The Newton County Chamber of Commerce tee’d off their 30th annual golf tournament on Thursday, April 25.

The Chamber held the tournament at Ashton Hills Golf Club in Covington and with Snapping Shoals EMC serving as the main sponsor. Thursday’s tournament was organized with the idea of bringing people within the chamber and in the community together to network.

At the beginning of the tournament, chamber member and event director, Olivia Hegwood, spoke about the chamber’s mission with the event.

“The mission is to get our members in our larger industries to get employees out here to be able to network together with people they don’t typically get to network with,” Hegwood said. “[Also] to enjoy the day out in the community. We have other community members out here setting up networking tents to meet golfers and people you don’t have the opportunity to meet at our regular events.”

With a variety of different industries playing in the tournament and with more waiting in tents to network, the event provided an opportunity for everyone.

“From small to large businesses, we have lots of different people out here being able to meet each other and start relationships,” Hegwood said.

With this year’s event being the 30th annual, Hegwood discussed the Chamber’s desire to continue hosting and building up the golf tournament.

“We have a constant want and need for this event,” Hegwood said. “People don’t join the chamber for this event, but this is a big selling point to be able to get as many people out here as we do. We have around 150 people out here, including golfers and all of our networking tent people and our sponsors set up.”

Due to Ashton Hills Golf Course being a member of the Chamber and close in proximity to downtown, Hegwood spoke about how those factors led to them continuing to host the event close to home.

“They are right here in our community,” Hegwood said. “We love to stay local and give back to the community.”

Hegwood also mentioned how the event provided an opportunity for companies’ entire staff to come out, instead of it just being each company's higher-ranking members.

“It’s getting your name out here, your brand out here and getting that seen by all the golfers especially,” Hegwood said. “It may not be all of the main people involved at General Mills, it is their employees. Some of the companies out here offer the team to the employees as an employee-appreciation type thing.”

The tournament featured two flights that consisted of 13 groups each.

In the first flight, JACO Contracting won first place. The members of the group included Corey Womack, Ryan Gandee, Kyle Mills and Nick Womack. 

Kwik Change took home second place in the first flight. Justyn Gigliotti, Jennifer Rutberg, Jared Rutberg and Will Norton were the members of the group.

In the second flight, first place belonged to Keenan Media. The members of Keenan Media’s group included Brett Keenan, Lane Keenan, Josh Estep and Michael Faulk.

Snapping Shoals earned second place in the second flight. Shaun Mock, Scott Reagin, Neil Johnson and Ritchey Spivey made up the group.

With good weather, a large turnout and competitive golf, Hegwood was pleased with the result of the 30th edition of the annual golf tournament.

“[It’s been] Amazing, I think everything has gone smoothly,” Hegwood said. “Everyone has shown up, checked in [and] it’s a beautiful day.”