The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Writer

acadet@tribunemedia.net

For yet another year, the Ocean Club Golf Course’s General Manager Robbie Leming along with friends and members have launched a 100-hole challenge in effort to raise money for the Sister Sister Breast Cancer Support Group.

Last year, he and the Ocean Club were pleased to present Sister Sister with a cheque for over $40,000. It was the most successful fundraiser to date.

“This is an initiative that the Ocean Club Golf Course does. It was inspired by myself and my close connection to the breast cancer society.

“In the year 2000, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is a two-time survivor. In 2000, she had a mastectomy and at the same time my wife and I were planning our wedding, so it was a significant punch in the gut,” Mr Leming told Tribune Health.

Mr Leming, a member of the PGA of America and CMAA, has over 25 years of experience in high-end golf and luxury resort management. During his tenure with Troon – the largest third-party manager of golf, club and hospitality operations in the world – he has successfully opened and managed high-end properties around the world, including in the United States and the Bahamas.

Mr Leming was appointed to his current role as general manager of the Ocean Club Golf Course, which is owned by Atlantis, in 2011.

There, he is responsible for overseeing Troon’s operations at one of the best courses in the Caribbean.

Mr Leming recalls the start of this initiative in 2011 when he sought to raise funds for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, creating ribbons to sell.

“We would make a couple thousand dollars here and there, and then in 2017, I partnered with one of my members, Chris Kilvington, and we decided that we would play 100 holes to raise money and awareness for breast cancer, and the funds would go to the Sister Sister Breast Cancer Support Group,” he said.

“The first year in doing that we made about 20,000, and in 2018 it was a little better.

“In 2019 it was really good and then COVID-19 happened so we didn’t do anything in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 we made over $46,000.”

Explaining how the initiative works, Mr Leming said: “We take donations per hole that we play or by lump sum.

“So, if somebody wants to give $5 per hole, they would end up giving $500, because we play 100 holes in one day. Typically, around the golf it’s 18 holes, and it takes about four hours.”

For Mr Leming, it is a really good feeling to be able to raise funds for such a worthy cause.

“Andrea Sweeting came out and we presented her with a cheque in 2017. I think it is a huge uplift for them, and it kinda takes their mind off of having to go out and try to keep the organisation alive. It is allowing other people to help them, support them, and let them do what they do best,” he said.

“This month we have pink flags and flag sticks on every hole.

“We haven’t actually set the dates for our 100 holes, but we will be doing that within the coming weeks.

“We have an event in the works that is probably going to take place the second week in November. We are going to look into doing a small invitational and golf tournament where 100 percent of the entry fee goes toward Sister Sister.”

He is grateful to have friends like Chris Kilvington, who comes from England to participate every year.

“This past year I invited Patrick Stevenson, who is a Bahamian, and he joined us.

“He didn’t really have much to say prior to the event. But at the very end when we presented a cheque, he came into my office and told me it was life-changing.

“He just never thought that he would be so emotionally tied to an event like that and having such a big impact,” said Mr Leming.

He said the goal this year is to break the $50,000 mark, which he believes will happen pretty easily.

“And then eventually help get the organisation focus on whether it is a treatment house where people from the Outer Islands can come and stay while they are going through treatment; just more of a broader and bigger picture. I don’t know if that is in the cards right now, especially for me.

“I have just got a platform right now to be able to raise funds, so that is the focus,” said Mr Leming.