FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Fairhope Lions Club will tee off its 20th annual golf tournament on Sunday, Oct. 4, at Quail Creek Golf Course, with proceeds going toward the club’s community outreach programs and service projects for the coming year.
The tournament helps pay for the club’s service work, and this year’s field will be playing for more than bragging rights. Two par-3 holes will carry hole-in-one prizes, including a new 2026 Chevrolet Equinox and a $25,000 cash award.
Tournament details
The tournament will use a scramble format, in which each player on a team hits, the team picks the best shot, and everyone plays from that spot. The format keeps the pace moving and gives golfers of all skill levels a chance to contribute, which is one reason it is a favorite for charity events.
- Date: Sunday, Oct. 4
- Location: Quail Creek Golf Course, 19841 Quail Creek Drive, Fairhope
- Registration and lunch: 11 a.m.
- Shotgun start: 1 p.m.
- Cost: $125 per player, or $200 for a player and spouse
Registration covers golf, lunch, beverages, mulligans and awards, along with a putting contest and a silent auction. A shotgun start means teams begin at different holes around the course at the same time, so the entire field starts and finishes together.
The club’s website directs golfers who want to register to call the Quail Creek Golf Course pro shop at 251-990-0240.
A car and $25,000 on the line
Golfers will have a chance at two hole-in-one prizes on the course’s par-3 holes. Terry Thompson Chevrolet is providing a 2026 Chevrolet Equinox for an ace on one hole, and Dream Vacations is providing a $25,000 cash award for a hole-in-one on another.
Where the money goes
Money raised at the tournament will support three local organizations in particular: Ecumenical Ministries, Prodisee Pantry and the Alabama Free Clinic. All three serve Baldwin County residents who are struggling, whether with food, health care or other basic needs.
The Fairhope Lions Club also supports a number of other causes, including:
- Camp Seale Harris, a camp for children with diabetes
- Camp Rap-A-Hope, a camp for children with cancer
- Leader Dogs for the Blind
- Other organizations that assist people in need throughout Baldwin County
Those causes line up with the long-standing priorities of Lions clubs around the world, which focus heavily on vision, hunger, childhood cancer and diabetes. The Fairhope club’s own list of service areas also includes youth development and environmental work.
Sight is the signature cause
The Fairhope Lions Club has served Baldwin County for 63 years, and much of its work centers on helping people see. Through partnerships with Ecumenical Ministries, the Alabama Free Clinic, Prodisee Pantry and Walmart, the club provides eye exams and prescription glasses to people in need.
According to the club, 198 people have received eye exams and glasses through its vision screening events since 2022. The club has also worked with Alabama Lions Sight and the Access Vision Mobile Eye Clinic.
The club also collects used eyeglasses. Last year, members gathered more than 3,500 pairs of used glasses, which are refurbished and distributed to people who need them but cannot afford a new pair. Eyeglass recycling is one of the best-known Lions programs; donated frames and lenses are cleaned, sorted by prescription and passed along to people in need.
The club has also listed donations to Catholic Social Services and the William F. Green State Veterans Home among its community contributions.
Part of a global service network
The Fairhope club is one of thousands of local clubs affiliated with Lions Clubs International, a service organization founded more than a century ago. Each local club chooses its own projects based on the needs of its community, while sharing the international organization’s broader service causes.
The Fairhope Lions Club meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at Clovis Café, 19548 Boothe Road in Fairhope. The club’s officers for 2026-2027 are President Jo Nelson, Vice President Alberta Porter, Secretary Frank Adams and Treasurer Bill Bonniwell.
A city course with a charity mission
Quail Creek is Fairhope’s municipal golf course, an 18-hole layout owned and operated by the city. The course features three lakes and more than 40 sand traps, along with a driving range, practice putting and chipping greens and a practice bunker. The Quail Creek Grill and Snack Bar, which recently expanded its outdoor patio, serves players after the round.
The course has long been a home for charity golf in Fairhope. It hosts and supports events for a range of local groups, from the Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation and Shepherd’s Place to Kiwanis Clubs, Prodisee Pantry, the Knights of Columbus and Lions Clubs International’s sight and diabetes causes.
Charity tournaments like the Lions’ event are among the most common ways nonprofits in Baldwin and Mobile counties raise money. For a service club, a single well-attended tournament can underwrite a year’s worth of eye exams, glasses and donations to local agencies, and the Fairhope Lions are now marking two decades of their own.
Proceeds from this year’s tournament will fund the club’s outreach programs and service activities for the year ahead.