Rob Holmes in Toronto. He’s been running a Masters golf pool every year for more than 30 years, with 25 per cent of the proceeds going to several charities.Supplied
The organizer: Rob Holmes
The pitch: Raising $60,000 and climbing
The cause: Various charities
Rob Holmes has always been a sports fanatic, so it was no surprise when he launched a Masters Tournament office pool back in 1993.
Mr. Holmes was doing audit work with PwC at the time and around 20 colleagues joined. He had initially wanted to do an NCAA basketball pool but there were more golf fans in the office.
“Everybody thought it was fun. So next year came around and I put it together again,” Mr. Holmes recalled from his home in Toronto.
He kept up the pool after he left PwC for Nike Inc. and later ASICS Corp. The number of entrants – who initially chipped in $10 each – grew from 20 to several hundred.
Running the pool started to become too much work, and Mr. Holmes, 55, nearly gave it up in 2012 until his brother came up with an idea. He suggested doubling the entry fee to $20 and donating a quarter of the proceeds to charity.
“I was like, ‘That’s a good idea. I can suck it up a little bit and do the work, as long as I know money is going to charity,’” Mr. Holmes said. He also pledged to top up the donations by 50 per cent.
He thought the number of entrants would fall back from 500 to 300. Instead it kept growing. Last year, around 1,200 people participated.
So far the pool has raised around $60,000 for several charities including Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, Make-A-Wish Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society and Toronto’s Daily Food Bank.
Mr. Holmes donates the tax refund on the contributions back to the charities. “I get zero tax benefit at the end of the day.”
He’s become famous among participants for his notes and analysis. And while he’s been running the pool for more than 30 years, he’s never won or even cracked the top seven, which win prize money. But he did get to attend the Masters a couple of times, which has more than made up for his poor showing.