Annual Lawrence University golf outing

The Lawrence University golf outing takes place every year and this year it will occur June 13-14. The golf outing is an event that creates an opportunity for the athletics department to gather alumni, parents, community supporters and friends to have one day devoted to enhancing and advancing Lawrence athletics. It’s a fundraiser and an occasion to celebrate the tradition and the future of NCAA Division III athletics here at Lawrence. It is a day where alumni, surrounded by their friends, old and current coaches and past teammates, come together to celebrate past accomplishments while helping to endorse future ones.

This event reconnects the old with the new, serving to help encapsulate Lawrence’s mantra: “Once a Viking, Always a Viking.” This encapsulates the idea that no matter how far out you are from your years of studying at Lawrence, you are still connected with the school because of the pride you gained and life lessons you learned along the way through your experience as a student-athlete. This golf outing, where the day is spent at the local Appleton golf course, is a time for both reflection and happy reunions of old familiar faces. The event will wind down with many exchanged smiles between old and new friends, and in the end, it will have created an even bigger and stronger unified family with the same aspirations in mind. 

The Lawrence golf outing has been taking place annually for decades now. It was an event that was born out of some passionate alumni to put a date on a calendar each year to celebrate the tradition of athletics at Lawrence. “Golf is kind of the ingredient that brought everyone together back then and, lo and behold, still is a tradition with us today,” commented Andrew Borresen, Assistant Director of Athletics Giving. He had his own favorite aspect of the event: “So, in my role as assistant director of athletics I get a chance on the front end of the day to welcome folks to our event and check them in for play. Oftentimes before and after the golf part of the day, that creates good connecting fellowship time amongst Vikings, which I help to facilitate. My favorite part about this role is that I get to hear a whole array of stories and get great opportunities to catch up with folks from different sports and different eras, connecting myself with Lawrence’s past athletic history. It’s enlightening being able to talk with folks that come from all over the place to come to this event and it’s just a really good time for building new relationships and sustaining old ones.” It is also important to note that “while the golf outing itself has been around and a part of the athletics department year after year, it is only our second year hosting a reception dinner on campus as well the evening before the golf outing,” continued Borresen. Borreson and Director of Athletics Christyn Abaray were aware of the fact that not everyone enjoys the game of golf and so they wanted to give those people the chance to reconnect, reminisce and build new relationships amongst the Vikings on campus, which is the purpose of the newly founded reception dinner. In addition to this, there is time after to hand out prizes and do a raffle and a silent auction. This is all with the goal in mind of advancing Lawrence’s athletics. 

The aspiration is to find ways to continue building the strength of our athletic program so athletes can follow in their own footsteps and achieve and far surpass their own dreams and accomplishments. This goal can be seized through events such as this one because the proceeds from this event go to replenishing small things like purchasing new hurdles to more impactful and expensive things such as the installation of permanent fencing and warning tracks on our baseball and softball fields. All of these are necessary investments. These proceeds and the success of the athletic program would not be possible without the Lawrence alumni and local community that make kind donations to the event.