Kirkpatrick, Heilsberg collect $3k-plus in 100-hole golf run

Clicking off just over ten 45-minute rounds of nine holes last Friday, Allen Kirkpatrick and Jim Heilsberg of Colfax logged 100 holes of golf in a Rotary Club fundraiser on the Colfax Golf Course.

“You’ll never believe it, but Al only told two jokes this whole time,” Heilsberg said while traveling down the 99th fairway. Each golfer used his own cart to save time.

The duffing duo pledged to swing through all 100 holes to collect pledge funds from various donors. Rotarian funds will be used to help eradicate polio from the planet. All tolled, the two raised more than $3,000.

Heilsberg and Kirkpatrick hit the links at 4:26 a.m., and holed out on the last hole, the 100th, at 1:20 p.m.

Other players on the course Friday morning stepped aside as the duo buzzed around the course. They were also helped with food stocks provided while the played along.

“They must have passed me at least five times while I was out mowing,” said greenskeepr Alvin Brannon.

They combined to shoot 43-over-par, with Heilsberg finishing in 415 strokes and Kirkpatrick 428. Par for the run was 400, 11 rounds on the par 36 course plus four more strokes for the 100th hole on number one.

The two were neck-and-neck after the first four rounds of 18, but Heilsberg, after popping a couple of painkillers to ease his throbbing shoulder, carded a two-under par 70 on the fifth round.

“Thank God for that Man Candy,” said Heilsberg.

During their golf-a-thon, Kirkpatrick had three balls go awry, while Heilsberg lost only one.

The funding will go to Rotary Club International’s efforts to eradicate polio in the only four countries it exists; Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria.

Rotary International’s goal is to raise $200 million to earn a $250 million matching grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Robert Lothspeich, treasurer of the Colfax Rotary Club, said Friday that Rotary had raised $167 million. Donations to the fund can still be given to any Rotary member.

Not content with their 100-hole marathon, Heilsberg and Kirkpatrick decided to keep going around the course after finishing the 100th hole of the pledge run on number one almost nine hours after they started.

“We’ve got to finish this round,” Kirkpatrick yelled as they jumped in their carts and sped on to the second hole.

That made the official total of the enduro run 108 holes with the final eight off the pledge card.