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Hope Mills area Chamber of Commerce brings back Annual Golf Tournament; celebrates three years of growth

By Faith Hatton, posted May 2, 2023 on BizFayetteville.com


Photo provided by: Hope Mills Area Chamber of Commerce 

Golfers and spectators alike are invited to join the Hope Mills Area Chamber of Commerce at their Annual Golf Tournament taking place this Thursday, May 4 at the Gates Four Golf & Country Club. 

The Tournament serves as a way to allow the community to support their local chamber and provide exposure and resources for Chamber members and the local business community. 

Events will begin at 12 p.m. with lunch and registration followed by the official start of the games at 1 p.m. and dinner and awards starting at 6 p.m. 

This year, players and guests can expect 12 tournament sponsor teams featuring four players each. 

According to Chamber President Casey Ferris, after going back and forth on whether to host the event this year, Chamber Board members came together to organize and bring it back to the community. Ferris also shared that local businesses were ready to support the chamber, with sponsorships for teams coming in and sponsorships for holes selling out quickly, with the Chamber having to add more opportunities for businesses to get involved. 

“We took what we learned from last year and we revamped a little bit this year and when we announced the golf tournament this year, I was really expecting the same normal work that we really have to put in to get sponsors for any event, and it was less than a month and we had every single sponsorship that we had available for the event sold,” shared Ferris. “It was right around when we were dropping off our Women Mean Business invitations. Because I went into three different stores that day with flowers, and had people tell me ‘Oh hey, we want to sign up to sponsor the golf tournament as well,’ and I had to create sponsorships for them so that they could get involved. So we had to create sponsorships that we've never had before, so that businesses can get involved with this event, so that was really exciting for us.” 

Teams will be competing for prizes like a Titleist golf bag, four grounds of golf at Gates Four Golf & Country Club, and even a “Happy Gilmore Award” for the team that scores the highest. 

Other new additions to the tournament include a spectators only section, for those who don’t want to golf, but would still like to attend. 

“We encountered this really weird problem that we've never ever had before, where I had people that were reaching out to me and wanted to go to the golf tournament but they didn't want to golf, they wanted to network or they wanted to dress cute and make TikToks for their business at the golf tournament with the Chamber of Commerce. So this year we have a spectators only option for if you just want to come and hang out, have lunch, have tacos, have margaritas,” shared Ferris. 

Ferris, who became President of the Chamber in 2020, said that the golf tournament’s growth also reflects the growth that the chamber has seen since rebounding with the community following the pandemic. Ferris said that the Chamber Board has done some serious work to foster its growth in the area since she took office, starting out with just a set of keys, a list of passwords, and less than $500 in the Chamber bank account. . 

“We started working really, really hard on things like trade agreements. And we had a lot of burnt bridges that we had to fix and we did a lot of trade. Because at that point, businesses were having to try and decide like, ‘Do I want to be a chamber member? Or am I going to shut down?’  ‘Am I gonna pay my employees?’ because it was right in the middle of COVID,” shared Ferris. 

“Once all of the restrictions were loosened during COVID, we came out guns blazing with networking events, and marketing opportunities for businesses. We established a bunch of new partnerships with businesses like Beasley Media Group and we’ve worked really hard on repairing our relationship with the Town of Hope Mills and economic development.” 

The Chamber has since launched a number of new programs and offerings for their 105 members including an ongoing Continuing Education Series for Chamber members, their monthly Coffee Club, Ambassador Program and Chamber Committees to help break down wants, needs and tasks to get things done.  

“We had our first ever Open Board Meeting, we established our partnership with the Greater Sandhills Chamber. We hosted Women in Business, we've actually done that twice, and this year we had 100 local women who are 100 women in business who came to attend for free. We’re working currently to bring an art event to Hope Mills,” shared Ferris. 

Now the Chamber is looking forward to sharing the Golf Tournament with their members and the community on May 4, and at their upcoming 80s prom themed annual banquet. 

Registration is still open for four person golf teams and will be available until the end of the day  on May 2. 

Spectator tickets are also still available. 

You can register and purchase tickets online here: https://hopemillsareachamber.com/golf-tournament


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