One Step at a Time

Hundreds and hundreds of people descended on Quail Hollow Club on Tuesday night for the third annual Walk Against Domestic Violence.
Sam Greenwood

May 4, 2011

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The PGA TOUR wives in attendance at the third Walk the Course Against Domestic Violence wore white caddie bibs with pink trim. Some walked with their husbands, some pushed their children in strollers, some had a quick pace and others took a more leisurely stroll.

But they walked . . . and walked the acreage of Quail Hollow Club, site of this week’s Wells Fargo Championship.

The wives weren’t the only ones decked out among the more than 1,000 people who came to walk in the event that raised money for this cause.

There was the Gaston College Diva Divots and Dudes in their matching shirts. Standing nearby were the Akers Pharmacy Girls and a group calling themselves The Pearlies, in hot-pink.

Everybody—young and old, male and female—in the assembled crowd seemed to be in good spirits, and the rainy weather that eventually did come held off long enough to make the night a fun one—even though the purpose and cause behind the walk is serious.

“Our passion is to lift up kids and families,” Amy Wilson, president of the PGA TOUR Wives Association and wife of PGA TOUR player Mark, told the throng. “Fifteen million American children witness domestic violence in their homes every year. Domestic violence is not a private matter, and it should be publicized. It’s not a glamorous cause, and it’s not a fun cause. But we can do something about this problem that is just not acceptable.”

The walk expected to raise in excess of $100,000 for North Carolina women’s shelters, with Wells Fargo, title sponsor of the Wells Fargo Championship, adding $5,000 to the total.

To donate or learn more about domestic violence, click here. And to read more about one wife’s experience, click here