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THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR CONSIDERING TO SUPPORT THE SHEPHERD’S CROOK AND THE GENTLEMEN GOUFFERS OF GARGUNNOCK!!

100% of your donation will go directly to The Shepherd’s Crook as the aforementioned Gentlemen are picking up 100% of any cost associated with the trip, materials and tools for the trip, etc.  Be sure to check back here (Tracking the GGGs) on the day of tee-off and beyond (Wednesday, June 21, 5:23 AM through Sunday, June 25).  You’ll be able to get daily if and often live-time updates from us, including photos and videos, read our logs and much more. 

If you have reached this page, you hopefully already know what we’re doing (literally hitting a golf ball from the eastern shore of Scotland, through fields, towns, yards, until we reach the western shore of Scotland), for whom we’re trying to raise donations (The Shepherd’s Crook – a 501(c)(3) whose sole mission is to support orphans with special needs from around the world with a special emphasis on finding them permanent families; www.TSCOrphans.org), and who we six are (Shep, Frase, Scott, Skip, Bill, Lance – see About tab - there's more information on The Shepherd's Crook there as well). 

So by now you have to be asking yourself:  How can I help orphans with special needs?  Or if that doesn’t float your boat, then:  How can I both buy favor with the aforementioned gouffers and/or ensure one of the aforementioned gouffers doesn’t start trolling my social accounts reminding me that I don’t want to be ‘That one person they know who ignored their pleas for the children.’  Well, we have four options for you to choose from (or choose more than one :-):

OPTION 1:  A simple donation.

Make a donation that directly to The Shepherd's Crook. On the pull-down menu on their page, be sure to select the account "Gentlemen Gouffers Option 1 - Individual Donatioins" (near the bottom). [also donations through Facebook to The Shepherd's Crook Orphan Ministry works well took]

OPTION 2: Donate a given amount per stroke taken BY YOUR CHOSEN PLAYER (go to Tracking GGG'S TAB TO KNOW HOW MUCH THIS WOULD BE (~$35 PER CENT PLEDGED))

We will be death-march-golfing for 5 days and barring any detours, that will cover 50 miles.  We don’t have any experience with this, but our best uneducated guess puts the number of strokes take at each ball in play at somewhere between 3,500 to 4,500 (this assumes an average of 20-25 yards per stroke???).  Below, please choose how much you want to donate per stroke, you will then be asked which gouffer to place your donation on, and finally enter your contact information (it will be kept private).  Once play begins on June 21, you can track our shots each day and find out the final amount of your donation on June 25 via the Tracking the GGGs tab above.  Within 10 days of our return, we will also reach out to you and let you know the final amount and how to make payment. (again, depending greatly on the player you choose, it will be 4,000 strokes (give or take a lot?) multiplied by the the number of cents per stroke you click below)

OPTION 3 (CLOSED):  balls & pints (basically guess how many jellybeans in the jar for $20).  mICHELLE tOWER WAS THE WINNER WITH A GUESS OF 402 (TOTAL WAS 399)!

So you’ve given until it hurts above and now you want a chance to win some of that orphan money back?  Well here’s a chance to give some more and if you’re lucky, take as well.  Put your thinking caps on for this one:

CLUES FOR THE FIRST COMPONENT:  Six grown men of waning physical abilities taking turns hitting two balls in play for 5 straight days (~50 miles).  In total, we estimate that each ball in play will have been swung at between 3,500 to 4,500 times…through swamps, forests, up and down hills, down streets, into towns, in and out of grazing pastures, out of gorse, etc.  The gouffers will sometimes be grumpy, inattentive, intoxicated, wet, and possibly injured.  Your First Task:  Come up with a guess as to how many balls will this group lose in Total between the eastern shore of Scotland and the western shore.  Again, total for all 6 of us.

CLUES FOR THE SECOND COMPONENT:  Six grown men in the prime of their drinking life will be marching through a dozen towns over the course of 5 days.  By rule 1.0., whenever anyone passes within 100 yards of a pub, play must cease while everyone has a pint.  We’ll also be stopping for lunch, second lunch, dinner, post-dinner and midnight grocery runs.  Your Second Task:  Come up with a guess as to how many pints in Total this group will consume between teeing off on the eastern shore and holing-in on the western shore some 50 miles later.  We will only be counting pints (even heaven-forbid, partially drank ones) but not swigs from a flask, mixed drinks (unless served in a pint glass) or Zima.  

YOUR WAGER:  Take the above two numbers and adjust them as necessary by also factoring in:  Your knowledge of the players drinking and golfing skills, research you've done on course conditions, the condition of the gouffers (current pre-existing conditions that could negatively impact performance include: a bad ankle, current kidney stones, a whiny disposition, and one of them is Scottish), and watching the scanners for the prevalence of Scottish Yard in the region.  Add the result (Total Lost Balls + Total Pints Drank), click below and enter your best guess, contact information and then click the payment link ($20 per guess).  The winner will get 40% of the pot, 2nd place 10% and the rest will go to The Shepherd's Crook.  (ties will split the split)  

OPTION 4

Don't have any money to directly donate, but enough to shop on Amazon? Bookmark this link and click it before you buy anything on Amazon, and a small portion of every purchase going forward will go to the Shepherd's Crook.  (or go to your Amazon account, type Amazon Smile in the search, and follow the prompts to choose The Shepherd's Crook as the organization you're supporting; .5% of all your purchases will then go to them while not costing you anything at all)

Link: http://smile.amazon.com/ref=org_sls_rlp_sas_sml

Other ways to support The Shepherd's Crook:  http://www.tscorphans.org/support-tsc/other-ways-to-support-tsc/

 

UPDATE:  It's officially been 1 year.  We've raised over $8,000 for Shepherd's Crook.  We continue to add photos to our Gargunnocks Facebook page.  To-date we're still the only people to have golfed across Scotland, although a few others have begun talking about doing so.  We're sending out magical wonders to those that have logged their artifacts prior to 6/25/18.  Thank you to all who took the time - some funny findings (sticker found in the middle of a toilet paper roll), some cute (a couple kids were out on a treasure hunt with their parents and found a GGG coin under a rock), some puzzling (a GGG poker chip in the collection plate of a church).  Please continue to report any findings...there aren't a lot of people doing so, so if you make one of us laugh or smile, we'll likely still send something your way.  Down to the man, this adventure holds a very special place in our memories.