The Charity Golf Circuit in Southern Maine: The Tournaments That Quietly Raise Millions
On a Monday morning in late summer, the parking lot at a private club in Falmouth fills with cars before nine. Foursomes wheel pull carts toward a shotgun start. There is a registration table, a stack of player gifts, a banner for a hospital or a children's charity, and a quiet, almost businesslike energy. By early afternoon the same people are on a clubhouse deck with a drink, and somewhere in the background a check for tens of thousands of dollars has effectively been written. Then everyone goes home, and the public never hears a word about it.
This happens a dozen times a summer across Greater Portland, and it adds up to one of the largest, least-visible philanthropic engines in the state. Charity golf in Southern Maine raises millions of dollars a year for children's hospitals, camps for kids who could not otherwise go, and the families who sleep beside their sick children. Most residents have no idea it exists. There is a structural reason for that, and it is worth understanding, because once you see the circuit you can actually take part in it.
Why you have never heard of most of these
The biggest charity tournaments in the region are hosted at private clubs, and private clubs do not market to the general public. They have no reason to. The field fills from the membership and from corporate sponsors who come back every year, the logistics are handled by a small committee, and local news covers it lightly if at all. The result is a genuine information gap: events that move serious money for genuinely good causes, happening behind a gate that most people assume they cannot walk through.
That assumption is usually wrong. You do not need to be a member of a private club to play in its charity tournament. The whole point of a charity scramble is to get as many paying foursomes onto the course as possible, which means most of these events are open to anyone willing to register a team or sponsor a hole. For one day a year, the velvet rope comes down. Knowing the calendar is the only barrier.
Drive Fore Kids: the celebrity one
The marquee event on the local charity calendar is Drive Fore Kids, held every June at Falmouth Country Club. It is a celebrity golf tournament presented by Shamrock Sports and Entertainment, and it benefits two causes at once: the MaineHealth Barbara Bush Children's Hospital and the Dempsey Center, the cancer-support nonprofit founded by Maine native and actor Patrick Dempsey. Since it began in 2023 it has raised more than half a million dollars for Maine kids.
What makes it unusual is the scale and the star power. Over four days the event mixes pro-am rounds, a draft party, and appearances by actors and former professional athletes, and despite the private setting much of the weekend is open to the public. If you want the fullest picture of how it works and how to attend, we wrote a complete guide to Drive Fore Kids at Falmouth Country Club. It is the rare case where a private club throws its gates open on purpose, and it is the single best entry point into the Maine charity golf world for someone who has never been to one.
Maine's largest charitable golf tournament
The biggest single fundraiser, by money raised, is the annual tournament benefiting the MaineHealth Barbara Bush Children's Hospital, the state's only full-service children's hospital. In 2026 it is scheduled for Thursday, September 24, and it does something clever: it runs simultaneously at three of the best private clubs in the region, Boothbay Harbor Country Club, Prouts Neck Country Club, and The Woodlands Club, with players gathering afterward for a reception on the deck at Woodlands. Spreading one tournament across three courses is how it fits a very large field, which is how it has become the largest charitable golf tournament in the state.
For a golfer, there is a second draw layered under the giving. Prouts Neck and Boothbay Harbor are courses most people will never otherwise get onto. Prouts Neck is one of the best-designed courses in Maine, and Boothbay Harbor is one of the best-conditioned. A charity entry is, quietly, one of the only ways the general public gets a tee time at either. You give to a cause that matters and you play a course you could not otherwise book. That is the deal these events offer, and it is a good one.
The rest of the circuit worth knowing
Beyond the two headliners, a handful of tournaments come back every year and are worth putting on your radar:
The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine golf tournament is a longstanding fixture, typically held at The Woodlands Club in Falmouth. It funds the house that gives families a free place to stay while their children are treated at nearby hospitals, which is about as direct and tangible as charity gets. RMHC of Maine also runs a Central Maine tournament; check rmhcmaine.org/golf for this year's dates and locations before you plan around it.
Camp Susan Curtis holds an annual tournament benefiting its free summer camp for Maine children from low-income families. The camp has sent kids to the Maine woods at no cost to their families for decades, and the golf tournament is one of its signature fundraisers. Details are at susancurtis.org.
The Opportunity Alliance, one of Southern Maine's largest social-services nonprofits, runs a "Golf for Good" tournament, generally at Spring Meadows Golf Club in Gray, supporting its programs for families and people in crisis across the region.
Tournament dates and host courses shift from year to year, so treat any specific date here as a starting point and confirm with the organization directly before you register. The causes do not change, and neither does the basic shape of the day: a morning shotgun, a scramble format that forgives a rusty swing, lunch on the course, and a reception with prizes at the end.
How to actually take part
You do not have to be a scratch golfer or a club member to do this. Charity scrambles are best-ball formats designed for mixed-ability foursomes, which means a beginner and a single-digit handicap can share a cart and both have a good day. There are three ways in. Register a team, which is the most fun and usually the best value per person. Sponsor a hole or a prize if you run a business and want the visibility along with the giving. Or, for the events that welcome spectators, simply show up to the reception and bid in the auction. The Drive Fore Kids weekend in particular has public-facing pieces that cost nothing to attend.
If you want to support kids' causes in Maine and you happen to like golf, this is the most enjoyable possible way to do both. And if you are new to the area, a charity tournament is a genuinely good way to meet people, since the same companies and families turn out year after year and the whole event is built around being social. It is one of the quieter ways that building a life and a community in Southern Maine actually happens.
Beyond the fairway
Golf is the most visible slice of Maine's giving calendar but far from the only one. Galas, benefit dinners, road races run for charity, and auctions fill out the year, and many of the same causes that anchor the golf circuit, the children's hospital chief among them, hold events in every season. The competitive-running calendar overlaps here too: plenty of Southern Maine road races run as fundraisers, and several of the family-friendly events worth planning a weekend around double as community benefits. The throughline is the same one the golf tournaments prove every summer. A surprising amount of the good that gets done in this state happens while people are out enjoying themselves, and the only thing standing between you and joining in is knowing when and where.
FAQ
Do you have to be a private club member to play in a charity golf tournament in Maine?
No. Most charity tournaments are open to the public to register a team, even when they are hosted at a private club. The format is designed to fill the course with paying foursomes, so anyone can usually enter or sponsor. A charity entry is often the only way the general public can play private courses like Prouts Neck Country Club or Boothbay Harbor Country Club.
What is the biggest charity golf tournament in Maine?
The annual tournament benefiting the MaineHealth Barbara Bush Children's Hospital is the largest by money raised. In 2026 it is scheduled for Thursday, September 24, and runs simultaneously across three private clubs, Boothbay Harbor Country Club, Prouts Neck Country Club, and The Woodlands Club, with a closing reception at Woodlands.
What is Drive Fore Kids?
Drive Fore Kids is a celebrity charity golf tournament held every June at Falmouth Country Club, presented by Shamrock Sports and Entertainment. It benefits the MaineHealth Barbara Bush Children's Hospital and the Dempsey Center, and has raised more than half a million dollars since 2023. Much of the multi-day event is open to the public.
When is charity golf season in Southern Maine?
The circuit runs from roughly June through September, peaking in midsummer and early fall. The marquee events are Drive Fore Kids in late June and the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital tournament in late September, with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine, Camp Susan Curtis, and other tournaments filling the weeks in between. Confirm current dates with each organization, since host courses and dates shift year to year.
How can I support these causes if I do not play golf?
You can sponsor a hole or a prize, attend the public-facing receptions and bid in the auctions, or donate directly to the benefiting organizations: the MaineHealth Barbara Bush Children's Hospital, the Dempsey Center, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine, Camp Susan Curtis, and The Opportunity Alliance all accept direct gifts year-round, independent of their tournaments.