Don’t blame Bob Hepner if he’s a little hyper these days. It’s “that time of the year” for The First Tee Sandhills chapter, and Hepner is just a little antsy in anticipation

The First Tee’s Gala and “Bucket List” fundraiser will be held Nov. 16 at Pine Needles Resort, and the public is invited to attend. And the reason for the anxiety is the importance of the occasion.

“This is our major fundraising event of the year,” Hepner said. “Our headline speaker is Jaime Diaz, the senior writer for Golf Digest, who has written several golf-related books and has been named to receive the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award, to be presented at the Masters Tournament in April.

“We will also be presenting The First Tee PGA Tour Pro of the Year Award to William McGirt, the Web.com Player of the Year to Darron Stiles, and the PGA Club Professional of the Year to Kelly Mitchum.”

McGirt is the Fairmont native who recently completed the best season of his young career on the PGA Tour. Stiles earned his PGA Tour card again after a strong season on the Web.com Tour, and Mitchum enjoyed another great season on the Carolinas PGA circuit.

But most important to Hepner are the youngsters in The First Tee program.

“As always, the highlight of the Gala will be saluting our young award-winning First Tee participants,” he said.

Following the awards, there will be a “Bucket List” raffle draw for 21 prizes, including tickets to a University of North Carolina basketball game; rounds of golf at major clubs locally, as well as in Florida, and rounds of golf in Scotland at Royal Troon and Royal Dornich; a six-course gourmet meal for eight; playing lessons with PGA and LPGA professionals, including major championship winner Donna Andrews, now an award-winning instructor at the Pine Needles instruction school; and much more.

Three of The First Tee’s most recent successes are 21-year-old Amanda D’Ostroph, who won her second Moore County Women’s Amateur championship this past summer; Josh Stockwell, who at 16 became the youngest player to win the Moore County Men’s Amateur; and Dalton Wheeless, the 13-year-old who won the Longleaf Country Club’s Men’s Championship a few weeks ago.

For information, call First Tee Executive Director Bill Baker at (910) 783-8288, or Hepner at (910) 215-9585.

Four-Ball: William Rocchi and Robert Oldroyd of Pinehurst combined for a 70 to finish third in the men’s flight A of the Carolinas Golf Association One-Day Four-Ball event held on Pinehurst No. 7.

Mark Sinning Sr. and Mark Sinning Jr. of New Bern won the flight with 67. Tim Copper and Hugh Beckwith of West End shot 76.

Gary Strohl and Bob Sandler of Pinehurst finished eighth with 78 in flight B1, which was won by Rick Mitchell of Myrtle Beach and Eddie Myers of Little River, S.C., with 70.

William Dawson of Pinehurst and Jim Bradley of Leland were third in flight B2 with 78. John Farrell and Allan Vernier of Pinehurst shot 82. Paul Victor of King and Rob Howerton of Clemmons won with 75.

Therese St. Peter of Durham and Susan Colatsky of Raleigh won the women’s flight with 73. Randy McDowell of Asheboro and Bonnie Montgomery of Jamestown won the mixed flight with 70.

CGF Four-Ball: Ed Barnes of Pinehurst and H.E. Barnes of High Point shot 71 to win the men’s B division in the Carolinas Golf Foundation Four-Ball Fundraiser held at Grandfather Golf & Country Club. David Brown of Conover and Joe Tripp of Sherrills Ford won division A with 69.

Hugh Beckwith and Tim Copper of West End shot 75 to tie for fourth. Duff Meyer and Derek Pszenny of Pinehurst shot 81.

Tin Whistles: Bob Sandler shot 74 to win the championship flight of the Tin Whistles Club’s medal play event held on Pinehurst No. 6. Pete Wilkinson was second, winning a card playoff after shooting 80.

Dennis Dolgan won flight A with 80, followed by Murray Stern with 82. Dave Hampton shot 81 to win flight B, followed by Dave Kilpatrick with 82.

Chuck Butters was the flight C winner with 89 and Jan Ludwig was runner-up with 93.

Ron Sundstrom won flight D with 99, followed by Dick Berkshire with 101.