At the sound of the chopper whipping overhead, golfers quickly made for the back patio at the Santa Maria Country Club on Monday - some pressing against the windows inside to catch a glimpse.

The pressure, for another year, for another drop, was on Jeff Saleen.

The helicopter reached the 18th fairway, hovered for a bit and then out popped Saleen from the side door, strapped securely from the inside - grasping a bucket containing 360 golf balls.

In what has become quite the attention-getting draw for the YMCA FunRaiser Golf Tournament, the Helicopter Golf Ball Drop is Saleen's specialty - his job to send those 300-plus balls toward an enlarged hole, each ball purchased for a good cause.

Saleen successfully pulled off the feat for another year, sending the small avalanche downward from 100 feet in the air and toward the hole.

Two balls made it in. And two more lucky buyers won big this year at the 29th annual FunRaiser.

“Watching the helicopter, we look like a bunch of kids,” co-chairman Jeanie Ardantz said. “Our faces plastered on the window or hanging over the rail outside. It's a new little gig to draw interest, because so many golf tournaments are going on.”

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The company PXP and Jon Freitas purchased the balls that found their way into the 9-inch hole, each earning $2,262.50. And Freitas reinforced his day with the win, also winning in the most accurate drive competition.

The event, in all, “goes to augment programs not self-supporting at the ‘Y',” said YMCA CEO Shannon Seifert. “Things like child car, infant care, swim lessons, camps, you name it, we augment it.”

The tournament - a four-person scramble kicking off at noon and culminating with the ball drop, followed by a dinner and silent/live auction - drew 110 golfers and figures to raise about $40,000 net profit for the Santa Maria YMCA.

Long ago, the event was a celebrity golf tournament started by Ed Murray in an attempt to introduce the community to the YMCA.

“Ed Murray and his brother Bill had a lot of contacts in the entertainment world. A lot of people recognized in sitcoms were invited to a lot of these golf celebrity things. Ed set it up and it started at Rancho Maria. He ran it for 10 years, and I ran it the 11th year,” Lon Fletcher said. “We found once Ed was no longer associated, it was harder to get entertainers. So we dropped that format and went to a regular scramble.”

The event now draws local golfers, and local celebrities - none more popular than the four-some of Bryn Smith, Alan Johnson, Steve Reyburn and Bill Ostini.

“We didn't make a lot of putts today,” Smith said disappointingly. “Often it becomes a putting tournament. I remember Ed doing it years ago and then Jeanie (Ardantz) and Shannon (Seifert) taking the reigns. It's always a good event.”

Smith's foursome - dubbed the “A Team,” whether they like it or not - is always a top squad.

“It's for bragging rights,” Smith said. There's no question we have a bunch of competitors. That's what makes it fun. Everyone enjoys competition.”

And everyone seemed to enjoy the Golf Drop too - a tradition started “four-to-five years ago,” said Saleen.

“I love doing it,” he said. “It's the best view of Santa Maria you can get.”

The drop is a 50/50 drawing - everyone who enters the tournament gets a numbered golf ball, additional ones costing $25. Half the money goes to the YMCA, the other half is split among the winners.

“Jeff is literally strapped up in there,” Ardantz said. “He leans out to drop this bucket of balls. The first time he did it he was a nervous wreck. We were just teasing him. It was so funny.”

And then there was the predicament two years ago.

“We weren't all that far off from calling it off,” Ardantz remembers. “It was windy and raining. We went and got a scissor-lift as a backup, because we felt we had to drop the balls somehow. It lightened up, a window opening, so we could get in and out.”

Mark English's English Air Service provides the helicopter.

“My mom watches, and she's not real keen on it,” Saleen said with a laugh. “But she knows what it's for.”

Following the ball drop, participants enjoyed dinner and a live auction.

Ardantz was in charge of gathering the items, which included a Howie Long-signed Raiders jersey, Tahoe trip, Vegas trip, plasma TV and gift certificate to the Hitching Post in Casmalia.

Awards were given to the longest drive (the men's winner Mike Gluyas, women's Linda Downer) and closest to the pin 50/50 (winner Mike Sell). The day's low gross win went to the team of Gluyas, Portman, Berban and Kirchhof. The low net win went to the team of Fletcher, Friedlein, Freitas and Jackson.

Sept. 30, 2008