2020 - The Pandemic

There were millions of questions in the world. Should we have the marathon during the pandemic? Should we cancel the pandemic? Will we be able to even have the marathon? Will the course even be open during the pandemic? What impact will Covid-19 have on the status of the second year of the Wichita Golf Marathon?

A lot of questions - the friends who wanted to continue this process got together and met. We couldn’t let a global pandemic slow us down. The golf courses were closing a few at a time shutting down to give staff and others relief a few weeks at a time. MacDonald Golf Park which was the site of the 2019 Wichita Golf Marathon was wavering on if they would let us on or not in order to have the marathon raise funds. In 2019, the Wichita Golf Marathon was held in April. It was decided that the Juniors Golf FORE Free would be pushed back a few months, but, the juniors in Wichita needed an outlet so the show must go on. The Golf Marathon was hosted on July 17, 2020, at MacDonald Golf Park. In a global pandemic, the Wichita Golf Marathon guys raised almost $5,000 more dollars than the previous year. The 2020 total for funds raised was $22,249.48. Juniors Play FORE Free in turn was only open from August 20th, 2020 to October 31st. The Wichita Golf Marathon was billed $4,889 for 546 rounds. Junior golf rounds in 2020 went down a touch - due to the fact that most of the courses were closed off and on during the uncertainty of the pandemic. It was a challenge FOR sure. Corey Novascone, Joe Vosburgh, Jason Novascone, Ryan Macphearson, Pete Krsnich, played 115 holes - just a few shy of the record the year before. The fact that it was 105 degrees at the heat of the day really took a toll on the boys. Lots of Gatorade and water consumed on this day. We are ready for the pandemic to be over and for golf to continue to grow. We are very anxious for the world to get back to where it was. We are glad that golf is going crazy - which means this will need a lot more money raised in 2021. We will be ready. Thank you to our sponsors MV Purchasing, IMA, First Tee Greater Wichita, Shorty McGorty LLC and many others. We had 175 individual donors, with the average donation going up over the $115 mark. Thanks and we’ll see you in 2021! (almost forgot…the total number of rounds played by junior golfers in 2020 was 6,001.)