BELLEAIR, Florida – The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican announced today a donation of $100,000 from the 2024 edition of the championship to the Morton Plant Mease Health Care Foundation to help families in need as part of its ‘Birdies for Babies’ charitable program in partnership with BayCare Health System.
Tampa Bay’s annual LPGA Tour event, The ANNIKA took place Nov. 14-17 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla., where Nelly Korda captured her record seventh victory of her 2024 season and her third victory at The ANNIKA in four years.
To give back to the local community, The ANNIKA pledged to donate $50 for every birdie and $100 for every eagle scored during all four rounds of the championship to the Morton Plant Mease Health Care Foundation.
In addition, fans also had the opportunity to donate to the Birdies for Babies program through the ticketing purchasing process online, as well as on-site during tournament week via the ‘BayCare Long Putt Challenge’ adjacent to the tournament’s signature 12th hole.
For every 30-foot putt made during the week, $100 was donated to the Birdies for Babies program.
The 120-player field recorded 1,362 birdies and 12 eagles during the four days of competition, totaling $69,300. Spectators made 189 putts at the “BayCare Long Putt Challenge,” totaling $18,900. Donations from online tickets purchased amounted to $995, for a grand total of $89,195.
The Doyle family, owners of Pelican Golf Club and longtime supporters of the Morton Plant Mease Health Care Foundation, added an additional $10,805 to round up the total donation to $100,000.
All funds received from the 2024 partnership are invested into BayCare’s Mease Countryside and Morton Plant Hospitals to enhance the care of their most vulnerable, premature babies, specifically with access to the NICU2HOME app and a new neonatal transporter.
The NICU2HOME smartphone app is designed to help parents get oriented to their new reality, learn about their baby, track their NICU journey, receive educational information – including milestones – and receive real-time updates on their baby’s status from nurses and doctors caring for their child in the NICU.
Donations also go towards supporting premature infants at Mease Countryside Hospital via a neonatal transporter with an integrated ventilator to transport critical newborns from the hospital’s emergency department and operating rooms to its Labor and Delivery and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
The Birdies for Babies charitable program launched with the inaugural Pelican Women’s Championship in 2020 and now has donated more than $360,000 to families in need from the tournament’s first four years.
- 2020: 932 total birdies were recorded for a $46,600 donation.
- 2021: 1,369 birdies were recorded a $68,450 donation
- 2022: 958 birdies were recorded (three-round tournament) for a $47,900 donation.
- 2023: 1,446 birdies, 19 eagles and more than 200 birdies from the ‘BayCare Long Putt Challenge’ for a $100,000 donation.
- 2024: 1,362 birdies, 12 eagles and 189 birdies form the ‘BayCare Long Putt Challenge for a $100,000 donation
A link to the Birdies for Babies charitable program and donation information can be found here:https://give.mpmfoundation.org/birdies-for-babies
BayCare, a leading not-for-profit health care system, provides a wide range of services at 16 hospitals and hundreds of other convenient locations for patients and their families throughout Tampa Bay and the Central Florida regions.
As a founding partner of The ANNIKA, BayCare is supporting the tournament’s volunteer program that recruits and deploys hundreds of individuals to assist in managing the event.
For more information on The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, visit www.TheAnnika.com