Monday, March 21, 2011

Rounds4Research 2011 nears

Mark your calendars fro April 10-17 to do some golf shopping for a good cause. Here are the details from the fine folks at the Carolinas:

Golf’s great online auction at Rounds4Research.com will run for one week only this year starting April 10. Golfers across the country will bid for tee-times at hundreds of courses across the Southeast including some of the most revered and exclusive facilities in the game. Nearly 300 courses from the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia have already committed tee times. More than 1,000 tee-times at more than 700 courses were up for bid last year.

“Compressing the duration of the auction will make for a shorter, sharper experience for bidders,” says Tim Kreger, executive director of the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association, which administers the annual event. “They asked for it and we’re happy to oblige. This will be our third year and a lot of golf lovers know the drill by now. They want to bring the bidding to a head quickly and get out on their course.”

To date, Rounds4Research.com has provided around $130,000 in funding for turfgrass research. That research helps underpin the health and conditioning of every course and therefore the vitality of the industry as a whole, which delivers an economic impact in the order of $12 billion across the participating states of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. Research efforts also bolster the game’s record as an environmental steward by improving the efficiency of inputs and promoting resource conservation.

Prospective bidders can check out the daily-updated list of participating courses at Rounds4Research.com. They can also register for an email reminder as the auction launch nears.

Piloted by golf course superintendents, Rounds4Research.com is a joint project of the major allied golf associations in each participating state including course owners, club managers, golf professionals and the various state golf associations.

“In addition to its simplicity, the beauty of this project is really that it gives everyone involved in golf a chance to support the game itself,” Kreger says. “The fact is it doesn’t matter what sector of the game we are involved in, we all have a stake in making sure it is healthy. Our research institutions have been hit hard in this economy and we are proud that golf as a whole has been able to step up and ease some of the burden they face.”

This year’s Rounds4Research.com auction runs April 10 to 17.

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