Mortgage professionals descended on TPC Stonebrae, a country club just outside the Bay Area, on Monday for the 2018 Ellie Mae Classic.
Colorful polo shirts abound as players lined up for Ellie Mae’s Community Pro-Am, sponsored by HousingWire, where teams of three industry amateurs partnered with a pro to hit the links for a good cause.
The event, now in its fourth year, raises money for the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Opens Doors Foundation, which provides financial relief to families with critically ill children.
It also benefits the Warriors Community Foundation, the charitable arm of the Golden State Warriors. Stephen Curry, the team’s star guard, will compete alongside other big names – like Andre Iguodala, Dallas Braden and Jose Canseco – in the event’s Celebrity Shootout against Web.com tour pros on Thursday.
At the Pro-Am kickoff Monday morning, HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins delivered a $40,000 check to support Opens Doors from HousingWire and the rest of the Pro-Am sponsors, which included Ellie Mae, Teraverde Financial, PrimeLending and Pulte Mortgage.
“At HousingWire, we’re not only focused on keeping housing industry professionals informed with breaking news and insightful journalism, we also seek to build a community of engaged housing professionals,” said Collins.
“The Community Pro-Am brings together some of the most impactful executives in the industry with the shared mission of giving back through support of the MBA Opens Doors Foundation,” he added.
For some of the players, Opens Doors’ mission is personal.
Teraverde Financial CEO Jim Deitch, an Opens Doors board member, said his own daughter’s cancer battle motivated him to get involved.
“Thankfully, we were able to step in and help her, but what about the people who have to make a choice between caring for a sick child or working to make a mortgage payment?” Deitch said.
“Opens Doors provides the opportunity for seven hospitals to refer people who need help. They have the opportunity to have their mortgage or rent payment made while they’re tending to their very sick child, so they don’t have to make a choice between taking care of their child and keeping their home,” Deitch added.
Deitch said the donation from sponsors of the Ellie Mae Community Pro-Am presented by HousingWire will help 15 to 17 families afford a month’s worth of rent or mortgage payments.
(Photo courtesy of Ellie Mae Photographer Mark Chow)
