Briana Vega (Photo: Duramed FUTURES Tour)
Beating breast cancer is personal for Briana Vega, a five-year veteran of the Duramed Futures Tour. That’s why the Andover, MA, native and many of her golfing competitors wore pink and white Champ spikes during last week’s $100,000 Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City Championship.
"Everyone knows someone who is affected by cancer, and for me personally, it's my mom,” says Vega. “I'm happy that I can participate."
Champ donates $50 to the American Cancer Society on behalf of each golfer wearing the commemorative spikes. Indeed, the Marlborough, MA-based firm reports increasing success since Mother’s Day 2007, when it launched its Pink-on-the-Links program to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research.
The program, which involves LPGA, PGA, European, and Futures Tour players, coincides with Mother’s Day each year. In 2009, Champ has donated $10,000 to ACS based on the recent participation of 76 LPGA golfers at the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill (Williamsburg, VA), 70 PGA competitors at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass (Ponte Vedra Beach, FL), and 54 golfers participating in Portugal’s Madeira Islands Open on the European Tour. Final numbers for last week’s Futures Tour event will be available in June, according to a Champ spokesperson.
Champ, the “official” golf spike of the Futures Tour, will also donate a percentage of sales during the month of May through golfspikes.com. For each pack of spikes sold during May, the online golf store will match Champ’s contribution.
The leading brand of spikes in pro golf, Champ is a division of MacNeill Engineering Worldwide, which has designed and made athletic footwear components since 1931. The commemorative pink and white spikes are a variation of the company’s popular black and yellow Stinger spikes. Champ manufactures Stinger spikes with green-friendly, dual-density plastic, which the company says offers “maximum traction, comfort, and stability.”
In its 28th year, The Duramed Futures Tour is the largest international women’s developmental tour, graduating more than 500 alumnae to the LPGA, including 2008 Play of the Year, Lorena Ochoa. Through 2008, Future Tour graduates garnered 345 LPGA victories and 37 major championships. The Futures Tour schedule includes stops in New England later this summer.
Elisa Serramia of Barcelona, Spain, wore the pink and white spikes as she claimed her first Futures Tour victory with a five-over 218 at last week’s Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City Championship. Vega finished tied for 50th with a three-day total of 229 at the par-71 Leawood South CC.
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