What’s great about forming a golf league with 15 of your best buddies is the freedom to form its playing structure around what works for everyone, no matter how geographically distanced each member may be. 

And indeed, that league can internally collaborate to raise funds for a given beneficiary, such as WA Golf Youth on Course, which subsidizes green fees at over 80 participating golf courses throughout Washington and Northern Idaho for junior players age 6-18, providing them access to play golf for just five dollars per round. 

Liam Cashmore’s league, the Narrow Fairways Golf Association, fits that large bill. It’s a 20-week competition with biweekly events, meaning that each player plays a round every two weeks, with their individual results factoring into a larger ranking, all culminating in an end-of-the-season golf getaway to Phoenix for an in-person finale. 

Liam has always been a busy guy. He was raised in Silverdale, Wash., graduated from Central Kitsap High School and earned a degree in maritime logistics and security from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. He later earned a Third Mate unlimited license to work on ships and now works for aerospace giant SpaceX as a Second Mate, where he reclaims parts of rockets that have fallen into the sea. 

Outside of that packed work schedule, golf had always been of some importance to Liam too, as he recalls learning the game under his grandfather’s tutelage from a young age while also playing baseball and soccer. He usually managed “a couple rounds a year,” but that ballooned into much more during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I really got the bug,” he said, adding that he started helping himself to at least three or four rounds per week during those bleak days of the shutdown.  

After sharpening his game some more, Liam and his friends formed Narrow Fairways, being careful to accommodate its regulations to each member’s location. 

“Everybody’s busy living their own lives, working, going on trips or whatever,” Liam explained. “So we try to make it as flexible as possible.” 

In addition to being hosts for the golf bug, Liam and a smattering of Narrow Fairways members are beginning to dabble in marathon running. They ran one together in June, and plan to run the Seattle Marathon scheduled for Nov. 30. Seeing an opportunity to raise funds for a golf-related cause and noticing a particular shared interest, the group quickly targeted WA Golf Youth on Course. 

“I figured that was perfect,” Liam said, adding how he remembered hearing about Youth on Course during his own high school days. “It really clicked for us when thinking about how we’ve all said we wished we started playing golf sooner.” 

Click here to help Narrow Fairways raise money for WA Golf Youth on Course 

That the marathon falls three days after Thanksgiving Day is a bonus too, as Liam and his pals all feel thankful for what golf has brought to their lives. 

“We just love what Youth on Course is doing – getting kids out there, and providing them more accessibility to the game,” he said. “My friends all absolutely love the game and everything it brings us – the continuation of competitiveness in the league, and the maintaining of friendships, the memories we’re now sharing of playing together and even travelling and seeing new places and playing new courses.”

“One thing we all agree on is that we wish we started playing sooner. The opportunity that the Washington Golf Foundation and WA Youth on Course provides to the next generation of golfers is exactly what we all wish we could have experienced during our own childhood. We can now contribute to this program, and make this happen for others.”

Having assembled such a structured and philanthropic golf league in less than a year, Liam has plenty of goals for Narrow Fairways’ future. Recalling what his grandfather told him about where great golf trips can be made, Liam is looking into playing in new locations like Nevada or Ireland.  

He also knows that any increase in membership can serve as a boon to fundraising for golf’s next generation. 

“The more people we get involved, and the bigger the league gets, the easier and more of an impact we can have with WA Golf in the future.”