CoreNet golf is in 10th year.

It started out small, but has become one of New York City's real estate industry's largest and hottest golf and tennis outings. To date, CoreNet Global events put $500,000 in the coffers of deserving children's charities.

The two men who spontaneously brainstormed the first golf outing ten years ago were friends and colleagues who were committed to two different organizations, NACORE and IDRC.

Jeffrey Elie, vice president of real estate and facilities with Kaplan, Inc., and Bob Koncelik, of Universal Moving & Storage, were attending a Knicks game and, according to Elie, "rather than competing, we decided to join forces to do a golf outing to benefit children's charities. We flipped a coin to decide whether we'd name it NACORE/IDRC or IDRC/NACORE. For the first years, we went back and forth between which name appeared first." (The organizations merged in 2002 to become CoreNet Global New York Chapter.)

That first year, Elie and Koncelik worked on weekends and in the evenings, faxing invitations to whomever they could think of. They succeeded in selling out the first event but, according to Elie, it was comically disastrous.

"We were novices who went through a huge learning experience. We thought we had it all down pat but, among other things, we underestimated the amount of seed money needed and how to satisfy the requirements of 200 golfers and tennis players."

Still, the 1994 outing raised $14,000 for charity and the second outing raised $26,000. By the the fourth year, the event had an organizing committee.

"We started out with a lot of little donated prizes to raffle off to raise money. The first year, one of our prizes was a box of tea bags from A&P Supermarket," said Koncelik. The 2003 first prize was a $3,500 gift certificate from Circuit City.

"It's evolved into quite a remarkable networking and fun event," said Elie. "We have developed a successful balance between keeping the price point low for golfers and sponsors comparative to other golf outings while still raising a substantial amount of money for charity. We now hold the event on two adjacent courses and can accommodate 270 golfers with simultaneous morning shotgun starts."

Elie was also instrumental in starting the tradition of making children's charities, in which he is an active supporter, the beneficiaries of the outing.

"I am a big believer in making a difference in the life of children and CoreNet and the former heritage organizations have been completely supportive in that goal," he said. "Reaching children early to change their lives has a positive effect for their future, which is also our future."

The children's charities CoreNet Global NYC Chapter supports are also smaller ones where, according to Koncelik, "you can see where the money has gone, how it was used and how the children benefited."

He points to the year when the Girls' Vacation Fund, which sends young, lower income girls from New York City to the Catskills, was the recipient.

"We were able to personally experience the difference we made in their lives," said Elie.

The 2004 Golf & Tennis Outing will be held on July 12th at Ridgeway Country Club and Westchester Hills Country Club in White Plains, N.Y. The event will include a cocktail reception and poolside luau dinner. The charities to benefit from the event will be Harlem RBI and Safe Horizons.