Weir in the money

 By: Tim Campbell/Winnipeg Free Press

The amount of money, $625,000, is staggering.

These are not the best of economic times. The appearance, golf and a gala dinner, took barely more than 24 hours. Though it looks good on Winnipeg, to many, this does not sound like Winnipeg, known to be tight with a dollar and eager for a deal.

But this was the amount of money raised for the Children's Hospital Foundation of Manitoba at Monday's Mike Weir Miracle Golf Drive for Kids.

This is the power of the brand that is Mike Weir.

The 2003 Masters champion, Canada's biggest golf star, attracted the well-heeled, a solid cross-section of the business community and both the avid and casual fans to St. Charles Country Club on Monday.

Weir's galleries numbered in the hundreds by midday -- for a Texas scramble where he played a few holes with a quartet of groups who, at a Sunday night pre-golf party, successfully bid thousands of dollars for his company.

Golf event officials said they had no trouble selling out all the top sponsorships and the foursomes at $10,000 each.

By the time the 40-year-old native of Sarnia, Ont., was done shaking hands, being photographed and convincing all to open their wallets on Monday, the Miracle Golf Drive for Kids had its second most successful day in four years.

Saskatoon's pre-recession Weir event still tops the list at more than $1.18 million but the main goal the golfer's charitable foundation has set is to raise $10 million for children's health-care causes across the country.

"The children's charities, that's near and dear to everybody's heart," said Weir's brother Jim, the CEO of Mike Weir Wine and a key member of the inner circle. "It resonates. Everyone in our family's been lucky enough to have healthy children but we feel it's important to give back.

"Winnipeg really (got) around this, like Saskatoon and London and Halifax before, but the bottom line is about helping children, so when you go to somebody and say you want to do an event to help children... yeah, Mike has power but no matter what you do, people are going step up for that. It's the way we are as Canadians."

The Weir franchise, which took off after the Masters victory, includes the winery, a clothing line, the foundation dedicated to children's causes and now Weir Golf Design.

"There is a lot of thought that goes into the Weir brand, that's for sure," said Jim Weir. "It all starts with him though, with the man himself and the things that are important to him.

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