60th Pro Amateur Golf Championship and Celebration

Gather together (safely, of course!) or stay in and make the Pro Am’s signature cocktail, the Swing and a Spritz!

Spending the evening in with your family? Download the Pro Am’s paddle and showcase your or your kids’ artistic skills—this year’s paddle can be colored however you choose! Once your artist has created something just right, raise your paddle up high and post the art on Instagram using #60thProAm.

If you’ve invited a few close friends for a gathering at home, share a selfie of your party and post your photo on Instagram using #60thProAm.

And while you’re joining in all the fun, don’t forget to participate in this year’s Virtual Paddle Raise!

Ingredients

2 oz. Cucumber, peeled and sliced
2 oz. Vodka (your favorite kind)
1/2 oz. St. Germaine Elderflower Liquer (optional)
1/2 oz. Simple Syrup
1/2 oz. Lemon Juice
Club Soda
Ice
Mint and cucumber slices for garnish

Directions

Muddle cucumber and mint
Add the cucumber mix to shaker, along with the simple syrup, St. Germaine, lemon juice, and vodka, and then shake.
Add your favorite club soda and garnish.

In planning the inaugural Pro Am, members of the Founders’ Board wisely enlisted their friend John Ames, past president of the U.S. Golf Association, to help recruit professional golfers to take part. Originally the tournament was held on the Monday following the Western Open to attract PGA tour professionals to stay and compete for the $10,000 purse, a relatively large sum at the time. The tournament model was so well-conceived, it remains largely unchanged today.

The first Pro Am was held on Monday, July 31, 1961, at Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, Illinois. It raised $65,000 for the hospital’s “Free Care Fund,” designated for families who could not afford to pay for their children’s lifesaving treatments.

In its early years, the Pro Am attracted a number of golf legends, including Arnold Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriquez, Jack Nicklaus, Homero Blancas, Gene Sarazen, Julius Boros and Lee Trevino, in addition to entertainer Bob Hope. Today, golf professionals from top-rated, prestigious country clubs across the country are invited to play with the amateurs.

In 1970, the Pro Am added its first corporate sponsor: Marcor, Inc., the parent company of Montgomery Ward. Northern Trust was another early partner. In 1984, United Airlines joined as a sponsor and has supported the Pro Am every year since. United is the co-presenting sponsor of the 60th annual event and festivities, along with The Boeing Company. Corporate support has allowed the Pro Am to achieve record-breaking success for the hospital. Today, the event raises nearly $2 million annually.

To celebrate the Pro Am’s sponsors, golfers, and donors, in years past we have held the annual Dinner on the Bluff, which serves as the official tee-off event for the Pro Amateur Golf Championship. This elegant dinner is held at Shoreacres, the perfect setting to celebrate the Pro Am’s decades of friendship and philanthropy and to honor the important life-saving work taking place at Lurie Children’s.

Due to complications around COVID-19, we made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Dinner on the Bluff event. We look forward to next year, and to years to come, when we can once again gather for a wonderful evening of celebration at Dinner on the Bluff.

The Pro Am is the most successful annual fundraising event of the Founders’ Board, as well as in the hospital’s history. Cumulative proceeds total more than $20 million, which has enabled Lurie Children’s to enhance patient care and to recruit renowned leaders in pediatric medicine and science.

Specifically, this commitment will:

• Support a new frontier of research focused on investigating the Perinatal Origins of Disease, while also providing funding to recruit a placental biologist. This researcher will focus on identifying and understanding causes of infant disease before the child is even born in order to optimize neonatal infant outcomes.
• Establish a new frontier of community health care providers. These individuals, which represent a new kind of healthcare professional at Lurie Children’s, will bring the expertise of Lurie Children’s into the homes and communities where it is needed the most. Specifically, our goal is to provide young moms with the resources they need to create a safe and healthy environment for their unborn babies, thereby ensuring a healthier start for these children.
• Create and fund a new frontier of leadership, through an endowed chair in Medical Ethics. This important thought leader will provide guidance and counsel to our caregivers as they support families facing challenging situations and decisions as a result of their child’s illness and suggested treatment protocol.

As was the case 135 years ago when Julia Foster Porter founded our hospital, the Founders’ Board continues to blaze new trails in Chicago and beyond through the adoption of this commitment.

Lurie Children’s programs and services directly benefiting from recent Pro Am proceeds include: Center for Pediatric Cancer and Blood Diseases; Epilepsy Center; Division of Neurology; Division of Neonatology; Division of Endocrinology; Section of Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal HIV Infection; and Department of Family Services.