Almost 100 participants, from golf Pros to avid amateurs to enthusiastic onlookers, joined in for the 2012 Cannonball Invitational Pro/Am Tournament which took place recently at Creighton Farms.

As in past years, a host of 2012 generous sponsors made the event financially successful: Ridge Capital Partners, LLC, Friends of the Peter M. Howard Memorial Fund, Belfort Furniture, Ted Britt Ford, Crème de la Crème, The History Channel, and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Annually coordinated by Rick Bechtold, proprietor of Middleburg's Richard Allen Clothing, this year's Cannonball Invitational partnered with the Piedmont Community Foundation, an organization that builds local philanthropic endowment and uses income generated to distribute charitable grants meeting a range of charitable needs in the region from education to hunger to housing to health care to conservation, etc.

The two winning amateur teams at the Cannonball were awarded a charitable fund to launch their own personal endowment funds in the Piedmont Community Foundation, or to add to an existing fund held in the Community Foundation. The two groups will name their fund and decide its charitable vision through a range of giving options common to some 700 community foundations across America and 27 in the Commonwealth.

"We look forward to seeing how our amateur winners focus their future grantmaking as they meet and make decisions about their philanthropy," said Piedmont Community Foundation Board President Brad Davis.

Rob Elgin, Neal Gumbin, and Bill Ballhaus achieved amateur champion status this year with their "lowest gross" score.

A team sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton comprised of players Mark Gerencser, Michael Gomez, and Jack Hubert were also named amateur champions with their "lowest net" scores.