The 2018 edition of the popular CRAB tournament held on Saturday, November 17, and its accompanying auction held on Friday, November 16, were again a huge success. The main objective of this two-day event is to raise money for the SunBird Golf Course capital fund. The funds raised mainly come from the golf tournament entry fees and the auction. All income, after expenses, goes to this fund. Unlike other tournaments, there are no monetary prizes earned by the participants in this tournament.
This year, the two-day event generated $17,500, including tournament entry fees, auction results and miscellaneous items such as the 50/50 drawing. The net result after expenses that went to the golf course was $15,000. These funds have been earmarked for the purchase of a walk behind aerator to be used on the greens, tee boxes and other hard-to-reach areas.
Looking at a little bit of history, this tournament was started as the sand trap tournament to raise funds to improve the sand traps in 2008. There was no auction at that time. The present CRAB tournament format was started in 2013 with the addition of the auction component. To date, including the period of no auctions, the tournament has generated $130,600 for the golf course. Of this amount, $77,000, or about 59%, has been the result of the auctions. To put the importance of the auctions into perspective, the auctions over the last two years, which includes the record set in 2017, have generated about 83% of the total funds given to the golf course. A big thank you goes out to the golfers who participated in the tournament and to all members of the SunBird community for their participation in donating items for the auction and for their participation in bidding and purchasing these items.
The CRAB tournament which culminates the two-day event is a team-versus-team tournament. The teams involved were the Canadian Club, the Roadrunners Club, the American Club and the Bandits Club. Thirty foursomes, each with a member of each club, teed it up in a net score competition. Points were awarded in each foursome according to the scores, and the team with the most points at the end was declared the winner. This year’s winner and the right to brag about it, at least until next year, was the Americans. The Canadians finished second.
An event of this magnitude cannot be put on without the help of many volunteers. Special recognition should go to the tournament committee, Wes Akerman, chair, Dean Tucker, Bill Johnson, Don Hunt, Jack Cooper, Dean Huyghebeart and Norm Ott. Also, to John and Marsha Brockish who led the effort to pull together the auction and to Dave White who acted as the auctioneer.