MESA, Ariz. – The expression on Daron Sutton’s face left no doubt in my mind that he had some rather exciting news to share. It was mid-afternoon on Monday and Daron was sitting in a golf cart off to the side of the tee box on No. 16 at Mesa Country Club Golf Course when I pulled up behind him, cautiously guiding my own sleek cart provided by our hosts.
I was invited to Mesa CC on Monday to provide some first-hand observations of a golf outing rhythmically named Sutton’s Strokes for Little Folks, a charitable event that raises funds for and creates awareness of the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center (SARRC). Perfect Game was the event’s title sponsor for the second straight year.
Daron Sutton, like myself, is a baseball guy through and through. He is the son of Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, played a season in the minor leagues and has worked as a television and radio broadcaster for more than 20 years. He also serves as Perfect Game’s National Spokesman.
Anyway, Daron is passionate about all of his pursuits, and maybe none more than Sutton’s Strokes for Little Folks. He also has an appreciation for greatness, and it was that appreciation that led him to share with me a happening that had left him both excited and even a little bit humbled.
It seems that Larry Fitzgerald, the eight-time Pro Bowl wide receiver for the NFL Arizona Cardinals and one of the most popular athletes in the Valley of the Sun, is a dues-paying member at Mesa CC. Fitzgerald, Daron told me, had arrived at the course Monday afternoon with five friends unaware there was a special event being held there, and was told that as a member he could certainly go out and play without contributing to the event in any way.
“He said, ‘No, I’m going to play and since you’re having this event I’m going to pay,’” Sutton said Fitzgerald told him. “He literally handed me his credit card and said, ‘I want to pay for two foursomes’ and off he went; he’s out there golfing.”
I put my cart in drive, hammered down the gas (electric?) pedal and headed out on the course, intent on finding the all-world wide receiver. It wasn’t long before I spotted Fitzgerald’s group as they left one green and were heading to the next tee.
Larry was fashionably attired in a red-and-white striped golf shirt and red shorts, with a matching white belt and white shoes. I approached him, introduced myself and asked him what it meant to him to be playing in Sutton’s Strokes for Little Folks.
“I have a good friend who has a son who has autism and I know this money is going to a worthy cause,” he graciously responded as he grabbed a driver from his golf bag. “I’m glad I could be out here doing this with my buddies, and I’m enjoying being out here at a wonderful course like this.”
I don’t live in the Valley but I’ve spent enough time down here in the last couple of years to both realize and appreciate how much Fitzgerald gives back to the community.
“I grew up in a house where charity work was part of our routine so it’s kind of engrained in me,” he told me. “Especially when you’re affected directly with something like autism – there are a lot of people that I know who have children that have been diagnosed with autism – and trying to find a cure and trying to find resources to help the children be able to cope with the ailment.”
Great guy. Great day. Great event.
IT CAME AS ABSOLUTEY NO SURPRISE TO ME that the first familiar face I would see upon my arrival at Mesa Country Club belonged to Brad Clement, Perfect Game’s hard-working Vice President of Business Development.
Brad and his wife, Cynthia, split their time between homes in Iowa and Arizona and both were on hand Monday as Brad prepared to play in the event. He was instrumental in Perfect Game getting involved with Sutton’s Strokes for Little Folks.
“This is the second year Perfect Game has been the title partner for Sutton’s Strokes for Little Folks and we are thrilled to be involved,” Brad told me while helping Daron set up the registration tables. “Particularly, it’s great to be able to help out with the SARRC Foundation, which does great work here in the Phoenix area.”
Mesa Country Club had a real Iowa feel to it at this event, mainly because of Perfect Game’s involvement and the fact that PG still maintains its central headquarters in Cedar Rapids. And that Iowa feel became very personal to me very early in the day.
My late father, Gaylon Dahn, was a high school basketball coach for about 15 years before moving into upper level college administrative responsibilities. His last coaching stop was at Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School, where he won what is still that school’s only boys’ basketball state championship in 1967.
His early years at Jefferson – 1959-61 – were lean but the J-Hawks began to turn the corner in 1962. One of my dad’s top players on that ’62 team, as I remember him telling me through the years, was a tall inside player by the name of Joe Knutson, who still has a home in Cedar Rapids but also spends several months a year here in the Valley.
And, much to my surprise, there he was: Joe Knutson was at Mesa CC Monday, taking part in Sutton’s Strokes for Little Folks on an invitation from his good friend Jerry Ford, Perfect Game’s founder and president (Jerry also played basketball for my dad).
“Man, I haven’t seen you in a long time,” Joe said to me as we shook hands, and I’m thinking, yeah, maybe about 50 years. “Your dad, man, he was quite a character.”
Joe was playing in a foursome that included his son, Steve, who is a graduate of Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School but now lives in the Valley. Steve is a contemporary of former PG standout and current Chicago Cubs outfielder Ryan Sweeney, who graduated from Cedar Rapids Xavier High School.
“My dad knows Jerry from way back when, so it’s definitely the connection to Cedar Rapids that got us out here today,” Steve Knutson told me. “I can’t pass up having a chance to play at Mesa Country Club – I’ve never played this course before and it’s a beautiful venue. I’d rather be anywhere but at work; you can quote me on that.” Consider it done, Steve.
It was a great thing, sitting there in the warm desert sunshine, reminiscing about a couple of generations of the high school sports scene in Cedar Rapids. I graduated from Jefferson High School in 1976, 14 years after Joe Knutson made his last basket in a J-Hawk uniform and nine years after my dad had coached his last game – a state championship game, no less – at the school.
AS I WAS GRABBING AN ICED TEA BEFORE THE START OF PLAY at the Sutton’s Strokes for Little Folks charity event to benefit SARRC, a gentleman wearing a two- or three-year-old Perfect Game All-American Classic golf shirt approached me and introduced himself. He had noticed my own slightly newer PG golf shirt and asked me if I was associated with Perfect Game; I assured him that I was.
Turns out the gentleman was Tom Hanson, who just happens to be a brother-in-law of Perfect Game Vice President Jason Gerst, who I share office space with back at PG Headquarters in Cedar Rapids. Jason and Tom both married sisters who are the daughters of Reese Morgan, the defensive line coach for the University of Iowa's football team.
Tom, who lives with his family in Tempe, was about as pumped up to get out on the course as just about anyone I ran into on this grand day.
Former LPGA Tour member Pam Wright (second from right) sits with volunteers from SARRC at the No. 16 tee box at Mesa Country Club on Monday during play at the 10th annual Sutton’s Strokes for Little Folks.
“I played in this last year and it was just so much fun; everybody was just so nice,” he said. “Some of these tournaments get to be a little bit crazy and you lose sight of what it’s for, but here it’s real cool because there are so many people here from SARRC. You don’t lose sight of what it’s all about.”
Hanson, who is an account executive for World Wide Technology, Inc., was playing in one of the Perfect Game-sponsored foursomes, told me he was going to try to get his company involved with the event because he was impressed with how PG had stepped in.
“(World Wide) is really big into giving back (to the community) so that’s going to be one of my goals for next year,” he said. “It’s cool, man, and Perfect Game is just so awesome for being involved with this.”
One of my first stops once play began using a four-person scramble format was at the tee box at No. 16. Three or four nice ladies from SARRC had set up a table where they were selling raffle tickets and providing informational brochures, while former LPGA Tour player Pam Wright busied herself hitting beautiful shots from the top of a hill and over a road towards a green on the short par-3.
Pam played on the LPGA Tour for 15 years before retiring in 2004; she now lives in Scottsdale and gives lessons at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club in Fort McDowell. On this day, she met each group as they gathered to tee-off on No. 16, and after they hit their shots she would hit one of her own, more as an exhibition than anything else.
“This is great fun,” she told me. “I love meeting people and giving a couple of pointers here and there if somebody wants them. What I’ve learned since coming off the tour and doing these events is just how generous the golfing community is in Arizona.”
In between shots, I asked Pam to sit behind the table with three of the SARRC volunteers so I could take a quick photo. She was more than willing to accommodate the request.
“I would call myself a friend of SARRC,” she told me. “This is my second year involved with the tournament, just coming out here and hitting some balls and having some fun. They’re such great people and it’s such a great organization; it’s easy to do this.”
As the day wore on, I was becoming more and more proud to be in some small way associated with an event that brought together so many caring people. It is not often that my cynical side is so completely repressed.
THE BEAUTIFUL MESA COUNTRY CLUB GOLF COURSE is laid out among rolling hills in a residential area of Mesa and features plenty of trees – including scattered desert palms – plenty of sand and, surprisingly, plenty of water. To hear the golfers tell it, the layout was challenging but fair and, really, a perfect venue for an event like Sutton’s Strokes for Little Folks.
An extensive, looping maze of paved cart paths wend through the course which made getting around a breeze, although I never had any idea where I was at any particular time. I didn’t see any signs identifying the number of the hole or the yardage of each hole but, of course, it’s quite likely I just missed them.
There were no small layout maps on the scorecard simply because – as it was explained to me by a friendly club official in the pro shop – it is a members-only club and they (surprise!) are all intimately familiar with the course.
Right as I pulled my cart up to one of the tee boxes a gentleman playing in the foursome that was preparing to tee-off came running toward me, sounding simultaneously excited and exasperated.
“I can’t believe it!” he shouted in my direction, his eyes growing ever wider. “I just missed getting my first hole-in-one, and I’ve been playing golf for a long time. I missed it by about eight inches. Here, take a look. I took a picture of it.”
The golfer identified himself as Victor Ferreira from Kierland, and now he was digging in his bag for his phone. Victor had indeed taken a picture of where his ball had landed on the green after his previous tee shot and, sure enough, it was about eight inches from the cup. “Wow,” I said clumsily. “That really was a great shot. Too bad it didn’t go in.”
“I can’t believe it,” Ferreira said for the about the sixth time.
Victor explained that he had been invited to play in the event by his good friend Ron Fried, who was also part of this particular foursome. Ron told me he felt very honored to be able to participate in Sutton’s Strokes for Little Folks.
“Mr. Sutton has always given back to the community so when he asked us to come play in this event – and the charity is so worthwhile – we came right away,” Fried said. “We put three foursomes together to make sure we support him like he does us.
“It’s always a good day to come out for a good cause, and for as good of a guy as our host is, it makes it all the more special for the guys that are out here with us today.”
THIS EVENT TO BENEFIT AUTISM RESEARCH AND CREATE AWARENESS was founded 10 years ago by Rob and Kim Feidler whose son, Nolan, is autistic. Daron Sutton, who had been involved with a similar event many years ago when he worked in Milwaukee, took over the organization and management of the SARRC event several years ago after the Fiedlers moved to California.
Immediately after welcoming all the players as they sat in their carts eager to get on the course, Sutton thanked the major sponsors of the event, beginning with Perfect Game. There was Wildflower Bread Company (which also provided boxed lunches to the golfers), the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Athlete Wealth Management, Louisville Slugger, the Arizona Cardinals (thank you again Mr. Fitzgerald), the Chicago Cubs, EvoShield and Sprouts Farmers Markets.
“This is always a day I look forward to for a couple of reasons,” Daron told me. “You get to be with the folks from (SARRC), you get to see their passion for what they do … for families and children with autism, and for their siblings; I have a big heart for their siblings, too, because I think siblings are a very important part of it …”
“Whatever funds we’re able to give them certainly makes it a nice part of the day, but with the people and the money – if you were to line them up the people certainly come first but it’s nice to be able to help with the money – I always look forward to this day.”
He went on to tell me that the event didn’t draw as many golfers as it has in the past but there were more donations from people who couldn’t show up and play but wanted to contribute anyway. People sent in checks and gave out their credit card numbers in a show of support that should add significantly to the more than $250,000 raised the previous nine years. Sutton finds the support humbling.
“To have Larry Fitzgerald, who is a member here and who has every right as a member to come and golf here, show up to golf and then paid his way,” he said. “He didn’t have to and he didn’t need to do that. There are more stories out here like that, but it was a treat to have him do that.”
Great guy. Great day. Great event.