Monday, January 03, 2005

Golf tournament raises $25,000 for SBTS
October 28, 2004
By David Roach

Southern Seminary Golf Tournament

The weather was spectacular, the fellowship enriching and the cause worthy.

More than 80 players gathered Oct. 14 at the Glen Oaks Country Club in Prospect, Ky. for the inaugural Southern Seminary Golf Tournament. The event, sponsored by the Lewis & Henry Group, an architectural firm with long-standing ties to the seminary, raised more than $25,000 for theological education.

The field consisted of laymen, seminary students, faculty and pastors. The event included a lunch provided by GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"The vast majority of the players were laymen," Douglas Walker III, Southern's senior vice president for institutional relations said. "Some of them had never had any contact with the seminary before. It was a beautiful day, a huge success, and we had a lot of fun playing golf."

Twenty "hole sponsors" donated $500 each, and each team contributed a $1,000 entry fee. The event included giveaways, a long-drive contest and a competition to see who could hit a ball closest to the pin.

The Southern Seminary Foundation Board of Directors initiated the tournament as a way of establishing contact with men and women who feel called to provide financial support to the seminary on an ongoing basis.

"We definitely hope that we have an ongoing relationship with the players in this tournament," Walker said. "This was really a project of our Foundation Board. … There's a lot of money that is raised at golf tournaments, and we hope this can grow into a bigger event over time."

The seminary plans make the tournament a regular feature of the school's Heritage Week each fall.

"We hope to do this every year the Thursday of Heritage Week," Walker said. "And we hope we will start increasing the amount that we raise."

Tournament prizes included Southern Seminary golf balls, shirts and towels. The winning team in the four-man scramble format finished 16 strokes under par – led by Jon Beougher, the teenage son of faculty member Tim Beougher.

"I heard great comments about the tournament and the course," Walker said. "It was just a huge success."