Kow Pasture Klassic's mock golf tourney puts the fun in fundraising

NEW HAMBURG, Mo. -- Last weekend's Masters golf tournament and Saturday's Kow Pasture Klassic both involve competitors walking grassy terrain with the goal of putting a ball into a hole.

But that's where the similarities end.

The Kow Pasture Klassic is everything the Masters is not. The Klassic has no dress code, and T-shirts are promoted, not forbidden. The balls have fuzz, not dimples. Players are more likely to find a cow pie in the fairway than a divot, and rather than golf spikes, players are shod in everything from sneakers to flip flops to muck boots. Instead of galleries lining fairways, spectators at the Klassic enjoy a bird's-eye view from the deck at the back of the second floor of the tavern.

The 25th anniversary edition of the event was held Saturday at its traditional location behind Schindler's Tavern in New Hamburg. The event was expected to raise more than $5,000 for the Kenny Rogers Children's Center in Sikeston, Mo., and the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau.

Kohlfeld Distributing accounts manager Mitch Miller came up with the idea for the Kow Pasture Klassic at the request of Cy Glueck 25 years ago. Glueck, the longtime owner of Schindler's Tavern who died March 22, had been asked by Libby Klipfel if there was anything that could be done to raise money for the Kenny Rogers Children's Center. Klipfel's son Joshua was born with spina bifida and had been receiving treatment at the center since he was 3 months old.

"We just thought it would be a couple of years and done, but here we are at the 25th anniversary," Miller said.

Klipfel said Joshua was the first to tee off at the inaugural classic, and has either played in or helped at every event since then.

Glueck had helped keep the Klassic going over the years, and he was on the minds of many at the event Saturday, including Miller.

"We went to the gravesite this morning and put a [Kow Pasture Klassic] shirt on Cy's grave stone," said Miller.

Klipfel said that even in his dying days Glueck did all he could help to promote the event.

"Even while he was in the hospital and on hospice he still sold tickets to people who came to see him while he was alert, and he got the nurses helping selling tickets," Klipfel remembered. "That's how dear this was to his heart."

As far as the golf itself, the rules are loose, and "clubs" are left to the imagination and ingenuity of the players.

Darrin Beal and Jon-Erik Kern of New Hamburg played in a foursome with friends Brandon Jobe and Zach Arnold of Cape Girardeau. The quartet's main weapon was a modified potato gun constructed from PVC pipe, an air fitting and a ball valve. They carried two air tanks that charged the gun with enough power to fire the tennis balls up to 100 yards.