Staff Writer

Nov. 1, 2000 10 PM

Local golfers can take a swing for a good cause and rub elbows with a professional baseball player next week.

The First National Bank of Brundidge Brian Meadows Golf Classic will be Nov. 10 at the Brundidge Country Club and there’s still time to enter.

Meadows is a Pike County native and starting pitcher for the Kansas City Royals.

Earlier this year, he hit a major league home run by agreeing to be the honorary chairman of the March of Dimes WalkAmerica 2001.

Dianna Lee, who is coordinating the event, said the tournament is one golfers and baseball fans will enjoy.

"If you like golf, this is a great tournament and it’s, definitely, a good cause," Lee said.

For Lee, raising money for the March of Dimes is a way she can give back to a cause that gave her so much ­ three children who will be 3 years old next year.

"My husband and I have been blessed with three healthy, happy and developmentally sound children who just happen to have been born within three minutes of each other," Lee said of her daughter and two sons.

She credits the health of her children with research funded by the March of Dimes.

"I can really point to the March of Dimes and say I personally benefitted," Lee said.

And, the celebrity being honored Nov. 9 and 10 is one who is ideal for this fund raiser, Lee said.

"I really appreciate Brian lending his time to us," she said of Meadows, who donates $100 for every strike out he pitches to children’s charities.

This time, he’s donating his time to the March of Dimes and the community that has supported him.

The four-man scramble tournament will begin at 11 a.m. with a program during which Meadows will be introduced as honorary chairman and lunch will be served.

A shotgun start at noon will start the golf ball rolling, but players can start hitting some practice balls at 10:30 a.m.

There’s still time to enter and sponsorship opportunities are available. The tournament will be limited to 20 four-man teams.

Prizes will be awarded to the first, second and third place teams, as well as closest to the pin and longest drive.

A $500 donation or more will make you a World Series sponsor and includes cart and green fees for a four-person team, hole sponsorship, tickets for two people to the Brian Meadows Days reception on Nov. 9 and sponsorship recognition.

Those $400 donors will be named Major League sponsors and will receive cart and green fees for a four-person team, hole sponsorship and tickets for two to the reception.

Home run sponsors will be those giving $300. Home run sponsors will receive cart and free fees for a four-person team and tickets for two to the reception.

Golden Glove sponsors who give $200 will receive cart and green fees for each two-person team and two tickets to the reception.

Solo participation costs $75 and hole sponsorship, alone, is $100.

And, as Lee pointed out, the money goes to the March of Dimes, which was founded in 1938 by President Franklin Roosevelt to help America’s youth suffering from polio. In the past 60 years, the March of Dimes has raised millions of dollars that have funded research to prevent birth defects and reduce the nation’s infant mortality rate.

For more information about the tournament, call Dianna Lee at 566-0376 or Dianne Smith at 566-9575.