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'Golf Fights Cancer' Charity Offers Unique Fundraising Tournament

BOSTON (CBS) - Brian Oates, chairman and co-founder of the Golf Fights Cancer charity, joined Hardy on the latest edition of The Golf Club. He discussed his organization's biggest event this year, their Golf Marathon at Stow Acres on June 6 where participants play 100 holes of golf in one day.

When asked to talk about how the whole day works, Oates explained that it's not your average fundraiser.

"It's a lot different than a typical fundraising golf tournament. First off, it's a much smaller group. We'll have in the neighborhood of thirty or forty golfers and they all have fundraising responsibilities. They go out, much like the people that run the Boston Marathon, and solicit support from colleagues, friends and co-workers. They raise at least $2500 each, and have the whole course to themselves."

Throughout the course of the day the participants have to put the ball in the bottom of the cup 100 times. There are a few similarities to traditional tournaments, as they still have longest drive and closest to the pin contests, however there has been a hole-in-one each of the last two years.

Oates has been a golf lover his entire life and started out caddying. When a friend of his from the golf world passed away and left three children behind Oates wanted to help his family, and Golf Fights Cancer was born. It's a way for anyone that's in the golfing community to give something back.

Golf Fights Cancer gives a whopping 92% of their proceeds directly to the causes they're working towards. They only have one part time employee, and they do their best to make sure that their donations are going to the right place.

Hardy was impressed by that statistic , saying, "Ninety-two percent is an unheard of amount when you factor in all of the expenses that come in to putting on events like this. That's really impressive."

You can learn about the event and donate at www.GolfFightsCancer.org

At the end of the day Oates summed it up nicely, noting, "It's nice to have a golf tournament where the score is kept by how many holes you play, not by how well you play them."

Listen below:

'Golf Fights Cancer' Charity Co-Founder Brian Oates

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