIA Men's Golf National Championships presented by FORE! Salem begins Tuesday, and the event may not have been brought to the Pacific Northwest without the help of its title sponsor.
FORE! Salem is a foursome of local non-profits in the Salem area who have teamed up to bring attention to the NAIA National Golf Championships and lay the foundation for future projects in the community. Thanks to the generosity of a local business, FORE! Salem is the title sponsor for the NAIA Championships in 2012 and 2013. The four non-profits that have banded together are Corban University, Salem Academy, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), and the Salem Leadership Foundation (SLF).
“The mission of FORE! Salem is to strengthen and promote the vitality of Oregon's capital city,” SLF’s Sam Skillern said. “Individually and together, the four organizations are committed to the health and well-being of Salem and, by extension, the surrounding mid-Willamette Valley area. We are starting with promotion of the NAIA National Golf Championship and beginning to explore other collaborative efforts throughout the year.
“Salem, which means ‘Shalom,’ is a historic western city that is at the forefront of many innovative community initiatives to promote the health and well-being of its residents. Here in year one, we are hoping for a fabulous golf event that will lay the foundation for a broader community celebration in year two.”
“On behalf of the Cascade Collegiate Conference I cannot express enough our gratitude to FORE! Salem for their generosity,” Cascade Collegiate Conference Commissioner Rob Cashell said. “The spirit of servant leadership to this tournament and to the vision of long term good works to Salem is really a shining example of what can happen when positive synergies come together.”
Salem was founded in 1842, and became the capitol of the Oregon Territory in 1851. Salem, the third largest city in the state has a population near 155,000. FORE! Salem is there for the largely populated area.
“It's a cool and unusual story of how FORE! Salem was formed,” Skillern said. “Joey and Teresa Blubaugh, owners of TNT Management Resources, are entrepreneurs and like to think outside the box. When they learned that the NAIA Men’s Golf Championships was coming to Salem and looking for a title sponsor, they decided that TNT would make the commitment. At the same time, they wondered: ‘How can we synergize this sponsorship to benefit the tournament and other organizations that we believe in.’
“They were less interested in publicity for TNT and more interested in shining the light on four non-profits they care deeply about: Corban, Salem Academy, FCA and SLF. With generous in-kind support from Corban's athletic department and graphic-design team, the FORE! Salem logo and graphic identity were created to provide a banner under which the championships would be sponsored and future work of the four non-profits would be launched.”
The NAIA has a golf national championship event in the Pacific Northwest for the first time. The NAIA Women’s and Men’s Cross Country Championships have been in Vancouver, Wash., for the past three years with much success.
“It's a huge blessing for any city to land a national championships, and Salem is excited to welcome the golfers and the teams to our beautiful community,” Skillern said. “Over the next two years, we want to build excitement for the championships and for our city in tandem. Local businesses, our golfing community, schools and neighborhoods all benefit when a tournament like this comes to town. We are also hoping to make an impression on the golfers and their families that Salem is special.”
The 61st annual event at Creekside Country Club runs Tuesday through Friday, and admission is free for spectators. A daily recap show with highlights and interviews will be available each night following the rounds at 8 p.m. PDT, on NAIA.org.
“We’re looking forward to great golf and great community excitement,” Skillern said. “Creekside is a great venue that will serve the golfers and the community well, and we hope to see close competition and a nail-biting finish on par with all great golf championships.”