I had the privilege of attending the Crimson Charity Golf Scramble held at the Balcones Country Club in Austin, Texas. I was invited by my grandson Travis Fell who was the Tournament Director with his advisory board of this Crimson Charity Golf Scramble. I was to be part of his team in this tournament. Travis works for the Advisory Board Company in Austin also known as the ABC/Crimson. This was the first annual Crimson Charity Golf Scramble benefitting “Operation Homefront” a very worthwhile charity whose concern is our military service members, wounded warriors and their families.


The Operation Homefront organizer Jennifer Cernoch from San Antonio, Travis and me.

The Tournament was planned as part of ABC/Crimson week of service to benefit our staff and our firm by generously sharing time and talent in those in need. This shows our commitment to our community of giving service to others. This charity golf scramble was held on October 8, 2012 and I was honored to be invited and to be part of it with Travis.

I know these type of charity event take lots of planning and work. Travis said they started planning in June but felt it they should have started much sooner. It all went well with over 60 involved in teams of four or five golfers. A post golf lesson was held by the Balcones Pro golfers. He showed many the proper grip on their club and proper body turn to make a full swing. Each golfer in this clinic was given the time to step up to the tee driving range to practice their swing. I could tell they were enjoying themselves as they worked on this swing. Since this tournament was a scramble you could have all different types of players but it was a beautiful day so time to enjoy the game.


Golf lesson from Balcones Pro



Travis took time out to get in a little practice on the driving range.

Our team consisted of Travis, two of Travis’s friends, Molly Steele and me. Molly was a new employee who just moved to Austin from Washington D. C. and was a novice golfer. She rode with me as she had never driven a golf cart before and this was a gas cart so it was new to me also. We got along fine and she even made some great shots and helped the team. As with any scramble it seems everybody gets their good shots which helps the team. Our team came in third for the overall tournament. Not bad for three guys a grandmother, a new employee from the east coast who was new to golf.


This was Molly getting ready to hit that ball.

Explaining golf and Texas to Molly made this a fun scramble. In many scrambles you are able to buy mulligans so if everyone has a bad shot or missing putts, you can have a do over. Within the team there were plenty of mulligans. We did not have to use all we had as someone usually came through. We used several of Molly’s shots too so that was great. We were all treated to a buffet following play and the totaling up all the scores to find the winners. These are always fun times and went to a worthy charity Operation Homefront.



This was the number one hole for scenic view the rest of the course was rather plain, tree lined fairways and slopping greens.