TARZANA : Marathon Golfer Raises Money for Fire Victims

From sunrise until after sunset Monday, Kevin McCandless was a golfer on a mission.

He played the game like it has rarely been played before--fast, breathless, often on the run. All in the name of charity.

Watching him was like viewing golf-lesson videos with a finger stuck on the fast-forward button.

The frenzied pace was necessary for McCandless to complete 180 holes in about 12 hours at the Braemar Country Club in Tarzana.

A golf tournament promoter and self-styled marathon golfer from Champaign, Ill., McCandless first came up with his charity brainstorm in August, when he raised $10,000 for Midwest flood victims, according to the Los Angeles chapter of the American Red Cross.

He hoped to raise at least that much through pledges Monday so the Red Cross could help victims of the recentfirestorms in Los Angeles--all by playing golf like the Keystone Kops might, completing each 18 holes in little over an hour.

During the day, he sped from hole to hole in a golf cart, cutting ahead of other players and jogging up hill and down dale, barely taking time to line up his shots.

After the sun set, he played the final 24 holes with glow-in-the-dark golf balls, winding up with a score of 974 over 180 holes--264 over par, but eight shots fewer than his 180-hole score when he played for the flood victims.

“I don’t really get to play a lot,” he said. “I’ve gotta cram it all into one day.”