Hollister - More than 100,000 golf balls are on their way to Iraq.
That journey, dubbed "Operation: Persian Golf," marks the final stage of what started as a local campaign to collect golf balls for American troops in Iraq. Judy Pulling, a Ridgemark resident, initially had hoped to collect and send 50,000 balls by July 4 of this year. But as word of local efforts spread, Pulling ended up with 130,000 balls and 300 clubs, donated mainly from residents of San Benito, Santa Clara and Monterey counties.
On Tuesday, Pulling watched as the final boxes were loaded on a truck bound for Los Angeles, and from there to Iraq.
"I feel fantastic," she said. "Boy, somehow Ridgemark got connected with the world."
The biggest donor, Pulling said, is Ridgemark resident Marshall Crisman, who gave 11,000 golf balls to the cause. Crisman said he enjoys walking around the Ridgemark golf course at night and collecting stray balls. Even before Pulling's campaign, Crisman said he'd collected 5,000 or 6,000 balls.
"My wife was after me to get them out of my garage," he said.
Even Ridgemark CEO Mark Davis helped out, donating 100 balls that had been "collecting dust in the garage."
"I've really got to hand it to our members," Davis said. "This really ballooned."
Pulling, who Davis called the campaign's "spark plug," said she first thought of collecting golf balls after listening to the radio show "Hooked on Golf" and hearing that soldiers in Iraq have been hitting golf balls to relieve stress.
Pulling said that the big obstacle wasn't collecting the balls, but rather getting them to Iraq. She managed to ship a few boxes overseas, but around 116,000 balls have been sitting in a storage facility owned by local company Teknova since July, while Pulling struggled to find an affordable means of transportation.
"I even called Tiger Woods," she said.
Pulling finally succeeded after talking to Julie DeMaria, a founder of Operation: Care and Comfort based in San Jose. DeMaria, in turn, talked to Terry Delacruz, command master chief with the Navy Operational Support Center San Jose, and those balls are now flying free of charge via National Air Cargo.
The balls will be distributed to military bases throughout Iraq, DeMaria said, and those bases will be setting up "putt-putt" courses for the soldiers.
"That's a lot of golf balls," she said.
DeMaria said she started Operation: Care and Comfort to send care packages to soldiers shortly after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Even as the war has become more unpopular, DeMaria said support for her program has grown.
"I know, soldiers keep telling me, 'I can't believe you're doing this and you're from the Bay Area,'" DeMaria said. "But we're very careful to make it clear that this is not a political issue."
And Delacruz said soldiers will definitely appreciate the gift.
"Golfing in the sand, that's going to be something else," he said.
Anthony Ha Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or aha@freelancenews.com.
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San Benito Score: Football, golf, tennis and cross country
