The second edition of Rounds4Research, the unique online auction of coveted tee times at some of America's finest golf courses, is in the books, and the results are something to shout about — the auction spearheaded by superintendents in the Carolinas, Georgia, Texas and Virginia netted $106,000 which will go to benefit turfgrass research efforts in those states.
"This was our second year and the support from both the industry and the consumer sides was outstanding," said Paul Jett, CGCS at Pinehurst (N.C.) No. 2 and the chairman of the effort. "More than 700 individual courses donated tee times and the web traffic from golf shoppers was phenomenal."
Successful bids in this year's auction ranged from $15 for a foursome to play a par-3 course in North Carolina to more than $4,000 for the chance to play an unnamed "mystery" course in the Southeast. Of this year's total funds, the Carolinas generated $75,000 of that total. Georgia netted $15,000, while both Texas and Virginia finished with around $8,000.
"This project illustrates just how committed we are in golf to creating solutions instead of complaining about our problems," said Tim Kreger, the executive director of the Carolinas GCSA, the organization that created the Rounds4Research concept a year ago. "Our members and golf's allied associations — professionals, owners and club managers — across five states all collaborated to get this project off the ground and make it successful. That's impressive."
Next year's auction is scheduled to again run in the month of April, with more regions being targeted to expand the auction.
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