Augusta National Golf Club has postponed the Masters until later in the year and canceled the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals, but that’s not all the club is doing in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Chairman Fred Ridley of Augusta National announced on Monday a $2-million donation toward Covid-19 relief efforts.
“It is our hope these gifts will help address the many challenges brought about by the Coronavirus throughout the City of Augusta and the greater region,” Ridley said in a statement. “We believe Augusta National has an important responsibility to support and protect the community who has so generously and consistently supported us for many years.”
Augusta University will receive $1 million to expand testing capabilities of Covid-19 in the area, while the other $1 million will be donated to the Central Savannah River Area’s Covid-19 relief fund.
As of Monday, 107 people in the Augusta, Ga., had tested positive for the virus.
“These dollars will give our nonprofit partners the security to focus on helping others and not worry quite as much about how to fund their work,” CRSA Community Foundation President and CEO Shell Berry said. “The Community Foundation will continue leaning into its mission by using our resources generously when the community needs it most.”
The donation to Augusta University comes at a critical moment. As of March 19, Augusta University’s Covid-19 research lab could conduct only 300 tests per day, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
In the weeks since, the University has expanded mobile testing and developed an app that allows doctors to practice telemedicine for those in the area, but the donation will help them do much.
“This gift is an immediate and important contribution to the expansion of our Covid-19 screening and testing efforts,” Augusta University President Brad Keel told the Chronicle. “It provides us with needed resources to limit the spread of the virus through quicker identification and treatment. There is no doubt that because of this gift, many lives will be saved.”
Augusta is only the latest golf famous golf club in the United States to contribute toward Coronavirus relief efforts.
The membership at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades have engaged in a fund-raising campaign to help the club’s caddies, who are unemployed during the shutdown of the golf course.
And Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, N.C., has been auctioning off a series of once-in-a-lifetime vacation opportunities to members, with the money raised supporting workers whose jobs were displaced when the resort’s hotels and restaurants closed.
Both efforts have raised more than $250,000.
