Minicourses open tourneys for benefits to more players

Bay View Mini-Putt owner Kenn Yuen has brainstormed a new idea that combines two long-standing favorite activities in Hawaii: golf tournaments and fundraising.

OK, many if not most local golf tournaments are fundraisers for worthy Hawaii charities, but not everybody golfs and not everybody can afford to pay hundreds of dollars to enter. You also have to own or otherwise obtain a set of clubs.

Just about anybody can play miniature golf, though — and the courses provide the putters.

Bay View Mini-Putt is open to the public, available for private parties, and is now adding nonprofit fundraising to its business mix.

Yuen plays in three or four golf tournaments a year, and from 2002 to 2008 he coordinated the annual "Pocho Shoot-Out" benefit for Frank De Lima’s Student Enrichment Program, so he’s hip to how golf tournaments work and how to tweak the model for mini-putt purposes.

The appeal would be much broader than a regular golf tournament, Yuen figures.

Participants could be nongolfers, adults, kids, senior citizens or a mix. Oh, and actual golfers would not be turned away.

Mini-putt fundraisers would be "just to have fun, raise money, not be male-oriented and not take all day," Yuen said. Participants could go back to the office (or not), whereas regular golf tournaments can start early in the morning and last into the evening.

As with regular tournaments, a nonprofit could get each hole sponsored. Say grocery store X sponsors a hole for $250, so a hole-in-one winner would receive "a turkey, or whatever," Yuen said.

Bay View Mini-Putt has two 18-hole courses, and if companies sponsor all 36 holes at $250 each, the nonprofit host could raise $9,000.

Were each participant to pay $15 to play on a three-member team, and two three-member teams play each hole before moving around the course, that’s another $3,240. Teams also can find sponsors, Yuen noted.

At real golf tournaments, golfers can buy "do-overs," or mulligans, and Yuen calculates that at $5 each a nonprofit could make another estimated $1,080.

So, $9,000 plus $3,240 plus $1,080 equals $13,320. Subtract the discounted nonprofit green fees and they’ve made $10,890.

A nonprofit’s planner could line up food stations along the course, as have many companies and organizations that have had parties at Bay View.

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On the Net:

» bayviewminiputt.com

Windward gamerz rejoice

The new Kaneohe location of PC Gamerz has opened in Kaneohe Shopping Center at 45-934 Kamehameha Highway at Paleka Road, near Times Super Market.

"We’re tucked away," in the same building as GBC Boxes & Packaging "facing Firestone," said owner Jimmy Wolarey.

In addition to being open to the public, it is a short-term, off-base base for career assessments for military personnel receiving help from the Wounded Warrior Project.

"They gave us a great discount," said a career counselor who is not permitted to have her name published. "We take our military members out of the military environment" for sessions that will expose them to potential post-military career paths.

PC Gamerz is open from noon to 4 a.m. in 3,300 square feet, cavernous by comparison with its previous 1,600 square feet.

"We have expanded to 12 Xbox systems, and we’ll have 30 computers, possibly 35 within the next week," said Wolarey’s son Devin, who manages the store. Two billiards tables also will be added in the next couple weeks.

"It’ll be a good thing for kids that would want to learn how to play pool outside of a bar setting," Devin said.

As previously reported in this space, PC Gamerz has a strict no-booze-or-drugs policy.

The next all-nighter at PC Gamerz Kaneohe will be July 28, since many gamers start school the following Monday. In-store pre-registration costs $17 but goes up to $20 for Xbox play and $25 for PC play the day of the event.

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On the Net:

» pcgamerzhawaii.com

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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.