CARY, N.C. – One of the most highly-anticipated days of North Carolina FC’s season arrives this Sunday, and it has nothing to do with the club’s current drive to reach the 2018 USL Cup Playoffs.

Instead of Sahlen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park, the venue will instead be locations like the London Bridge Pub as local fans take part in the 2018 Oak City Classic at Raleighwood. 

The brainchild of current NCFC defender Connor Tobin, former teammate Neil Hlavaty – now of the Richmond Kickers – the Oak City Supporters and others that helped it come to life, the event is a unique charity fundraiser. Billed as the nation’s first soccer mini-golf bar crawl, the inaugural event a year ago drew 27 foursomes to play a nine-hole footgolf course that wound its way through various pubs and bars in downtown Raleigh.

“Last year, it was just one of those things where we came up with a farfetched idea that we were going to throw together some holes and we didn’t even quite know what was happening,” Tobin said in an extensive Q&A on North Carolina FC’s website. “So, we were blown out of the water. I think we had about 125 people participating with about 25 volunteers. We were looking at roughly 150 people. In addition, we had corporate sponsors in the area and it was awesome. What’s exciting is that we’ve already hit that threshold this year, so it’s only going to get bigger.”

The way the event caught on has raised the stakes for Tobin and the rest of the organizers this year to come up with creative new ways to test the players on the nine-hole course. Last year’s final hole – hosted at the London Bridge Pub – was an eight-foot Skee-Ball that saw players try to shoot up a ramp and into the hole, and there are more ideas where that came from this time around.

“There are a bunch of new holes with new obstacles at every hole,” said Tobin. “The final hole is a new concept. Again, it’s a mystery so you don’t know what you’re getting into. What’s cool is, where a lot of people enjoyed the Skee-Ball hole last year and it was a big challenge, this year we’ve actually partnered with Guinness on it. It’ll be there as more of an auxiliary hole that will be pay-to-play. Guinness will have some pretty cool custom prizes that you can win, and all of that money will go directly to these two charities.”

Proceeds from the event will be donated to Oak City Soccer, a local nonprofit that aims to help children with sensory processing challenges and autism, and Neighbor to Neighbor, which provides community support and opportunities in southeast Raleigh. The tournament is also online via social media on Twitter (@OCCRaleighwood) and Instagram (@occraleighwood).

To learn more about the event, visit the full Q&A with Connor Tobin on the North Carolina FC website.