RSM Classic: Davis Love III Has Charity Programs That Work
In leading the charitable drive of the RSM Classic, Davis Love III is looking to follow in the footsteps of legends like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
Davis Love III announced this week at the RSM Classic that he had received a check from RSM for $2 million for the tournament’s Birdies for Love program. He’d like to take credit for the Birdies for Love idea, but he fessed up. He stole it from the John Deere tournament.
The idea came at a meeting about what other tournaments were doing to raise money for charity.
“I was obviously not paying close attention, and then all of sudden somebody said, well the John Deere Classic does X amount of dollars with their birdies program, and I said, whoa, whoa, say that again?” he explained. “We got really interested, and we tried it, and I think the first few years were, you know, $100,000 or something.”
The first year, with just the local area involved, they raised $16,000 according to the RSM media director.
RSM asked if they could help out and expand it. According to Love they wanted to take the program nationally and get their offices around the country involved, raise money and create awareness in each office.
“I don’t know what they did the first year,” Love said, “but last year, they did $1.5 million.”
Now, $2 million. A big jump since the beginning.
The RSM Classic truly gives back to its supporting communities
“If they sell the tickets, they get the money. We don’t make any money off of it.”
What happens with the $2 million, according to Love, is that RSM sends a check to the tournament, and the tournament writes checks to all the RSM offices that participated in accordance with the amount each office raised for local charities. The local offices then present the money to charities in their areas which means that the RSM tournament funds organizations across the country as well as in southeast Georgia.
“The money goes back to each individual community that raised that money,” Love explained.
There are other programs to help local charities in southeast Georgia make money though the RSM Classic. One way is with the ticket sales program.
"“If they sell the tickets, they get the money,” Love explained succinctly. “We don’t make any money off of it. So, it’s a way when somebody comes to us and says, will you give us the money, we say sure, you sell tickets, we’ll give you the money.”"
It also gets more of the community involved with the tournament. Because the charity gets 100% of the money they raise with ticket sales, it gets more people to become stakeholders in the success of the RSM Classic.
“We learned that John Deere has so many smaller charities all around the Quad Cities and the four states and probably a farther reach through how big John Deere is,” Love added. “It really spreads out. We don’t say we’re just doing Boys and Girls Club and Special Olympics. We touch so many other charities through those programs.”
Love III, RSM Classic take a page from Palmer and Nicklaus
As far as why Love got involved in a tournament at Sea Island, he said he took his cue from Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
“That was the next thing in their giving back to the game, to support a golf tournament, to have a tournament at their home course,” Love added. “So many other guys may not have their name on it, but it’s kind of their home tournament, and they support it. Zach Johnson is on the board at the John Deere, and it’s a big part of what he does for the year is support the John Deere Classic.”
While Love is not in the fundraising category of Nicklaus or Palmer, at least not yet, he’s interested in doing what he can.
“We have 150-something guys here that are doing that for me, for the Tour week in and week out, and one of them will one day be in the Hall of Fame and they will be trying to do this in their community,” Love continued. “Arnold saw the power of what he had helped create, and he wanted to do it in his hometown, so it’s a big part of what we do.”
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It’s a model Davis Love III seems proud to follow.