Bob Packard Cup – A Great Success
November 18, 2005

For the third straight year, golf pro Tom Watson—who’s been championing ALS research since his caddy, Bruce Edwards, died of ALS two years ago—was back in San Francisco recently to host the Packard Cup. The tournament brings together 80 golfers to raise money for a cure while honoring investment banker Robert Packard, who died of ALS in 2000.

Packard helped launch a collaborative approach to ALS research, one that translates new knowledge as quickly as possible into treatment. And although he died from the disease in 2000, researchers at the center that bears his name continue to shed light on possible therapies with unusual speed.

Golfing great Tom Watson is already set to headline next year's tournament.

“Bob will be remembered for his aggressive approach to problem solving,” says Ken Hagen, event co-chair, president of the Packard Foundation and close friend of Packard and his family. “This tournament keeps us focused on his mission,” says Hagen. Total proceeds from the Packard Cup exceed $1.3 million.

This year’s tourney was especially moving, Hagen says, because the guest of honor, Richard Olney, M.D., was himself diagnosed with ALS in 2004. Olney is founding director of the ALS Center at University of California, San Francisco. In a speech enabled by a computer-assisted device, Olney recognized the advantage he has as an ALS clinician and researcher: “I’ve learned to focus on the things that I can influence—and just accept those that I cannot.”

Plans are under way for the 2006 Packard Cup.
For more information, visit http://www.packardcup.org/.

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