New England Regional Turfgrass Foundation

Tee-Up New England! A new initiative to fund turfgrass research.

In late 2011 and 2012 the foundation put together a new turfgrass research funding initiative titled, "Tee-Up New England!"  It involved soliciting donations from local golf courses to be auctioned off online April 9-16th, 2012.  Proceeds would go to paying expenses and turfgrass research.  We began with 57 golf facilities donating 58 items.  Joseph Sprague, MGA and Bob Ward, RIGA helped enormously by informing their members and also the other 4 state golf associations about the upcoming auction.  A website (www.Tee-upnewengland.com) was created so golfers could view the list of participating golf courses.  Ads we taken out in some newspapers, emails were sent to potential golfers and the word was passed everywhere we could to get golfers to notice this opportunity.  Potential bidders had to register with the auctioneer in order to participate in the bidding process.  The auction kicked off on the 9th and almost immediately some of the items received bids.  Some good and some incredibly low.  As the week went on all items had bids on them.  It started to become a competition between clubs to see who golf course was going for higher money.  Approaching the closing hour on the 16th bidding picked up until finally all items were sold.  More than 150 registered bidders participated.  Sales were completed over the next 24 hours by credit card.  Then the task of getting player certificates to the winning bidders was done.  Hopefully by now all golfers have their certificates and have contacted the clubs to schedule their round.

We learned a lot from our first go round.  The great news is we had more than $13,000 in sales that represent 67% of retail.  Auction people tell me anytime you make over 60% it is a good auction especially with the type of products we were auctioning.  We hope we can encourage more golf courses to participate in 2013 so that we can raise needed research funding.  It is a great way to get your course involved in funding turfgrass research, a way to involve golfers to pay for turfgrass research, and even a way to give your course exposure.  Please contact us at Tee-Up New England either through www.nertf.org or at 401-841-5490 to make arrangements for your club to participate in 2013!